September 27^th 2015.  Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mark 9:38-43.45.47-48

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

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

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GOSPEL: Mark 9:38-43.45.47-48

John said to Jesus, ‘Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.’ But Jesus said, ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.

‘If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ,
then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.

‘But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck. And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus uses very severe language this Sunday! If my hand causes me to sin, then it should be cut off. If my eye causes me to go astray, then it should be gouged out. Evidently Jesus does not intend us to take these words literally! But they are nevertheless the harshest words that he uses in the New Testament and he obviously wants to make a very strong point. How fragmented the Church is! We belong to cliques and factions and often consider ourselves to be superior, or more enlightened, or less hypocritical than others. We exclude others from our faction because we consider them to be unsuitable or unworthy in some sense. Jesus uses harsh words this Sunday because he wants us to be aware that anything that causes lack of communion in the Church is to be excluded completely. It is to be cut off like a useless limb or diseased organ. True unity in the Church under the one Spirit is an absolute priority. We are created for love and communion with one another. The alternative to authentic spirit-filled communion is hell itself, as Jesus words point out very clearly. Anything that breaks communion is to be cut away and rejected.

Jesus uses extreme language in this Sunday’s Gospel. We are not to take his words literally, but we ought to consider his point seriously.

Jesus words seem very harsh in this week’s Gospel reading. Of course, the instruction to cut off your hand if it causes you to sin is an example of the kind of paradoxical language that is part and parcel of Scripture. It is impossible to read the Bible if we do not accept the paradoxical mode of expression that is often used to express particular truths. Some fundamentalist Christians try to interpret Scripture in a literal sense, but this can lead to absurd conclusions. Jesus’ use of this type of language in Sunday’s Gospel reading, however, does not mean that we should underestimate the force and seriousness of the point that he wishes to make.

Jesus is telling us that the communion of others with us in the one body of Christ is the most important thing of all. Anything that impedes this communion is to be dealt with harshly

The first reading recounts how Moses extends his ministry to other helpers. This is very important: it is essential to collaborate with others and to delegate duties to competent people. Moses does not seek to keep his ministry to himself and deputises his authority to others who will help him govern the people. Two of the seventy two elders are not present at the moment when the Spirit of God descends on the assembly, but they still receive the Spirit nonetheless. This irregularity in protocol upsets one of the young men in the assembly. Sometimes young people can be more fixated with procedure than the elderly (and it can happen that they are more self-righteous too. In the scene of the woman caught in adultery, Jesus says, “Let him who has not sinned cast the first stone”. It is the oldest men who go away first, while the younger ones remain longer with the stone in their hands, still doubting their own sinfulness). In the first reading, this young man is upset that the gift of the Spirit has not respected protocol. Moses replies, “Are you jealous on my account that the Spirit has also been given to them? I wish that the entire people were prophets! That the Spirit would be poured out on everyone!” One of the temptations of the spiritual life is to try to exclude others from the beautiful things that we possess. We tend to think that God does not wish to give these gifts to these lesser mortals. It is not uncommon in the Church to encounter the attitude that my faction is superior and have certain rights not possessed by others. But this is like an army assaulting its own members accidentally with friendly fire! It is hard to overestimate the gravity and tragedy of this situation for the Christian community. In fact Jesus speaks of this rupture of communion within the Church with an uncharacteristic harshness. Warnings of this severity from Jesus are rare in the New Testament and this is perhaps the most shocking example of all. “If anyone places an obstacle that causes another to be out of communion with the Church, then it would be better that they mutilate themselves rather than the harm they have caused to the other. If your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell.” Jesus is telling us that it is hell itself that is the real alternative to communion.

Each one of us at some point has fallen into the trap of thinking that we possessed a characteristic that set us above others

We hear people saying this like: “Our side is right”, “We are permitted to do this”, “You are not permitted to do that”, “We belong to this group”, “You do not have the right characteristics to belong to our group.” All of this factional talk is destructive because there is only one thing that all of us belong to and that is the Catholic Church - a single body by virtue of a single baptism, under one Lord and united in the one Holy Spirit. He who insists on distinctions and attains his importance on account of the counter distinctions that he has made, “it would be better if he were thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck”. These severe words can be applied to all of us because all of us have been the cause of obstacles been placed in the way of others at some point in our lives. All of us have had moments when we tended to think that the Spirit of God was reserved to people with those same characteristics shared by me, instead of recognizing that God can give his Spirit to whoever he wishes, to people that we consider ill-qualified or unworthy. The Lord can make a saint in a moment from individuals who allow Him to operate in them.

This Sunday’s Gospel calls us to break down barriers and create communion in the Church

This Sunday a very important challenge is placed in front of us. We are asked not to create divisions of any sort, to work towards communion and to seek to esteem others as much as possible. We must forgo the tendency to make distinctions and confrontations. The body of Christ must not be fragmented by these cliques and factions! May the Lord help us to recognize that what really counts is to be one in Christ. Communion, unity, love: these are the most important issues in the Church. May the Lord cut away that in us which damages communion, may he help us to defend dialogue and fraternity. Instead of competing with others, we must contend with them only to the extent of respecting and esteeming them as much as possible.

September 20^th 2015.  Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mark 9:30-37

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

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

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GOSPEL: Mark 9:30-37

After leaving the mountain Jesus and his disciples made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.

They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.’ He then took a little child, set him in front of them, put his arms round him, and said to them, ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . While Jesus is talking about how he will humiliate himself and suffer grievously in order to bring about salvation, the disciples are arguing about which of them ought to be exalted the most! Each one of us has a tendency to be fixated with our own position relative to others. We like to feel superior to others in certain senses, and we feel challenged when the integrity of another’s behaviour shows up our hypocrisy. Our inclination to put down others, however, is rarely just for the sake of putting them down: we do so in a misguided effort to give significance to our own existence. Our attempts to subordinate others to ourselves is an illegitimate attempt to save ourselves from emptiness and meaninglessness. I must draw life and a sense of worth from somewhere, after all. If I do not draw it from God, then I usurp it by placing myself on a pedestal above others. We are thus confronted with two possible paths, and the Gospel this Sunday illustrates both paths clearly. One is the path of the disciples, who seek “life” by placing themselves on a pedestal above others. The other path is the path of Jesus, who empties himself before others and abandons himself completely into the hands of the Father who is life. All of us are called to follow Jesus by emptying ourselves and entrusting ourselves into the hands of the Father. This is the sure path to life. The kind of “life” that we obtain by placing ourselves above others is illusory and empty.

While Jesus is talking about how he will humiliate himself to bring about salvation, the disciples are arguing about which of them ought to be exalted the most!

In the Gospel this Sunday, Jesus makes one of the announcements regarding his passion. ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.’ We are often struck by the first part of this statement – the tragic part – but it is the destination of the journey that counts the most, not the journey itself. A journey - no matter how wonderful it might appear - that ends in pain or death, is a terrible journey. But a difficult, austere journey that ends in joy is beautiful. The logic of God, God’s way of doing things, is a process that leads by way of the truth to life itself. But Jesus’ announcements regarding the path that he must follow lead to regular misunderstandings. We have seen how in Chapter Eight of the same Gospel, Peter reproved Jesus for his claim that he would have to suffer and die. In the case of the Gospel passage that we read this Sunday, we find a different sort of lack of comprehension on the part of the disciples. Jesus asks them what they were talking about and they are too embarrassed to reply at first. They had been discussing which among them was the greatest. While Jesus is speaking to them about his humiliation in obedience to the Father, his suffering that leads to life, they are arguing about which of them is better than the others! It is a head-on confrontation between two mentalities that have nothing in common.

We don’t put down others just for the sake of putting them down: we do so in a misguided effort to give significance to our own existence. Our attempts to subordinate others to ourselves is an illegitimate attempt to save ourselves from emptiness and meaninglessness.

In the first reading from the book of Wisdom, we hear how the godless seek to trap the virtuous man, “since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our breaches of the law and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing.” The just man does not upset the godless by criticizing him, but simply by the fact that he lives in a different manner. I can easily get along with someone who thinks differently to me, but when that person acts differently to me then I begin to feel uncomfortable. If someone refuses to make the hypocritical choices that I make, or the choices directed to the narrow advantage of the people in my group, then it becomes challenging for me. The godless in the first reading are led to violence against the just man on account of the challenging nature of his integrity. The egoism of our society is fuelled by the fear we all have of suffering, death and emptiness. This primordial fear drives us to live for ourselves and to oppose anyone whose behaviour challenges our fundamental drive. We have a terror of being make secondary to others and seek in all sorts of ways to have our own egos affirmed. The discussion among the disciples regarding who is the greatest arises from this mentality. The desire to win, to be first, to be the greatest, is not primarily related to the desire to put down others, but arises rather from an effort to overcome the emptiness of our being.

I must draw life from somewhere. If I do not draw it from God then I usurp it by placing myself on a pedestal above others

This infantile rivalry considers that I am only someone significant when I am above someone else. This existential sense of emptiness arises from the genuine truth that I am indeed an impoverished creature, a mendicant soul that needs to draw life from somewhere. If I do not look to God, if I do not abandon myself to his love, then I must obtain my sense of worth elsewhere, usurping it by creating classifications in which I place myself above others. Often I do this by speaking in a negative way about others. Sometimes I enter into a sort of communion with others, an evil assembly, by creating a common enemy at which we can direct our vitriol.

We are confronted with two paths: the infantile strategy of basing my self-worth on a perceived sense of being superior to others; or the strategy of emptying myself and entrusting my life into the hands of the Father. Only the latter path leads to life and true meaningfulness.

This world in itself does not bring us to true life. The way of Christ brings life. This Sunday we see a pattern of behaviour on the part of disciples that arises out of an inherent belief in death, leading them to act out of fear (i.e., the fact that the disciples have a primordial fear of death and emptiness leads them to seek meaning by asserting their superiority over others). Thus it becomes violent - violence always arises from fear. Christ, by contrast, is docile because his whole existence is directed towards the Father who is life. The issue here is to believe on a profound level that our lives are in the hands of our heavenly Father, that we belong to him. Jesus says, ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men”, but he knows that he is not permanently subject to the hands of men but of God. Men might well kill him, but the Father will restore him to life again.  We must allow ourselves to be inundated by this tender yet powerful light; the Father will not abandon us; everything tends towards light and life. The path of life is not a path that is obsessed with victory over primordial emptiness: rather it is a path in which emptiness leads to victory. When we learn to empty ourselves, then we are granted a victory over the ungodly “I” that seeks to usurp life by illegitimate means. Let us allow our lives to be illuminated by the logic of Christ, the strategy of Christ. Let us entrust ourselves to God in the things that cause us anguish, recognizing that the impulse to rivalry and one-upmanship are an illegitimate shortcut to meaningfulness, leading us nowhere.

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 13th 2015

 September 13^th 2015. Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary time.

Gospel:   Mark 8:27-35

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

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Gospel:   Mark 8:27-35

Jesus and his disciples left for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

He called the people and his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

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

Kieran’s summary  . . . . The first reading speaks of a Suffering Servant who can endure all insults and beatings because “the Lord has opened his ear”. In other words, he can bear all things because his relationship with the Father is the primary thing in his life. In the Gospel Peter presents a completely different perspective on suffering. He complains that Jesus should not have to embrace suffering and death. Peter has just professed his faith in Jesus as the Messiah and he refuses to accept that a Messiah should have to suffer. How similar our attitude is to Peter’s! We expect our faith to be an insurance policy against suffering and hardship! But the way that our Messiah wishes to save us is different to what we expect. We want our Messiah to save us from hardship, but he, instead, wishes to save us through hardship. We are transformed by the power of the Cross from people who were originally wrapped up in themselves to people who abandon themselves to God. The Cross teaches us to entrust ourselves to the Lord and develop a relationship with him. We do not embrace the Cross for the Cross’s sake, but as part of our journey of following Jesus and entering into communion with him.

Like Peter we all have the capacity to recognize who Jesus is but still fail to understand the nature of the salvation that Jesus is offering us

In the Gospel this Sunday Peter goes from hero to villain in a matter of moments. Firstly he makes a wonderful profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Almost immediately, however, he becomes the voice of Satan and receives a public scolding. Each one of us has this capability to understand a fact well and then to make an aberrant interpretation of this same fact. Peter recognizes that Jesus is the Christ but does not accept that he is a Christ who should suffer. He comprehends that Jesus is the Messiah but has not understood the type of Messiah that he is, nor the mode in which he intends to bring about salvation.

The Suffering Servant is able to bear hardship and insults because the primary thing is his life is his relationship with the Father. But Peter expects that the relationship with the Father should PREVENT hardship and insults!

The first reading continues the remarkable Canticle of the Suffering Servant from the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord has opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me,  my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle. The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed. My vindicator is here at hand.” All of these actions are presented in a negative sense. We are told what the Messiah will not do. He does not turn away, nor cover his face. He is not touched by insults, and will not be shamed. The point is that this Servant is not seeking applause, nor acclaim, nor confirmation. It is none of these things that form the basis of a relationship with God. Instead we are told that “The Lord has opened my ear”. This signifies that the Servant has entered into relationship with the Lord. It is this relationship that enables him to endure all of these negative things - beatings, flagellations, insults. Contrast this with Peter’s attitude! Peter indicates that the fact that Jesus is the Christ ought to imply that he ought not to suffer! He ought not to be rejected by the leaders of the people, suffer and die. Isaiah tells us, by contrast, that the fact that the Servant has this special relationship with God permits him to accept suffering. Peter, above all, does not pay attention to the positive outcome that Jesus refers to when he says that he will rise again on the third day. For Peter, religion should be an insurance policy against misfortune from the start.

Often we expect our faith to protect us from hardship. But God wishes to transform us through the Cross. The Cross is not something to be avoided but to be embraced for its transforming power. We do not take up the Cross for its own sake but as a fundamental aspect of our filial relationship with Jesus.

How often we hear Christians say: “What did I do to deserve this?” If we really think about it, and lift our eyes to the crucifix, then we will realize that Christianity is not about gratification and worldly reward. Very often we Christians are very refined cultivators of our own wellbeing. We expect life to be a series of comforts and rewards. We strive to create around us an environment of consensus with an absence of conflict. But we are called to something quite different. We are called to experience the power of God to transform us through the Cross. “If someone wishes to follow me then he must renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me .”  This involves a detachment from oneself, a renunciation of the attitude that makes an absolute of oneself. We must take up our cross, but this does not mean that the cross comes upon us unexpectedly or by force, as if it is imposed upon us and we have no input in the process. By contrast, we must take the Cross in our hands and exploit its power to transform us. And, above all, we must follow Jesus; we must enter into relationship with him. We do not take up the Cross for the Cross’s sake. We take it up in order to follow Jesus.

“For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it”. My life lived for itself is a little thing. The real substantial life, the beautiful life, is that given to me by God. We must not fear losing our own self-directed lives; what we should fear is not taking the live that God offers us. And, in fact, God offers us that life through the very process by which we end up losing our own lives (in that self-directed sense). The life that comes from the Resurrection must necessarily pass through death. Non-one can ever experience the Resurrection without dying first! This apparently bitter fact is something that we must accept. It is not enough to accept that Jesus is the Christ. We must possess him within us. We must live in union with him and be his disciples. We must live the condition described in the first reading. The Suffering Servant lives in a state of complete liberty, of great interior strength, of marvellous self-possession, capable of withstanding these injuries and insults. The Cross holds no fear for someone who lives in this state. In fact, the Cross is the place where I place my truest in God and I experience new life. God gifts all of us with these difficult things that call us to entrust ourselves to him and abandon ourselves to him, renouncing our self-directed schemes and placing ourselves in his hands. This gift is called “the Cross”. It is what leads us to recognize the power and love of God.

September 6^th 2015.  TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL:  Mark 7:31-37

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

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

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GOSPEL:  Mark 7:31-37

Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly. And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said, ‘he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Both the first reading and the Gospel speak of the healing of the senses. God made us for communion with himself and others. But we are fixated with our own wellbeing and gratification, and this leads us to become entrapped within ourselves. How many people nowadays find it difficult to communicate with others, even people in their own families! We prefer to have virtual relationships, to spend our time being bombarded with images, instead of entering into real relationships with those around us. But God made us for relationship! Our being is damaged by the solitude and isolation of this individualistic lifestyle. Jesus wishes to heal us of this incapacity of our senses. In the Gospel he places his finger in the man’s ear, and touches the man’s tongue with his saliva. Jesus’ hand is the hand of God, the hand that made the cosmos. This symbolic act of placing his finger in the man’s ear tells us that God wishes us to be attentive to his works. Instead we tend to be fixated with our own works and our own projects. Our senses are healed by being attentive to the works of God. The touching of the man’s tongue with Jesus’ saliva is symbolic of the fact that we only learn to speak well when we speak the words of God, when our speech is informed by the Spirit of God. Jesus then says “Ephphatha! – Be opened!” It is Jesus’ fervent desire that we be released from our darkness and solitude. He is the only one that can free us – an act of the will on our part will never be enough – we must look to him.

We are made for communion with God and others. This requires our senses to be open to God and others, not directed towards our own wellbeing
Both the first reading and the Gospel this Sunday have the theme of the healing of the senses. Our five senses are the interface by which we communicate with reality. In the reading from the prophet Isaiah, we hear of what is known as the “promise of divine retribution”. This retribution is a response to the fact that the human has failed to enter into right relationships with others. The passage from Isaiah states that the blind will see, the deaf will hear, and the tongues of the dumb will sing for joy. What does the adventure of life consist in? Physical wellbeing? Enjoyment of life? No. We are born to enter into relationship with God and others. The authentic truth about us consists in the state of our relationships with others. What truly counts in life is our actual condition of communion with others. We can possess wonderful physical gifts, but yet be illiterate when it comes to relationships with others, unable to detach ourselves from the anxiety concerning our individual wellbeing. Our being was made for relationship and it is destroyed if we do not learn to enter into relationship.

We are made for love and communication, but we barricade ourselves inside virtual worlds. We become deaf mutes, focussed on our individualistic goals and gratifications
We are made for love, but love is impossible without the senses. Unless we can see, or hear, or touch, or perceive, we cannot enter into relationship with others. Solitude is that which really frustrates and destroys human life. But in today’s world we are so focussed on individualism that we often begin to live lives of great solitude. The emphasis on personal wellbeing distances us from others. The healing of the senses becomes all the more critical when we consider that the modern ways in which the senses can be subject to illusion. Our senses are bombarded with data that is virtual in nature. This anaesthetises the senses and make us blind, dumb and mute. Many young people are trapped within virtual relationships. These tend to be less risky and to be dominated by personal projections, making it more difficult to enter into genuine relationships with real people. These cases are widely diffused and of greater or lesser gravity, but the upshot is that the person becomes effectively a deaf mute, existentially autistic, trapped within themselves. All of us are in this situation to some degree. Do I seek times of the day when I can be alone and engage in an activity that rewards me in an individualistic way? Like time in front of the TV, time spent on the internet or time reading a book. In other words, times when I don’t have to relate to anyone else. Is life just a boring parenthesis between one moment of self-gratification and another? Between one moment of rest from relationships and another? The effort to understand another person and to make myself understood becomes tiresome and boring. This tendency to isolate myself is the work of the separator, the demon who separates us from others and makes us incapable of communication. He closes us within ourselves and causes us to make absolutes of our sensations.

Jesus wishes to heal our senses. He wishes us to be attentive to discerning his works and to learn to speak with his words. Attention to his works frees us from our fixation with ourselves and permits us to communicate his word to others.
Jesus wishes to cure this solitude of ours. How does he do it? In the Gospel passage, Jesus is in a pagan region, a paganism that leads ultimately to solitude. First he takes the afflicted man apart, away from the crowd with its facile solutions for everything. Then he performs two actions that seem repulsive or embarrassing. He puts his fingers in the man’s ears and his saliva on the man’s tongue. These are symbolic actions. The fingers represent the works of Christ. The heavens and the earth were made by the hand of God and Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. The man is being given the capacity to listen to the works of another, to comprehend the works of God. Then he places the saliva on the tongue. We cannot speak without saliva and Jesus is giving the man the capacity to speak with the words of Jesus. To listen to the works of another and to speak with the words of another: this is what heals the human being of his ills. It is essential that we be nurtured with the word of God which relates to us the works of the Lord. Attention to the works of God frees us from the fixation with our own works which entraps us. God does things that we do not expect whilst our own ways of measuring are very limited. Attention to the works of God gives us a capacity to speak in a new way and respond according to his wisdom.

It is only Jesus that can lead us out of this entrapment within ourselves

Jesus sighs and says, “Ephphatha” which means “Be opened”. This is a command from the Lord. It is not something that can be achieved with our own power. It is the will of God that we be opened. We are called by the will of God to be opened and to escape from our entrapment within ourselves. It is not something that happens as a result of an act of our will. Jesus sighs, an indication of the longing of his spirit that we should be liberated from our darkness and solitude. He wants us to speak, to listen, to enter into relation. How many people are enclosed within themselves and think that the solutions to their problems lies within themselves! Instead, a focus on oneself will only lead to greater entrapment. The solution is in opening oneself to God and others. This Sunday let us repeat to ourselves the command of Jesus that we find in this Gospel: “Be opened! Come out and enter into relationship with me!”

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.