NOVEMBER 17^th 2013. THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 21:5-19

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

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

What a consoling homily this is for the people of the Philippines! In all of your tribulations, the Lord is with you! Whatever might have happened, the Lord will not cease to lead you towards himself! The material order has become undone, but God is holding a deeper and more beautiful reality together. God bless the Philippines in this dark hour!

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GOSPEL                   Luke 21:5-19

When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, Jesus said, 'All these things you are staring at now-the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed'. And they put to him this question: 'Master,' they said 'when will this happen, then, and what sign will there be that this is about to take place?'

'Take care not to be deceived,' he said 'because many will come using my name and saying, "I am he" and, "The time is near at hand". Refuse to join them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened, for this is something that must happen but the end is not so soon.' Then he said to them, 'Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines here and there; there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

'But before all this happens, men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name - and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In this forbidding text Jesus speaks of wars, plagues and disasters. His real message is that the material order is transitory and will unravel for each one of us sooner or later. We construct our lives on things that seem trustworthy and secure. We long for the glory of this world and we base our lives on elements that seem sturdy and admirable. But the “cement” that holds together the various building blocks of our world will one day dissolve and everything will become undone for each one of us. That much is guaranteed! When that day comes, Jesus exhorts us to maintain our direction in life. How do we maintain our direction in life? We maintain our direction in life only if we have not given ourselves over to the priorities of the material order of things. We maintain our direction in life if we follow Jesus only and seek to discern the will of God in the unfolding events around us. We maintain our direction in life if we entrust ourselves to divine providence instead of to our own capacities and talents. For someone who has entrusted themselves to divine providence, great tribulations can be borne with serenity. They realize that God will bring good out of this terrible situation, even if his purpose seems unintelligible right now. But for those of us who do not have a correct sense of the will of God at work in everything, even the most minor inconvenience can lead to crisis.

People were admiring the beauty of the material order of things. Jesus points out that this material order is held together by a human “cement” that will not last

At first sight this passage appears very foreboding. Jesus speaks of wars and revolutions, kingdoms fighting against kingdoms, earthquakes and terrifying events. But what is the context for this discourse? Some people were commenting on the beauty of the Temple and its fine stonework. At the time, in fact, the Temple of Jerusalem was one of the wonders of the world. The archaeological evidence that still exists today points to a building of spectacular dimensions. In response to these admiring comments Jesus says that the time will come when the things that they are seeing now will all be destroyed. The word used in the Greek of Luke’s Gospel for “seeing” is “theoreo.” This means “to behold a spectacle”. Significantly, the same verb is used by Luke when the people who witness the crucifixion walk away afterwards beating their breasts. Everyone gazes in amazement at the spectacle of the Temple, but the real spectacle that they will soon behold is that of the crucified Jesus.

How we overrate the glory of this world! How often in the past have we become agitated by things that seem trivial now!

Jesus says, “All these things you are staring at now - the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.” What does this saying mean? The phrase “stone on stone” evokes the idea of construction. And the term “destroyed” in the Greek is rendered by a word that means “to undo”, “to loosen”, “to dissolve”. The things that we build will all be undone in the future. The various “cements” that we use to fix things together will one day cease to function. What a terrible prospect! Why does Jesus say this? We are at the thirty-third Sunday of the year and Advent is almost upon us. It is time to reflect on the ultimate end of things. Things have connections between them, but we overrate the significance of these worldly connections. How often the glory of this world seems so permanent and trustworthy! How often things in life seem definitive and important but then the passage of time shows them to be purely transitory! How many times in the past have we become mentally and physically agitated by things that we barely even remember now! A little reflection, in fact, shows that Jesus’ announcement in this Gospel passage is profoundly true! He is asking us to refrain from giving things an importance and a significance that they do not possess. The things that are eternal are eternal, whilst the things that are not eternal simply are not. How often we confuse these two levels with each other!

Great tribulations can be coped with if we maintain our direction in life. But if we do not maintain our focus in life, even the most minor tribulation can lead to crisis.

The fundamental statement in this passage is the expression “Take care not to be deceived”. What an important statement this is! The Greek text literally means “Do not lose your sense of direction and go astray”. It is vital that we do not lose the proper sense of things. It is crucial that we maintain a sense of proper discernment with regard to worldly things. When there are earthquakes, plagues and wars – when there is any sort of tribulation in life – there is always the great danger of losing our sense of direction. The danger of losing our sense of direction is graver than the danger posed by the tribulation itself. In itself any tribulation can be coped with if we maintain our direction in life. But if we do not have a direction in life than even the most minor tribulation can become unbearable. Sometimes we are unable to put up with a minor queue or a delay of five minutes. Other times, we can bear severe difficulties  because they are directed towards a particular purpose. We can climb a mountain willingly, despite the sacrifices and discomfort that it involves, because we value the goal of scaling that particular peak. But then I become angry and frustrated with a red light that lasts too long, or a queue that is slow in moving. The fact is that we are unable to live through minor tribulations if we have lost a sense of the real connections that exists between things in life. How many times have we seen people who bear the greatest sufferings with serenity, whilst we ourselves are incapable of the most minor inconveniences because we do not know where we are going. Conversely, sometimes we disparage things as being useless that later turn out to be of the greatest significance.

If we are attentive to the will of God in our lives then we will have direction in life and we will be able to cope with any tribulation

Looking back at our past lives we can discern many times when we had completely misunderstood the authentic sense of things, the real connections between things. When we look back now we see that the real order of things was not in the blocks that we were trying to build one on top of another. The real order was the plan of God unfolding in things that we had resisted or misinterpreted completely. If we do not discover the will of God in things, then it is not necessary to experience earthquakes, plagues or wars to find ourselves in deep water. Even the most minor inconvenience can lead to crisis. But if we have the will of God in our hearts, then we will not ricochet around with a lack of direction. We will know that life is a gift that is firmly in the hands of God. It is not the case though that the plan of God is always intelligible to us. Often it transcends our power to comprehend. We must accept that some of the things that life presents to us now are not easy to understand. We must allow ourselves to be led by the Lord, trusting that there is a good reason why God has ordered things to unfold as they do.

We have a proper direction in life if we follow Jesus and only him

There are a series of negations in this passage. Jesus says not to follow those who say, “I am he. The time is close at hand.” This saying is perfectly compatible with Jesus’ exhortation that we not lose our direction in life. If we are to keep our proper direction in life then we must follow the Lord Jesus only. We obey our superiors in the Church because by doing so we follow God. We do not obey our superiors just for the sake of obedience to them in themselves. It is in God that we trust and for this reason we follow the pastors that have been set over us. Otherwise our ecclesial construction is simply stone upon stone that has no wider significance. You are I are simple poor people. It is to God that obedience is ultimately due. Let us follow him, and him only.

A rule for life that will prepare you for every tribulation: Entrust yourself to divine providence, not to your own capacities

Jesus’ second negation is “Do not be alarmed.” (or “Do not be frightened” in the English translation). An alarm is a warning sound or symbol that gives rise to a state of emergency. Jesus warns us not to overvalue particular situations that can sometimes lead us into states of distress. Then he expresses his third negation: “Do not prepare your defence.” This is a veritable rule for life! Either we entrust ourselves to divine providence or we entrust ourselves to our own intelligence. Human intelligence is a remarkable thing, and we have a duty to exercise it prudently. But everything else must come secondary to our relationship with God. The Lord will bring good out of every situation and there is no need for me to defend myself anxiously. The English translation says “Keep this carefully in mind,” but the Greek text says “Fix this in your hearts!” What we must keep in our hearts is the conviction that it is the Lord who is guiding our lives! The end of things in him is secure. Whatever might happen to us, our lives will be preserved by the Lord.

NOVEMBER 10^th 2013. THIRTY SECOND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 20:27-38

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

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

THIS WEEK OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES AS THEY COME TO TERMS WITH THE TERRIBLE TYPHOON. LORD, BLESS THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES AND COME TO THEIR AID.

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GOSPEL                   Luke 20:27-38

Some Sadducees-those who say that there is no resurrection-approached him and they put this question to him, 'Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a man's married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died.  Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been married to all seven?'

Jesus replied, 'The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.'

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel presents us with the Sadducees, stalwarts of religion who do not believe in eternal life! Is it possible to be religious and yet not believe in eternity? Yes! Much of our approaches towards religion are preoccupied with things that do not endure. Sometimes we treat Jesus as if he were merely someone who espoused a social doctrine or human philosophy. Belief in the resurrection, though, is not just something that concerns life after death. It is something that transforms the acts we do here and now. If I do an act in the light of eternity then it will have a completely different character than the same act done only for its worldly consequences.

            The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they presented Jesus with the story of the woman who married seven times. Which of these men will be her husband in the afterlife?  The problem with the Sadducees is that they make a very human vision of marriage into an absolute thing. This human category is not compatible with an eternal kingdom, so they dismiss the reality of the eternal kingdom! Jesus does the complete opposite. He revolutionises marriage by viewing it in the light of the eternal kingdom. Marriage is not an institution that exists for its own sake. It is a means of sanctification for the spouses. Children of the eternal kingdom do not marry for their own motives nor for worldly gain. They are like angels of heaven. Angel means “sent”. Children of the kingdom have a mission. They are sent from God to communicate his life to others. To live in the light of the resurrection is to truly alive here and now.

Is it possible to be “religious” and not believe in eternal life? Yes!

The Sadducees were in charge of the Temple in Jerusalem and were very close to the members of the priestly class. They were extremely powerful at the time of Jesus and had a distinctive vision of life and particular interpretation of the Scriptures. The attitude of the Sadducees is extremely relevant to us today because it can be found lurking within our attitude towards the Christian faith. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and yet managed to construct a religious system that incorporated this denial of the existence of the afterlife. They upheld the law of Moses and maintained all of the rituals of the Old Testament. But their entire relationship with God was oriented towards this life here and now. There was no other life except this life. The only thing that counted, therefore, was justice in the here and now. Religion was purely at the service of a life that had no future. To us today it might seem inconceivable to construct a religion that denies the afterlife. Yet this exclusive focus on the present is hidden in many approaches to the faith that are influential today.

There is a perpetual temptation to reduce Christianity to a social doctrine that is primarily concerned with our earthly life

Is it possible to speak of Christianity without the resurrection? Can one preach the Gospel without mentioning eternal life or Paradise? Unfortunately, yes! There is a constant temptation to reduce Christianity to social ethics, justice, good works, or personal coherence. Some people do not find it convenient or comfortable to reflect on the fact that every Christian act has a relationship with eternity, a relationship with the resurrection. This is not merely to speak about life after death, but the life we are living right now. St Paul dedicated an entire chapter (fifteen) of his letter to the Corinthians to the issue of the resurrection. He asked his readers how they could sustain that there was no resurrection of the dead. If we follow Christ only for what can be achieved in this life then we are to be pitied above all human beings, Paul says. Such a “Christianity” is merely a human philosophy, not something that transcends the flesh. If the creed we profess is something that is only concerned with this life here and now, then our faith is merely a way of patching up the gaping shortcomings in our earthly being. There is no such thing as the supernatural, no such thing as true novelty, or real transcendence. Jesus is merely someone who gives us an indication of how we should live.

The resurrection transforms the life we are living right now

The resurrection is not simply something we experience after death. It also transforms the life we are living right now. The resurrection is the victory over the abyss that we already experience in our lives in every moment. Belief in the resurrection is essential for every single act of authentic Christian love.

The Saduccees attribute absolute value to a very worldly vision of marriage. Jesus, instead, revolutionizes the vision of marriage by considering it in the light of the eternal kingdom.

Jesus gives no credence to the absurd story proposed by the Sadducees. Seven brothers die one after the other, each marrying the “black widow” immediately before their demise. Then the Sadducees present the killer punch: if there is really a life after death, who will be the woman’s husband in paradise? Any force this story has comes only from the human categories that the Sadducees mistakenly consider to have absolute value. Jesus asks how the categories of this world can be applied in a world that transcends the abyss of death. In another text, Jesus speaks of a banquet to which all are invited but many refuse to come because they are busy with trivial things. All of us are preoccupied with trivial things. We live for things that do not endure, things that do not go beyond death. Instead, the children that are worthy of the kingdom that endures beyond death do not take husbands or wives, Jesus tells us. Is Jesus endorsing a prescription of celibacy for all? No, the Lord Jesus is saying something much more profound here. St Paul speaks of a new vision of matrimony in which the spouses do not marry each other on their own initiatives and for their own motives. Matrimony becomes a new way to sanctification for those who have been baptized. The goal of marriage is eternal life! The type of marriage referred to by the Sadducees is a human category that makes no sense in heaven. So they respond by dismissing the reality of heaven! But it is the understanding of marriage that must be transformed in the light of the reality of heaven! I take a spouse, not for myself, but as part of my journey towards heaven. My journey now involves loving my spouse and creating a family. The creation of a family or a society without the resurrection is something entirely different. The focus is on how things are here and now in the material sense. This focus prevents me from engaging in acts of true self-giving.  To act according to heaven is to live a completely different life altogether. The indissolubility of marriage is not properly conceivable without the resurrection, without the conviction that the void can be ultimately overcome. This void makes itself felt in every human relationship sooner or later and that is why the belief in the resurrection is fundamental for overcoming it.

Jesus’ vision of marriage in the light of the eternal kingdom

These children who have been reborn from above live another kind of relationship. They do not live according to the flesh. Death is not their ultimate horizon and in this sense they live like the angels. When we see the frescoes of Michelangelo we see a black line around each of the figures, delineating them. The children of the kingdom do not have this black line around them. Death is not the last word. The angels are the messengers of God. To live like the angels is to live like someone who has been sent with a message, someone with a mission. How different it is to live marriage in order to satisfy one’s hunger for affection! Instead the children of heaven live like people who have been sent, saying the words that the Lord wishes to communicate to the world. To live according to the resurrection is to live as a servant of the God of the living. In the end the real litmus test is not how much worldly goods we possess but whether we are truly alive or not.

NOVEMBER 3^rd 2013. THIRTY FIRST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: LUKE 19:1-10

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

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GOSPEL: LUKE 19:1-10

At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. 
Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature. 
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
"Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house." 
And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 
When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
"He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." 
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
"Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over."
And Jesus said to him,
"Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. 
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost."

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Zacchaeus is a man who has spent his life “climbing” over the heads of others. Despite his success, he is despised by his contemporaries. We crave success, thinking that people will think well of us as a result. But the greater our worldly success, the more we are despised by others. Just as Jesus looked differently on the reviled Zacchaeus, so too he looks differently on each one of us. The vainglory of this world tries to create us in a particular image, but Jesus sees us in a deeper way. He searches for the “son of Abraham” in us. He looks for the beautiful and just person that lies buried in our hearts. Chastising someone’s errors never leads to a real transformation of the person. What Jesus does is “enter our house” showing how much he respects us and values us. This causes us (and Zacchaeus) to rediscover the beauty and goodness that already lies within. Zacchaeus is inspired by Jesus’ visit to perform acts of great beauty and justice. We too, when we realize that Jesus values our beauty and makes his home with us, will be inspired to discover the justice and righteousness buried in our hearts.

Zacchaeus is a man who has spent all his life “climbing” over the heads of others

The Gospel this week places before us the figure of Zacchaeus, the chief of the tax collectors who wishes to see Jesus. Zacchaeus is an important man and he wishes to see this other important man – Jesus- who is passing through Jericho. The chief tax collector is small in stature, so he climbs up a sycamore tree in order to see better. In those days, the tax collector was a legally-sanctioned bully who used his position to instill fear and respect in the population. Sometimes it is the case that people who have physical limitations are psychologically driven to assert themselves and attain power in other ways. The act of climbing the sycamore tree might be symbolic of the entire life of Zacchaeus. He wishes to climb higher than anyone else, to be in an advantageous position with respect to others.

Jesus is compelled to stop at the house of Zacchaeus. It is God’s will that Jesus seek out sinners

Jesus sees him and says, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly because today I must stay at your house.” Why “must” Jesus stay at the house of Zacchaeus? From where does this pressing obligation derive? The only thing that Jesus is obliged to do is go to Jerusalem, suffer his passion and death, and rise after three days. Jesus must fulfill the will of the Father. In fulfilling this will, Jesus, apparently, must pass by the house of this unpleasant “climber”, Zacchaeus – a dishonest and aggressive man who has placed himself on the side of evil. There is something in the will of God that requires that Jesus stop by this man’s house. Where does the Lord stop, usually? Where does he have his dwelling? God resides in glory. It seems bizarre that the God who lives in glory should feel compelled to stop at the house of the most dishonest man in the locality.

Zacchaeus was successful but was despised by his neighbours. We crave success, thinking that it will lead others to think well of us. But worldly success only leads people to despise us

For the people of the locality Zacchaeus was a sinner, full stop. The text tells us that the people grumbled that Jesus would have entered the house of such a man. Despite all of his “success”, he was still regarded as the lowest of men by his contemporaries. We sometimes think that our successes lead people to think well of us. In the case of Zacchaeus it was natural that people still looked down on him despite his financial clout. But the sneering of the crowd towards Zacchaeus is typical of the way that humanity in general looks negatively on those who enjoy worldly success. Those who do well in worldly terms are generally despised by everyone else. When someone does well in business, or even in the church, people begin to murmur, “Who knows how he got to where he is today? Who did he pay off? Who did he ingratiate himself to?”

Jesus is searching for the “son of Abraham” in each of us. He is looking for the beautiful one, the just one, that is buried inside of us.

Often our ambition to succeed is driven by rivalry and competitiveness towards others. This is how the people of Jericho look on Zacchaeus, but Jesus looks on him in a completely different way. “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost.” The Son of Man, evidently, once possessed Zacchaeus. The tax collector once belonged to the Lord, and the Father has sent Jesus to find him again. Jesus is seeking out a man that is hidden inside the figure of Zacchaeus – and this hidden man is a son of Abraham. There is a just person hidden inside every human being. This is what Jesus is seeking out. What Jesus is searching for in each one of us is not what the vain-glory of this world tries to create out of us. Instead he is looking for the beauty that is hidden in each one of us. He is looking for the pearl, the oasis that exists in the desert of our lives. This beauty and justice belonged to Christ and he has been sent to bring it to the fore again. In Zacchaeus there lies hidden a son of Abraham.

How do we combat the errors in another’s behaviour? By chastising them? Or by valuing the other person and inspiring them to discover the good that is already hidden within them?

Searching for this child of Abraham in every human being is something worth doing. Sometimes we try to correct the errors in other people’s lives by verbally chiding them. We point out the things that they are doing wrong and how unjust their actions are. Such chastisement is a complete waste of time. More often than not the person is already aware of the errors of their ways. And if they are not aware, our complaints will not convince them either. There is another way of responding to the errors of another and this is the approach that the Lord Jesus has taken. To show the other person his value and dignity. By stopping at the house of Zacchaeus, Jesus is saying “Who you are matters to me. There is a relationship between us that is important to me.” As a result Zacchaeus discovers the good that is already there in his heart. He rediscovers the man that he really is. It is no longer of importance to him that he is the chief of his profession. It no longer matters that he has enormous worldly goods, or even that people speak badly of him. All that matters to him now are the beautiful things that he can do because of the fact that he has been found to be beautiful. It is beauty that convinces people to draw out that which has been hidden. It is when we entrust people that they are prompted to grow. When a father believes in his child, then the child brings to fruition the qualities that are hidden inside. When a father shows no faith in his child, then the child suppresses the qualities that he has. Jesus shows faith in Zacchaeus.  “I’m going to your house. You are someone that I value being with.” At first sight it might seem an odd pairing: Jesus the Just one and Zacchaeus the crooked tax collector”. Instead we find that they are perfectly compatible. Let us too be inspired by this Gospel to bring out all the good that is hidden inside of us. And let us be inspired to treat the people around us in the way that Jesus treated Zacchaeus – always seeking the good in others, always believing that there is something precious hidden in their hearts. Just as God has done with all of us, may we do with others! He has not emphasized our sinfulness. Instead he has focused on our infinite potential to love him in return.

OCTOBER 27^th 2013. THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

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

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

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GOSPEL                   Luke 18:9-14

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else.

'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get."

The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner".
This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.'

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In the parable we are confronted with two contrasting approaches to prayer. One man focuses on his own actions (his fasting and almsgiving). The other man focuses on the redeeming action of God. This is the fundamental distinction between sterile and genuine prayer. Prayer is self-referential and narcissistic whenever the focus is on my action. Prayer is genuine and life-giving whenever it is focused on God’s action. Sterile, self-referential prayer can be self-deprecating or it can be self-commending. Either way it is equally narcissistic! A focus on my own problems is narcissistic. A focus on my own virtues is narcissistic. A focus on counting my virtues, of counting the number of prayers, of measuring the time I spend, of listing my faults, is the wrong focus. Any preoccupation with my action is a damaging preoccupation. Genuine prayer is totally oriented to the saving action of God. We must learn the art of allowing God to take the initiative in prayer.

Each of us has both the Pharisee and the tax-collector inside

Last week’s Gospel was on the theme of prayer – the widow who pleaded for justice day and night. This week the same theme is maintained in Chapter 18 of Luke’s Gospel, as Jesus continues to set down the characteristics of genuine prayer. Two contrasting approaches are described. One man uses many words and engages in a detailed description of himself; another man seems to be in an unfit condition for prayer and he utters just a simple phrase. The first man lives a life that is full of admirable deeds: he fasts twice a week and pays tithes on all that he earns. The second man is a publican, a profession that was notorious for its corruption and dishonesty. In each one of us there exists both of these people. When we pray, we tend towards one or other of these poles. It may be true that when we hear the parable, all of us have a revulsion towards the boastful and arrogant attitude of the Pharisee; each one of us feels an empathy towards the attitude of the tax collector. But despite this natural reaction on our part, we still replicate the prayer of the Pharisee in our own lives.

The Pharisee’s prayer is focussed on his own actions. The tax-collector’s prayer is focussed on the action of God.

The problem with the Pharisee’s prayer is not just its arrogance and self-righteousness; the problem is that it is a prayer that is self-referential. It is a prayer that begins with himself and ends with himself. The publican, by contrast, does not dare to raise his eyes towards heaven. This signifies that heaven, for him, is a presence, another being that transcends him and his narrow interests. He beats his breast and asks for pardon. In the original Greek of this text, he does not ask for mercy but for expiation. This recalls the Hebrew notion that sin had to be somehow removed before one could return to live the original covenant. The tax collector wished to be saved from that which he was living. The central feature of his prayer is that he is asking God to intervene. “Have mercy on me Lord. You, Lord, take action in my life!”

Prayer is narcissistic when it is focussed on ourselves. This is true whether the prayer is self-commending or self-deprecating. Genuine prayer places the focus on God

Prayer is a relationship with God and it ought to be totally focussed on God’s action. It is not a means of contemplating oneself, and neither should it be primarily caught up with the issues facing an individual. Sometimes we meet people who talk only about themselves. Whether they speak in a self-commending way or a self-deprecating way makes no difference. In either case their attitude is narcissistic. They fail to confront themselves with the only being that matters. In the parable the Pharisee says to himself, “I am not like the rest. In particular I am not like this tax-collector here.” The Pharisee bases his prayer on comparison with others. In a beautiful passage, the ancient Christian writer Evagrio Pontico (d. 399 A.D.), says that the root of all anger is the belief that one is in the right. And how does one maintain the belief that one is in the right? By measuring oneself against others. And how can one escape from this tendency to believe that one is in the right? By measuring oneself against God. This is the very point of Jesus’ parable: the tax collector measures himself against God; the Pharisee measures himself against those that suit him. If one does not live in a genuine relationship with God, then our prayer is a sterile joke, an exercise in narcissism. Very often we persist in empty, fruitless, joyless prayer because we have not managed to rise above our act of prayer. We need to learn the art of allowing ourselves to be found by God when we pray; of permitting ourselves to give the initiative to him; of standing in his presence and allowing all of our infinite poverty to come to the surface. In the presence of God we have the right to be poor and fragile. In the presence of God, we finally escape the need to be competitive; the need to count our virtues publicly. The interminable search for our own righteousness is of no use to anyone and of no interest to anyone. It only serves to make us cold and judgemental towards others.

The only way to conversion and transformation is the way of the tax-collector

The beginning of the passage to be read on Sunday states that “Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else.” In other words, this Gospel is directed at each one of us. In order to escape from the disconnectedness of our lives, we tend to focus on people who are “worse” than we are, people who are to be despised, people who help to make us look righteous. The parable teaches us that this way of consoling ourselves is a waste of time that leads nowhere. Do we wish to be led to a day of pardon, to a new life, to a day of conversion and transformation? The only way is the way of the tax-collector: the abandonment of ourselves into the hands of God, poor as we are.

OCTOBER 20^th 2013. TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8

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

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

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GOSPEL                   Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. 'There was a judge in a certain town' he said 'who had neither fear of God nor respect for man. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, "I want justice from you against my enemy!" For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, "Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death".'

And the Lord said 'You notice what the unjust judge has to say? Now will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them? I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?'

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Does Jesus seem a little extreme when he asks us to pray unceasingly? Are we expected to grit our teeth and force ourselves to pray every moment of the day? The point that Jesus wishes to make is completely different. In the parable, a widow pleads for justice night and day. She does so because she knows that if she does not defeat her enemy, then he will defeat her. Our problem is that we are not aware that we are being pursued by an enemy who is devouring us on a daily basis! If we knew how necessary prayer was to maintain our relationship with God and protect us from the snares of Satan, then we would pray unceasingly just like the widow! Jesus’ exhortation to pray is not an exhortation to do an optional extra that might lead to sainthood. It is an exhortation to do what is basically necessary to maintain a meaningful relationship with him. We have been made in the image and likeness of God. We are asked to bear that image in the world. We must pray continually if we are to have any hope of realizing the wonderful dignity to which we are called.

Why does Jesus ask us to pray continually?

The parable in this week’s Gospel exhorts us to pray without ever losing heart. How can we be expected to pray continually without becoming weary or bored? But Jesus is not asking us to have the moral strength to pray unceasingly! He is not asking us to grit our teeth and force ourselves to pray against our will. What he is saying is something much more basic and fundamental, as we shall see when we begin to reflect on the parable of the widow.

Why does the widow ask persistently? Because she has no other choice!

In Israel at the time of Jesus, the widow was someone who existed at the very margins of society. Only men had the right to inherit property. Widows regularly found themselves with no means of income and often ended up as beggars. In Hebrew the same word is used for “husband” and for “support”. The widow was someone who had no support whatsoever. In the parable, a widow goes to an unjust judge, a judge who has no regard for whether things are done justly or unjustly. This lazy, dishonest judge represents the chaotic and uncaring reality that surrounds all of us as we go through life. Despite the callousness of the judge, the widow refuses to give up. Why does she never give up? Because she acts out of necessity. This is the simple and stark point that is contained in the parable! Unless the widow obtains what she is looking for from the judge she is finished. She must pester him until he gives her what is absolutely necessary for her to survive. Who is it that manages to unceasingly “cry day and night to the Lord”? He who realizes that it is absolutely necessary to have a relationship with God. He who appreciates that without that relationship we are finished.

The widow prays continually because she sees her enemy and knows that he will crush her if she does not defeat him first. Our problem is that we have lost sight of our enemy. We forget that he is near and that prayer is absolutely essential if we are to avoid destruction.

Many of the readers of this reflection probably do not feel all of this urgent necessity to pray unceasingly. Even people who live lives consecrated to God do not always appreciate the vital necessity of constant prayer. Is it really true that prayer is a basic, fundamental, need? Is it true that we need to be in constant relationship with God? Things become clearer if we consider another aspect of the readings for Sunday. In the first reading, Moses stands on the mountain and keeps his hands raised towards God whilst the people of Israel are in battle. If he allows his arms to fall, then the people begin to lose the battle. As long as he keeps his arms raised, the people of Israel are successful. Why does Moses keep his arms raised? Because he sees defeat as soon as he lets them drop! What is it that makes the widow in the parable persevere? Like Moses, she sees her enemy in front of her and knows that she will be crushed if she does not persevere in the battle. If someone is being chased by a tiger but then forgets that there is a tiger behind them, then it is only a matter of time before they are eaten up. Sometimes we forget that we are being chased by a tiger. We think the tiger is merely a cat and we end up living with things that are unhealthy and dangerous for us.

Sometimes people turn to prayer only in moments of grave necessity. We fail to realize that every moment is a moment of grave necessity!

The exhortation to pray continually has nothing to do with an act of the will in which we cajole ourselves to engage in every prayer and act of devotion possible. The central point is that we have an enemy – Satan – and this enemy must be combated on a continual basis. If a couple fails, on a daily basis, to base their relationship on that which is the foundation of their marriage, then their bond is in serious danger. If we continually eat junk food, then we begin to lose the awareness of the value and nature of healthy nourishment; we fail to realize the damage we are doing to ourselves. But if we can manage to recall the flavour and scent of good food, then, perhaps, we might begin to realize that we are living in an unhealthy state; we might start to become aware of the fact that we have given ourselves over to a way of life that ought to be abandoned. It is a fact of life that we tend to lose sight of the things that are truly necessary. When we are in a desperate situation, we have no problem praying. Sometimes we hear the complaint that people only pray in situations of grave necessity. But this is not the problem. The problem is that we do not realize that every moment is a moment of grave necessity! The problem is that we often think that we are not in need and that we can stand on our own two feet. This is one of the most insidious deceptions of our culture. For centuries humanity has been deceiving itself that it is autonomous and self-sufficient. For centuries we have deluded ourselves into thinking that our enemy is weak and that our own capacities are more than enough to overcome him.

If we are to live up to the dignity to which we are called, then continuous prayer is an absolute necessity

I am called to bear the image and likeness of God in the world. I am called to bear witness to the beauty of love. I am asked to bring to fruition in everyday things the novelty, truth and profundity of the Christian vision of life. I am called to go beyond administering mere justice to people and venture instead into the territory of love. When I consider the dignity to which I am called, then I cannot but be aware of the enormous necessity to pray. In order to resemble Jesus, prayer is not an optional extra for any of us. If we are to become as beautiful as he is, then we need to pray. We need to pray earnestly every morning when we wake up. We need to place ourselves before God, acknowledging that we cannot respond to his great call by depending on our own resources. Every evening when the day is over we need to offer our lives to God anew. In every instant we need to dialogue with him untiringly because that which we ask from him is so beautiful.

OCTOBER 13th 2013. TWENTY-EIGHT SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
GOSPEL: Lk: 17:11-19
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio.
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Gospel LK 17:11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he travelled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying,
"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"
And when he saw them, he said,
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed. 
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. 
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
"Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine? 
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" 
Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."
THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran's summary  . . . .  We are all lepers in the sense that we are distorted and incomplete. There is no such thing as a human being who feels completely whole or "normal". There are issues that eat away at each of us from within and cry out for resolution. There is a tendency for human beings to become preoccupied with their own particular problems. We tend to think that if this or that particular issue was resolved then we would be whole and complete. This is the trap that nine out of ten lepers fall into! Nine of the lepers are healed of their illness and then go on their way, thinking that all is hunky-dory. Only one of the lepers realizes that health is not everything. He wishes to praise his God and maintain a relationship with the Lord who saves him. Our lives instead are filled with the idolatrous tendency to believe that physical wellbeing is everything. We seek this wellbeing incessantly and end up developing a superficial attitude towards the things that really count in life. But health is not everything! It is better to be physically infirm with a heart that praises God than to be physically sound with a heart that has gone astray. 

Just like the leper, each one of us has something that distorts us and excludes us from society. All of us are imperfect, in need of healing, with a leprosy that eats away at us from within.

This passage gives us an insight into what true salvation consists in. The leper in the Old Testament was a solitary figure who was systematically excluded from the community. He had to remain outside of human society. In all of our lives there are things that make us different from others; there are things that cause us to be excluded; there are things that cause us to suffer and feel like outsiders. None of us feels one hundred percent "normal". Indeed the notion of a normal human being is an idol that doesn't exist in reality! No-one encounters "normal" men and women in everyday life. All of us are a little bit distorted and we come to God to ask for healing for this imperfection in our nature. How true this is of the leper in the physical sense! The leper is someone who sees his own flesh being consumed by decay. In all of us there is something that is eating away at us from within. There is something that limits us and pains us. We all have need of healing from God.

There is an idolatrous human tendency to think that salvation is equivalent to the resolution of the particular problem that consumes all of my attention

We often encounter people in desperate situations. It might be a state of economic hardship or it might be an existential issue. But whatever it is, the person often becomes consumed with that issue and is unable to think of anything else. That pain that they are experiencing becomes the fulcrum of their being. There is often a tendency to think that if that particular problem were to be resolved, then everything else would be ok. There is a tendency to believe that all of life depends on the resolution of that issue. This is the trap that nine lepers out of ten fall into. In the parable, nine of the lepers think that they have arrived at "salvation" once they obtain the healing of their illness. Jesus gave them an order and they followed his instructions admirably. Jesus tells them to go and present themselves to the priest even before they are healed. They do as they are told, following the instructions of their doctor, taking the medicine prescribed, and they find that they are made whole again. For nine out of ten of the lepers, this is sufficient for them. The story is over as far as they are concerned. But the story is not over at all in reality! It is not enough that I obtain healing for my bodily infirmities. There is an idolatrous tendency of the human heart to base his existence on things like human health. This parable challenges the axiomatic human principle that claims that "health is everything." Health is possessed by many people who do terrible things! If some of the dictators of history enjoyed less good health then maybe they would have done less harm to other people. Bad health places limits on people and maybe if some of these tyrants had grave health problems they might have shown greater respect and tolerance for others. Health is a state that we idolize, but it is nothing more than the state of potentially doing good.

Health is not equivalent to salvation. It is better to be physically infirm with a heart that praises God than be physically sound but have lost our way in life

The leper who returns to thank Jesus realizes that health is not everything. It is not sufficient for him that he has been healed. He wishes to maintain a relationship with the Lord. He returns to praise his God, sensing the invisible in that which has happened to him. Jesus says to him, "Go, your faith has saved you". Salvation is the one thing that counts. We encounter many people who are healthy in body but who have completely lost their way in life. All of us, to some extent, are healthy in body but lacking in more important ways, with a body that is relatively sound but a heart that is dead. On the other hand, we often meet people with severe physical limitations but whose hearts are full of love for God. 

A focus on wellbeing gives us a superficial perspective on salvation. Do we wish to be healthy or to be saved? Are we looking for the physical health that lasts only temporarily or real life that endures eternally?

What is it that we are really looking for in life? When we celebrate the Eucharist this Sunday, do we wish for our lives to be truly sorted out on the deepest level? When we raise our children, are we concerned primarily with their physical health? Do we work for their eternal salvation? In many cases they have already grown up before we start to become concerned about their relationship with God. Our preoccupation with the "wellbeing" of ourselves and our children makes us incapable of developing profound relationships with God and others. A focus on wellbeing can make us superficial in a devastating way. That is why it is often periods of illness that prompt us to finally open our hearts and discover the deeper meaning of salvation. What is it that really counts? To be healed or to be saved? To be physically healthy or to have praise in our hearts for everything in life, even periods of sickness? What is it that really matters? To live for God in every moment of or lives, or to try to resolve our problems ourselves? Sometimes we are so focussed on life's problems that we do not learn what it means to truly possess real life.

OCTOBER 6^th 2013. TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10

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

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

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GOSPEL                   Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith'. The Lord replied, 'Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea", and it would obey you. Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal immediately"?  Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards"? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty".'

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus responds with the stark and simple parable of the slave who is never allowed to rest and who must never expect gratitude for his service. Why does Jesus respond in this way? The apostles feel that walking in the faith is a difficult chore. They want Jesus to make the task easier for them, so they ask him to increase their faith. Jesus wants to make clear that faith is not something that is possessed statically once and forever. It is not something that is obtained once and kept for always. Like the servant who is never allowed to rest, the business of walking in the faith is a business from which we can never rest. If I entrust my life to the Lord today, then I will need to do so again tomorrow. Having faith is a continual way of life. It is not something that is confined to one day of the week or to certain moments of our existence. It cannot be laid aside when I am watching television or when I am filling up my tax form. This does not mean, however, that faith is a chore. It does not mean that faith is something that involves gritting my teeth and exerting acts of the will that go against what I really want to do. If I have to struggle to entrust myself to the Lord, then this signifies that I wish to hold something back for myself. It means that there is an area of my life from which I wish to exclude the Lord. When we entrust ourselves to the Lord in faith then we experience the extraordinary beauty of God. When we go from one act of service to the Lord to another, then we go from joy to joy, from consolation to consolation.

Faith is not something that we possess in quantities. Faith is relationship

This brief passage is best understood in the context of the previous verses of Chapter 17 of Luke’s Gospel. In those verses Jesus had told the disciples that they must be ready always to forgive. Confronted with this difficult task, the disciples ask for help: “Increase our faith” they implore Jesus. Jesus responds by saying that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed then they would be able to uproot a tree and plant it in the sea. This is an impossible task! What can Jesus mean by such a statement? What Jesus is really saying to them is that faith is not something that is measured in quantities. It is not something that you possess in the way that you possess other things, things that you can have less or more of. Faith is a relationship! It is time that we rid ourselves of some mistaken and poorly conceived notions regarding the faith. Faith is a theological virtue. Faith bestows new life – the life of Christ. It makes our existence throb with the vitality of the children of God. It is not measured in kilogrammes, and it is certainly not something that I possess in some sort of existential pocket inside of me. No. I walk in the faith. I act in the faith. Fundamentally, it is a personal relationship with God. Faith is not a list of beliefs that I adhere to in my mind. The Church clarifies for us the things that must be believed when one enters into relationship with the Lord.

Faith is not confined to church. If it is real then it must govern every moment of my life

The parable identifies the believer with a servant who does not simply rest once he has finished a particular task. That is part and parcel of being a slave; when you finish one job you are expected to start another! This simple and stark parable throws light on the nature of faith, but to understand the point of the parable we must be conscious of the relational character of faith. If faith is a true relationship then it is not something that is confined to certain types of acts or particular days of the week. Faith is not something that becomes irrelevant when I am queuing up in the post office or filling up my tax form. The slave cannot say to his master, “I’m finished work for today.” And neither can we say with regard to faith “I don’t need the faith for this area of my life.” What kind of life am I leading if every moment of it is not rooted in Christ? When I get home from work, I begin another type of activity that must remain an expression of the fundamental relationship with Christ.

Faith is not possessed once for always. If I manage to entrust myself to the Lord today, then that does not mean that I will not need to do so again tomorrow

The apostles ask, “Increase our faith.” They wish to be handed a certain quota of faith that will suffice for always. But faith is not something that can be obtained and possessed statically forever! We must always grow in the faith! When an athlete breaks a record, he doesn’t cease training. Just because he has achieved that measure of excellence once doesn’t mean that it will always be within his reach without further exertion on his part. Life is continuous growth, constant evolution, perennial discovery. If I manage to entrust myself to the Lord today, does that mean that I will not need to entrust myself to him tomorrow? Will I ever achieve a state in life where I can lay the Lord aside and survive on my own resources? Any area of life that can be lived without walking with the Lord would be unattractive and boring! Anything that does not have the life of Christ in it is of questionable value. If, like the slave, we go from one act of service to another, then we are really going from one joy to another, because serving Christ is the greatest joy imaginable! We go from discovery to discovery, from consolation to consolation.

If my faith is based purely on acts of the will then there is something lacking in my relationship with the Lord. I am clinging on to something that I wish to retain for myself. I am not entrusting myself utterly to the Lord

If my service to the Lord is something that ends at a particular moment and I head off for a period of rest from the Lord, then that means that my relationship with the Lord is something that involves compulsion and coercion on my part. But anything that is based purely on my efforts will not endure into eternal life. The only thing that takes us beyond death is the grace of God. If someone needs to take regular breaks from their acts of service to the Lord, then that indicates that there is something not healthy in those acts of service. There is something lacking in the relationship that grounds those acts of service. There is a failure to entrust oneself completely to the Lord. We entrust ourselves completely to a relationship of faith with the Lord when we no longer seek to retain something for ourselves. If we have truly entrusted ourselves to the Lord, then we experienced the extraordinary beauty of God. Who wants to take a break from the beautiful and the extraordinary? The people of Israel celebrated the Passover with their “loins girded”; it was a celebration that incorporated a state of readiness for the journey. Serving the Lord is not just about gritting our teeth and exercising a huge effort of the will. That to which the Lord calls us is always beautiful, always joyful, always novelty, always resurrection.