From the Pastor

Third Sunday of Lent – “A” – March 23, 2014

From the Pastor /

We know what drought is like. We know what is like to see gardens gradually turn brown and die. Farmers worry about their crops and livestock, conscious that their health makes all the difference to their livelihood and the future of their families. Many of us may not become thirsty,but we receive constant media advice on ways of conserving water. On the other hand, an excess of water is equally tragic. Floods also destroy life and hope.

In their loneliness, some people’s hearts are shrivelled and barren for lack of the water of love. We all need to love and be loved. With love, people grow and develop in unimaginable color and texture. Life, however hard, never becomes unmanageable. That is exactly the sort of transformation that Jesus promised the Samaritan woman. He didn’t tell her that she would never again come to the village well to draw water. Instead He offered the new life and hope that can be born of making a fresh start. However many difficulties may fill our days, we will never again face them on our own. Our hearts need not shrivel and die. Instead they can joyfully burst out into a new and everlasting life. All we need is Jesus. His love is the water for which our souls thirst.

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Second Sunday of Lent – “A” – March 16, 2014

From the Pastor /

It is on Mount Sinai that Moses both experiences God and is given the commandments for his people. He first encounters God in the episode of the burning bush, and it is at Sinai again that he goes up the mountain to receive the commandments that will govern the lives of the people of Israel, spending 40 days and nights with God. After the people’s apostasy, Moses has to return a second time to negotiate with God, and Moses asks that he might see God’s glory. When Moses comes down the mountain this time, his face is so illuminated that the people cannot bear to look at him, and he has to cover his head with a veil. Elijah stands for the prophets, those whose task was to bring God’s erring people back to the faithful practice of the covenant. Elijah too experiences God on the mountain, waiting until all the storms and winds have passed. All of this Jesus brings to His disciples as He takes them up the mountain. He is the new covenant with God, but the gift of that covenant is hallowed and experienced by His disciples in an encounter with God’s glory.

We have begun our Lenten journey, following Christ into the wilderness for 40 days. Today we too are taken up with His disciples to the mountain top so that we too may be touched by His glory. We all, through different ways, need to be touched by the experience of the living God, as given to the disciples as they witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus and in the Pascal mystery of being with God. For some people such moments become the foundation of their conversion to Christianity. Others find sustenance for their belief in their experience of prayer and worship. Others again, in moments of natural awe and wonder in the natural world, in their loving relationships, or in the world of the arts or discovery. God reaches out to touch the heart of each of us in such a way that we can journey onwards, not just through Lent but through the darker moments of our lives when faith, knowledge and our comfort zone may be challenged by life’s mysteries.

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First Sunday of Lent – “A” – March 9, 2014

From the Pastor /

In our first reading today, the book of Genesis tells us that “The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts;” the serpent certainly knows how to distort the truth and make temptation irresistibly attractive. The woman and the man fall to the subtlety of the serpent’s promise that by eating the forbidden fruit their eyes will be opened and they will be “like gods.” They eat, their eyes are opened but they see, instead, that their innocence has been lost. Sin has entered the world.

Jesus fasts in the wilderness for forty days; He is hungry and the devil’s time has come. The three temptations wear masks of persuasive reason: by using His miraculous powers Jesus’ hunger can be assuaged through turning stones into bread; belief in His mission can be guaranteed by a spectacular sign; and the temporal power to achieve that mission can be assured.

The story of our salvation take us from the garden in Eden to the wilderness of the Exodus and from the Lord’s temptations to another garden, Gethsemane, where Jesus told His disciples that they should pray not to be put to the test. When the ultimate test of their discipleship came, most of them failed. What about us?

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Quinquagesima Sunday – “A” – March 2, 2014

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In today’s Gospel we see how Jesus is aware of the many ways in which we all go around believing ourselves free, and in charge of life, when, in fact, we are very often trapped. We can think that earning more money will free us – that our buying power and future choices will be increased. We believe that this is where happiness lies. And, whilst ambition and earning a good living may not, in themselves, be bad things for us, they can become our “masters.” What Jesus warns is that, when this happens – when all our energies and time are given over to these masters – we are drawn away from serving God. To commit ourselves to living under God’s mastery is actually to live our lives in a radical trust, and so come to know a greater happiness and freedom. The call that Jesus makes to us today – not to worry – is a call, above else, to a relationship of trusting love in His Father and ours. God desires that we should be free from anxieties, so that we can be free for joy, love, service – and rest!

We all have things we have to do each day, to earn a living, to care for others in our families; and, in truth, we all, at some time or another, have properly worrying things in our lives. God, who knows “the secret intentions of our hearts,” knows the realities of our lives. As we live in this world, which is so often dominated by material ambition and anxiety, Jesus reaches out to us with a promise of freedom, peace, and the time, space and energy to get to know Him better, and to love and care for one another more. This is a call we can respond to, even in the real business and pressures of our daily lives. We can each ask, at the start of our day: Is there one thing I feel I must do today, which actually I could let go, without it mattering? Perhaps if we placed that time and energy we would have used, trustingly and peacefully, in the Father’s love, we might each find that we became a little freer for whatever it is God is wanting us to do. And this will make us freer, happier and better stewards of Christ’s mysteries.

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Sexagesima Sunday – “A” – February 23, 2014

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Jesus was aware of the way the Jews demonized their enemies, such as the Samaritans. He knew that in the Jewish scriptures there were passages that talked of hatred of enemies but He also knew there was another tradition which forbade such hatred. Our first reading, from Leviticus, insists that we are not to seek vengeance and bear grudges in our heart. When Jesus teaches the values of the kingdom of God in the Sermon on the Mount, He builds on that tradition. He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. But why should we do something that seems so contrary to the way of the world? Because that is what God does. The God of creation shows grace to all His creatures, whether they are sinners or saints; God causes the rain to fall on honest and dishonest people alike. Jesus wants us to be holy as God is holy. And so we are to love our enemy. This is how Jesus put His words into action, by reaching out to sinners and those who were despised, to both rich and poor, and in the end forgiving those who were killing Him. Loving enemies is not easy and it ended with Him nailed to the cross.

At the heart of our faith is the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount; and yet we may be tempted to ignore it because it seems so radical and difficult. But our vocation is to imitate Jesus and His teaching, just as Stephen did when he forgave his enemies as he died as the first martyr. In a world that is so full of hatred and vengeance, both at the individual and national level, can we follow the teaching of the Gospel? Jesus tells us to be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. What does this mean for us today? We cannot be morally perfect in this world, but we can respond to Jesus with an undivided heart and faithful devotion. When we try to turn the other cheek and love our enemies we bear witness to the graciousness of a heavenly Father who wants us to embody the amazing love of His Son in our lives.

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Septuagesima Sunday – “A” – February 16, 2014

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus critices those whose “virtue goes no deeper that that of the scribes and Pharisees,” that is, whose whose faith is only skin-deep. The word “virtue” here has overtones of “justice” and “righteousness” – it refers to something you do, not simply something you believe. So Jesus gives examples of what it means to have virtue, that is, how to put faith into action. When it comes to adultery, Jesus criticizes the inner ugliness that allows us to treat others as objects which we can discard when we have finished with them. Divorce was solely a male prerogative. A man could divorce his wife for trivial reasons and so remarry – leaving the divorced woman ashamed and destitute. Jesus goes to the inner meaning of the commandment against adultery: it is never right to objectify another person, to treat people as a means to an end. And in His teaching about others, Jesus goes beyond the debate about what binds or compels us to tell the truth to say that it is our whole lives, not just our words, that need to be truthful.

In our daily lives, our faith – our virtue, justice and righteousness – is to be more than skin-deep, it is to go to the very core of our being. Faith that is authentic is faith that is lived out. And just as it is possible to increase our attractiveness by improving our social skills, so we can learn to be more virtous, just and righteous, as the first reading tells us: “If you wish, you can keep the commandments.” To think that we have only to tick the boxes of God’s commandments – avoid killing, adultery, lying, and come to Mass on Sundays – is to treat our faith in a superficial way. Christ challenges us to live life at a deeper and more authentic level. To “get into the kingdom of heaven” means allowing an inner beauty to shine through – by our willingness to forgive and to reconcile; by our commitment to justice in our dealings with others, respecting the dignity of every person we meet; and by living lives of integrity, in which we try to express outwardly – in acts of forgiveness, compassion and honesty -the faith we hold. If our faith is truly rooted in God – the God of mercy, love and truth it is God’s beauty that will shine through our lives.

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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – February 9, 2014

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Jesus says He wants us to be salt and light in our world – spiritual versions of those powerful tracks on which whole nations depends for the basics. But our basics are not food and consumer goods. What we carry with us is the knowledge of God and the wonder of God’s love. Salt that loses its taste, says the Lord, is good for nothing. In other words a Christian, a Catholic, who does not let his or her faith show through in what is said and done, is of little use. A light is concealed is senseless; it only makes sense when it is visible.

We are called simply to tell our friends what it means for us that Jesus was crucified for us and rose again, that He has made Mary our mother, that since Pentecost the Holy Spirit is there to help us believe and pray. We are also called to share our hope of heaven, not only for ourselves but for those we love.

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Presentation of the Lord – “A” – February 2, 2014

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The meeting. What picture of those two words conjure up in our minds? Perhaps one of those meetings that drag on and seem to have no intention of ever coming to an end. On the other hand, they may suggest and altogether different kind of get-together, like the gathering of family and friends. Or again they may suggest a reunion: a son, for example, who has spent many years working abroad, at last comes with his wife and with the children whom the rest of the family have never seen before; it’s a meeting that is also the fulfilment of a long-cherished hope. It is the long-awaited, long desired meeting of the Messiah with His people in the persons of two pious elderly Jews, Simeon and Anna.

We can imagine the old man tirelessly rehearsing the words of the ancient prophecy of Malachi: “The Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter His Temple.” But the months and years go by, death is drawing ever nearer – yet still no sign of the Messiah. One day among the crowds pouring onto the esplanade of the Temple, he catches sight of a young couple. The girl has a baby in her arms, her husband walking beside her carries the Temple offering made by poor people, doves, towards them. The couple explain that they have come to “redeem” their little son. The Law’s original demand that a first male child was to be consecrated to the Lord had been mitigated to the payment of a small “ransom”. For poor people the ransom would be a pair of turtledoves or a couple of young pigeons. “And the name of the child?” Simeon requires. “Jesus,” they say. “Jesus? That means ‘God saves’; what a wonderful name. With tears of joy the old man takes the child into his arms. “Now , Master,” he cries, “you can let Your servant go in peace…because my eyes have seen the salvation, which You have prepared for all the nations to see.” But there is drama as well as overflowing joy in this meeting. Simeon announces that, while some will receive Jesus, others will reject Him, and that Mary’s own soul will be pierced as with a sword. Anna too recognizes in Jesus the fulfilment of the ancient promises. For her, the meeting means not that she is ready to die, as it did for Simeon, but rather that she is ready to spread abroad the good news of the Messiah for as long as she lives.

It’s been said that today’s Gospel is in its way a reflection of our Christian experience. A Christian is one who has had the privilege of meeting Christ in the sacrament of baptism; who over the course of the years has come to recognize Him as the key to life; who has surrendered to His call, has made His values their own. Very shortly we shall meet Jesus in the Eucharist; and our prayer can be that by that meeting we will be inflamed anew with the desire to become bearers of light to our brothers and sisters, to make our lives, like those of Simeon and Anna, a proclamation of Christ, the light of the world.

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Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – January 26, 2014

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Today’s Gospel story teaches us how simple the whole notion of a vocation is. Jesus approaches the people He wants to be His followers, asks them a question, and their response is immediately to leave everything and follow Him. He meets them where they are, in their everyday lives, in the workplace, and puts the question to them. He only asks them to follow Him. There are no questions asked by the four men, no conditions laid down by them, nor is there any form of procrastination: “Let me sort a few things out first.” They just follow. It is only when they follow Jesus that they get the chance to see what He and His ministry are all about. If Jesus were to come into your workplace and give you this simple invitation, what would your response be? What answer would you give to the Lord? We feel unworthy or unprepared for the things God asks us to do. If we are feeling like this, we can remember the response of the first four disciples, their immediate decision to get up and go, to follow the Lord.

The question is really not “What answer would I give to the Lord?” but “What answer have I given to the Lord?” If today were “Everybody’s Vocation Sunday,” what vocation would you be thanking God for at this moment? What vocation has God blessed you with in your life? What opportunities and circumstances have you in your life that have made you a better person, a more enriched person? Let us all take time today to consider our own vocation, our own calling by the Lord. We may be amazed as we realize the many paths that the Lord has opened up before us. Perhaps we often think of our life as one where things just happen for no particular reason, but when we stop to think and pray we realize that the Lord has been there in the background directing all things. When Jesus invites us to follow Him, He does not leave us to get on with things on our own. No, He remains close to us, gently guiding and directing our footsteps. The Lord never abandons us. Today each one of us can hear the Lord calling out to us, “Follow me.” What will our response be?

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Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – January 19, 2014

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Just as Jesus begins His public life in the presence of the Holy Spirit, so He will end it in an outpouring of that same Holy Spirit on His disciples. The challenge for us is how we too receive that gift with open hearts and what we do with it in our lives. We have first of all to be aware of what the gift of the Holy Spirit entails. When we are confirmed we receive the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord (wonder and awe). When we make mistakes, when we misunderstand, when we make wild accusations or unfounded criticism, we can begin again by using the gifts of the Spirit to expose our errors, heal the wrongs we may cause and set us off again on a truer path.

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