Weekly Reflection: Twenty First Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B

Reading References:

1st Reading: Deut 4:1-2.6-8
Psalm: Ps 14:2-5 R v 1
2nd Reading: James 1:17-18.21-22.27
Gospel: Mark7:1-8.14-15.21-23

Our readings today present us with a great challenge both as individuals and as church.

Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments are to love God with our whole heart, our whole mind and our whole soul and to love our neighbour as ourselves. These two great commandments of our God are a concise summary of the Ten Commandments.

But how many of us honours God with lip-service by partaking in all the various rituals expected of us and yet at the same time our hearts are far from God? Our God tells us today that this worship being offered is worthless.

We must be very careful in our understanding of this text. Many of the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ time were hypocritical and Jesus’ mission in this life was to open their eyes and hearts. The leaders had created a system that gave them great power – they dictated who was “in” and who was “out” – their human regulations were oppressive and alienating for so many of their community. They followed with rigid fervor the personal and communal purity laws that they believed kept them ritually clean but at the same time the two greatest commandments of our God had been largely lost.

Our liturgical worship and some of the empowering rituals we embrace are very important for our faith journey. They speak to our hearts and nourish us on the journey. But a problem occurs when we do not see beyond the rituals – when we think the rituals are all that is required of us. Jesus is speaking very loudly to those of us that hold this attitude today.

Our sacramental practices over the past decades have fostered this false attitude in many ways and now we are seeing a church that bewilderingly ponders why young people and young families are visibly absent from our communities. Parents ring parishes up to get their children “done” with regard to baptism and then are never to be seen again in the community until they ring up again requesting to get their children “done” with regard to first Eucharist and Confirmation. Or children have received the sacraments of initiation through the school communities with little and sometimes no connection to the parish community and little or no connection to the family. What is it that we are initiating these children into? Aren’t we just acting out the ritual and removing its heart and soul when we do this? Isn’t this the hypocrisy Jesus is naming today? What message is church leadership giving when it fosters such attitudes?

We make a mockery of our sacraments of initiation when we allow such practices to continue. But these practices are imbedded into our psyche in lots of ways and it will take people who are courageous and faithful to create a change of heart and attitude and this journey will not be without its difficulties. Church Leadership and people who maintain this attitude of getting “done” need to be gently encouraged to see that getting “done” is “worthless” unless we have an understanding that we are being initiated into something extraordinarily wonderful.

How many of us believe that we are initiated into something extraordinarily wonderful? Until we can embrace this belief in our own hearts how can we inspire others? How can priests, teachers, parents, friends etc inspire those around them if they do not believe it themselves and are not passionate about their belief – it is almost impossible? How can a music teacher teach and inspire a child (or anyone) to learn an instrument and be inspired by music if they have no understanding of it and cannot play a note themselves and ultimately just don’t really care? It is the music of faith that is so deeply attractive and the challenge for the church is to bring this passion within us to life and the only real way we can do this is to live and breathe our belief and let it come to life within us so that it can come to life in others.

Why is it that so many in our congregations don’t understand this? We just don’t seem to get it. We follow the rituals while we exclude love of God and love of neighbour. What has happened in our church to create generations that just do not understand who we are and who we are called to be? But church leadership must be gentle with people, we cannot bully people - it simply doesn’t work. Our lived example will be the greatest way people will come to understand and this is the responsibility of every baptized person.

If we are honest we will recognize the “hypocrite” in our own hearts. But just as the person learning a musical instrument keeps coming back to the teacher and the instrument so as to grow and develop in their understanding and passion, so must we keep coming back to our hearts and to Jesus. If we do not do this then we will remain hypocrites and there will be little that is attractive about us.

Our baptism calls us to consciously love God and love our neighbour. As we ponder our own faith journey over the coming days and our responsibility in the journey, we might take some time to ponder the following three questions that I came across recently. They may challenge us to recognize the hypocrite within but they may also challenge us to keep coming back to the source of our very life so that we can continue to grow in faith, love and understanding. Just as an accomplished musician can inspire others through years of practice and teaching, so too our lives may inspire those around us after years of engaging our hearts and constantly coming to Jesus knowing and believing we are loved and part of something extraordinarily wonderful.

1. What have I done for Jesus?
2. What am I doing for Jesus?
3. What am I being called to do for Jesus?

Weekly Reflection: 20th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B

Reading References:

1st Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm: Ps 33:33:2-3.10-15. R. 9
2nd Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel: John 6:51-58

Today’s readings are very beautiful and if we allow ourselves to read deeply enough into them then we will know that they challenge us to be alert.

Our First Reading calls the ignorant and tells us to leave our folly and walk in the ways of perception. For us to do this we need to be alert – we need to respond to the call. Wisdom is always perceptive. Wisdom looks at the overall picture and wisdom always has the wellbeing of everyone at its heart. Wisdom perceives evil with daring acuteness.

Selfishness and greed on the other hand kills perception. Our consumerist mentality looks out for the well being of ones self regardless of how that might impact upon others. So for us to embrace the consumerist mentality we allow our gift of perceptiveness to be deadened. Then our lives do become folly because we are burying the very thing that can give us life and also give others life.

In our Psalm we are invited to taste and see the goodness of the Lord. How do we do this if all we are concerned about is what I want and what I need? In a TV documentary recently it was saying that young people today become bored very quickly. They want everything yesterday. They hunger for the latest technologies. They are enormous consumers. It is built on an attitude of me, myself and I.

What sense does the world make to our young when the very role models put before them have little perception of what is happening themselves? What sense can be made of a country whose residents largely support government polices that are so abusive of human rights – so forgetting of the well being of others who have been brutalized in other countries and we say to them go elsewhere – so obsessed with the economy above the well being of its citizens – so seized by fear that we allow the creation of laws that go against our democratic principles – so consumed with our own selves that we allow racism and suspicion to breed all sorts of contempt in our hearts. When we stand behind any government that behaves in such a way then we have lost our perception and our ability to taste and see the goodness around us. It is life destroying for us to bury our heads and focus on ourselves. Until we can pull our heads out of the sand we will not taste and see the goodness of the Lord. What are we really doing to our young and future generations?

Our Second Reading says: This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it. What an extraordinary reminder this is of our responsibility. We have the power to redeem this age. Can we believe such a statement? But how do we do it?

Our Gospel gives us the answer. It is the Body and Blood of Jesus that will do this within us. But one wonders if there is some sense of “magic” that we can wrongly associate with the Eucharist thinking all we need do is take in the Body and Blood and all will be well. But to receive the Eucharist is to clothe ourselves in the Body of Christ – it is to become the Body of Christ – it is to be the Body of Christ. We need to ask ourselves if we simply TAKE the Eucharist or do we RECEIVE the Eucharist into the depths of our hearts. For the Body and Blood to be real for us we must RECEIVE it and PERCEIVE it in an active and knowing way. We must put on Christ. When we can do this the world will be redeemed.

This extraordinary gift we have in the Eucharist must be perceived for what it is. There is not greater gift in our world. Do we believe this?

I was exposed to a strange phenomenon recently. The statue of Fatima “toured” our Diocese last week. People from all walks of life flocked to this “statue”. People came in wheel chairs, the old and frail, the young. Many wept as the statue left their parish. Hundreds of people flocked to see this “statue”. They cued to venerate the “statue” for long periods of time. The experience was bewildering and I found it difficult to understand how a “statue” could generate such passion. I found myself thinking if only we could become as passionate about the extraordinary gift of the Eucharist. What is it in us that can become so fired up over a “statue”? I don’t understand it. Was it really an expression of faith that was being witnessed?

Until we understand the extraordinary gift of the Eucharist then we will continue to fill our lives with all sorts of diversions and distractions that go counter to what Jesus longs for us to receive.

Let us pray in the coming week that our hearts will be open to Jesus’ great gift to us and that we will come to see that the world in which we live is longing for redemption and all of us together have the power to do it if we have the courage to allow ourselves to become clothed in Christ.

Weekly Reflection: 19th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B

Reading References:

1st Reading: 1Kings 19:4-8
Psalm: Ps 33:2-9 R v. 9
2nd Reading: Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Gospel: John 6:41-51

Who is Jesus? We can come up with all the “correct” answers such as: Jesus is the God of Love, Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is our Way, Jesus is our Truth and Jesus is our Life etc. This is all very well but Who is Jesus for you and for me - Who is Jesus for our world?

Our first reading tells us to: Get up and eat
Our second reading tells us: Follow Christ by loving as he loved you
The response to our psalm tells us to: Taste and see the goodness of the Lord
Our gospel today has Jesus saying: I am the bread of life

Surely we cannot answer the question of who is Jesus until we know Jesus. We need to get up from our sleep, from our lethargy and get to know Jesus through the Word through prayer and through all that we see happening around us and within us. For any relationship to grow we need to spend time with the person to get to know them. How many times in our lives have we met someone for the first time and we have made a negative judgment about that person only to discover that once we allow ourselves to really get to know them our opinion changes. This is a common experience.

Many people make a judgment about Jesus by their negative experiences of people who claim to know Jesus - the opinions, actions and behaviours of these people can present something very unattractive and very off putting for the onlookers and rightly so. And of course many of these onlookers think if that is what it is to believe in Jesus then, no thanks.

But the challenge for us today is to come and encounter Jesus personally. Come to know Jesus through the Word, through Prayer and through the Eucharist – taste and see the goodness of Jesus through the experience of your own heart. When we can do this then we will be able to begin to answer this profound question of Who is Jesus – we will begin to see Jesus’ presence in those around us and we will begin to recognize what is and isn’t of Jesus. If our eyes and hearts are opened there is much goodness to see and taste.

This personal relationship with Jesus is filled with mystery. We cannot attempt to predict where it may lead us. We will need to let go of our control on our lives and be open to the inspiration of the Spirit in our hearts. This relationship will take us on a journey of discovery that sometimes will be fearful and confronting, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes exhausting and exasperating, but it will always be filled with Love.

There is something profoundly mysterious present when watching people discover this relationship with Jesus. We see it with children preparing for the sacraments, their excitement, their innocence, their openness, their freedom of expression – if only we could harness this for the entire journey of life!

But we are deeply influenced by those around us. A number of parents could relate to their children coming to the awareness that it is not “cool” to be seen holding your mother or fathers hand in public or showing any other sign of affection publicly. Often as parents we laugh it off but in reality it is a tragic moment for us. It is the beginning of allowing others to dictate how we will behave. The children may still want to hold their parents hand but they give into peer pressure so as to avoid being humiliated. And as parents more often than not we also just accept this sad transition with very little resistance – we say: Oh well, that’s life while within our hearts there is a deep sadness.

I suspect our faith has become somewhat similar to the above in that we are influenced by those around us. Our individualistic culture sees little point in religious practice. Besides youth it is young families that are largely absent from the Sunday Eucharist. The excuse given is the busyness of our lives but is this really the reason? Individualism is in total contrast to Christianity. To believe in Jesus is to be in communion with those around you and to be in communion with Jesus/God. Christianity calls us to community – it calls us to love our neighbour – it calls us to love our God.

We have a world whose heart is aching. There is an epidemic of loneliness. There is an epidemic of fear. There is an epidemic of despair. We hunger for what Jesus is offering us today but we do not know what to do. So we just keep going with the flow and now everything seems to be spiraling out of control. We feel powerless to stop it. But we are not powerless to stop it. If we could only discover the power within us, if we could only discover what Jesus if offering us. But we keep turning our backs on what we hunger for most, just as the child stops holding the parents hand but deep down doesn’t want to.

Our belief in Jesus is critically important for our world. If people can see Christianity authentically being lived then there is nothing more contagious or powerful in our world. People will then find the courage to break the cycle that shatters their hearts and they will turn their backs on what disengages their hearts.

Jesus says to us today that he is the bread of life – he is the food we need for this journey. If we take the time to discover who Jesus is then we will have discovered this truth and our belief in Jesus will give us the courage to listen to our hearts and reject all that separates us from our deepest hunger and desire.

Let’s pray in the coming week for the DESIRE to know Jesus and what the Spirit is offering us.

Weekly Reflection: Transfiguration of the Lord, Year B

Reading References:

1st Reading: Daniel 7:9-10.13-14
Psalm: Ps 96:1-2.5-6.9.R. vv.1.9.
2nd Reading: Peter 1:16-19
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10

Peter, James and John respond to Jesus’ invitation to take off to that place of prayer (the high mountain) so that they could be alone. But something remarkable happened on this mountain – they saw Jesus in a way they had never seen him before, in a way that was mysterious and covered in cloud and shadow. What they saw frightened them and left them not knowing what to say. This experience at this time was something they didn’t understand but they knew it was something beyond human experience.

They saw the person of Jesus intimately connected with the Law and the prophetic tradition through the presence of Elijah and Moses. But then it was only Jesus who was present - Jesus was the fulfillment of all that had gone before them. But they still didn’t understand what they had experienced.

As I write this today it is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius believed totally in daily self reflection in the company of the Trinity. Daily reflection on the life lived and experienced was a non negotiable for Ignatius and his followers. He saw it as critically important in the faith journey.

When we look at our Gospel today we can understand why daily reflection is so important. These three disciples (and the rest of them) didn’t get who Jesus was until well after his death. They didn’t understand what had happened at the transfiguration. They didn’t understand what was happening as they witnessed Jesus’ life. They didn’t understand what was happening at the crucifixion. But they kept pondering their experiences over and over - if they didn’t we simply wouldn’t have the New Testament.

So what do we learn from this?

Every human life is filled with experiences from when we get up until we go to sleep and even in our sleep we experience our dreams. What do we do with these experiences?

Mostly we ignore them and then we forget them. Even the profound moments that come into our lives, we can shut the depth of their meaning out. We might have gone through a depression – do we take the time to ponder the meaning of this depression in my life or do I just think: thank God that is over and then fill our lives with all sorts of other distractions and then wonder why down the track I fall into another bout of depression?

I might have experienced walking with a loved one who has been sick and has died. Do I sit back and reflect upon the experience or is it too difficult to re enter this painful period, so we try and shut it out hoping it will go away.

I might have experienced a deep hurt. Do I ponder the experience considering my own reactions and responses to the hurt or do I totally throw blame on those who hurt me without any self reflection? So I become the victim in life and I go from one lot of blaming to the next without any examination of my own heart.

I might have deeply hurt someone myself. Do I take the time reflect upon my behaviour (even if it is down the track from the experience) so as to be confronted with what I have done. Or do I just keep running away from this self disclosure because it s too painful?

There are numerous life experiences that we all have. Many of these experiences are profoundly mysterious. Sadly many of them become buried and we lose the richness these experiences can offer us. Not only this but we now have multi million dollar industries offering all sorts of therapies etc to help people cope with the results of their non reflective lives.

Someone once said that a non reflective life is a life not worth living. It might be more accurate to say that a non reflective life is a life not lived – it is life rejected.

Jesus invites each of us to this holy mountain today. It might be shrouded in mystery – we may not have much of an idea who Jesus is yet – we may be confused by the experiences of life and feel lost – but Jesus says to us today to come with him. To trust him. To have faith in him. To keep thinking about our experiences but to do this with Jesus at our sides.

When we have the courage to come to the mountain with Jesus then we too may see something beyond our imagining. When we truly see Jesus transfigured (see Jesus as he truly is) then the life that Jesus offers us will begin.

A large part of the problem is that we really don’t see who Jesus is. Jesus can become our own creation – a feel safe, feel good guy that we call upon when it suits us, and we try and mould Jesus to be what we want him to be. If we truly believed in Jesus we too would not know what to say, we would be frightened, but we would hear God saying to us: Listen to him. And even in all our blindness and ignorance all we would truly want would be to Listen to Jesus – we would hunger for Jesus – not the Jesus of our own making, but the Jesus who stands before us as mystery. Can we accept such a mystery?

We, the Body of Christ must also be transformed just as Jesus was transformed – but this cannot happen until we come to this mountain in all humility. Then the horrors our world is currently experiencing may begin to fade and the light will truly shine in the darkness.

In the coming week let us pray for the desire and will to come to the mountain that Jesus invites us too so that we may encounter the true mystery before us and then ponder for a life time its meaning for ourselves and the whole of creation.