Pre-Lent

In the Sermon on the Mount, which has formed our Gospel readings over the last few Sunday’s, Jesus is explaining what the Beatitudes mean in practice.

When faced with words such as “holiness” or “perfection”, our first reaction may be to distance ourselves from them. Such terms belong to saints. They don’t come into the orbit of our everyday world. It is true that we are not required to live at these heights every moment. Jesus asks us to consider that, if we are His true followers, we all have the potential to respond at this level. We can all follow in His footsteps. The times when we are asked to give ourselves so utterly are few and far between. But we prepare ourselves for such challenges by the way we live through the day-to-day moments of our lives.

The character that emerges from the Gospels is both gentle and strong, peaceable and forthright, calm and courageous. Never in His dealings does Jesus act in a violent manner, nor does He say things to provoke people to riot or revolt. Yet His every word is challenging and demanding. His call asks for nothing else than everything by way of commitment to Him. In His words that we hear today, part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will not settle for outward observance or superficial fulfillment of God’s commandments. It is not enough not to kill your enemy; you must seek actively to be at peace with the enemy. It is not enough to avoid adultery; you must live a sexually honest life. It is not enough to avoid the big sins; all sins are damaging. There is no need to swear oaths; just use honest and straightforward speech. These are the deep roots of true life, of good life, and nothing less will do, says the Lord. The great wisdom that we are asked to learn calls us to love one another.

Today we hear St. Paul being emphatic about what the Gospel really is, about the truth of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection, and about the witnesses who could testify to this truth. Paul’s own part in that witness came as a result of a personal revelation given on the road to Damascus.

Peter is conscious of being such a sinful person. To find himself associated with this holy man, Jesus, not for the first time, telling someone not to be afraid. Follow the Lord and all will be well. And so, leaving their nets behind them, these simple fishermen set off on a journey that has never ended.

We too find ourselves in this company of Jesus, and invited to be preachers of the Gospel. We, too, know only too well how feeble and frail we can be. But we are not asked to rely on our own strength but to follow the Lord. His grace is enough for us. We are only earthen vessels that carry this treasure, but what a treasure it is! This world of ours, this globe, sees the drama of everyday life, and we are part of it. Let us be a Gospel part of it.

Some could speak in tongues, some had the gift of healing, and others could prophecy. These gifts were good in themselves, but the Corinthians were failing to value the greatest gift of all, the gift of love. For St. Paul love was practical, down to earth, a day-in and a day-out of dealing with each other. “Love is kind.” How could he have put it more simply and more directly? We have to be kind to each other: to say “please” and “thank you” and “pardon me.” “Love is patient.” How hard it is always to be patient with those with whom we live or work, not to let them get on our nerves or annoy us with their concerns when we are not interested. “Love is not jealous. Love is not snobbish. Love is not rude. Love does not put on airs.” Every item in his list is practical. Love never fails.

It has been observed by spiritual writers that St. Paul’s letter the word “love” can be replaced with the name “Christ.” Christ is patient, Christ is kind, Christ never fails. The Eucharist is the means for growing in Christ-like love. When we have received Holy Communion, we must pray: “Lord, transform me and all my affections. Help me to love, as You love.” St. Paul observes that the three great virtues are faith, hope and love. When we get to heaven we will no longer need faith because we will see God face to face. We will no longer need hope because we will achieved our goal. But we will have the greatest of all virtues; we will have love. We can begin eternity now by praying for and by putting into practice a Christ-like love for each other.

Today’s Gospel reading takes us to the synagogue at Nazareth. There children would be taught, and adults would gather to pray and sing and discuss the scriptures. It is the sabbath day and Jesus is invited to read. Apparently He deliberately chooses a passage from Isaiah, long regarded as referring to the Messiah. Then, as was the custom, He sat to preach. Jesus uses Isiah’s prophetic words as His own statement of intent: He has come to “bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free.” Jesus is a man with a mission: He has come with good news. The Gospel of St. Luke makes it clear that sharing this good news is an essential part of following Christ. The good news first delivered in the little synagogue at Nazareth spread throughout the then-known world, because people passed it on, passed it on, until it finally reached Rome itself. St. Luke’s Gospel has been specially identified as the Gospel of the compassion of Christ: Jesus reaches out to those in need, sits at table with the outcasts of His day – sick people, criminals, those who were poor. The Jesus of St. Luke did not come to to call those who were righteous and respectable, or who thought they were; He has much more time for those who are sinners and know it. The Jesus of St. Luke keeps strange company; His life begins in a stable with a pose of low-grade shepherds gathered round Him; and it ends with His being nailed to a cross between two criminals.

Each time we come to Mass that episode in the synagogue is being repeated. Today Jesus is here, today He’s bringing us good news, today He’s assuring us that He loves us and wants us to be His friends. Above all today He is proclaiming that the time of “God’s favor” has arrived. As we reflect – we can also take the time to thank God for the precious gift that has been given us in the Gospel of St. Luke.

The person who brought about this turnaround in the life of Paul was Jesus himself, whom Paul met on the road to Damascus. As Paul hunted down the followers of the Lord, Jesus said to him, “I am Jesus and you are persecuting me.” From this moment onwards, St. Paul would never again do anything offensive to anyone, neither Jew not Greek nor Church of God. St. Paul had come to know the Lord, who went about preaching and curing all who were sick. This Jesus of Nazareth never did anything offensive to anyone, though His opponents found much to be offended about. Today we hear of an encounter with a leper. Jesus is anxious that this cure should net be broadcast, for fear it would cause uproar. Ironically, the leper has found his place back among his own people and the Lord has been forced outside. But despite that consequence, Jesus was more than willing to heal the sick man. That is why He came – to bring true life to all people and to heal our sickness.

Our deepest hurts are the things that cause you to fight one another, our anger and our sense of injustice, our aggressiveness with one another and our violence. We are back where we started, with the advice of St. Paul: “Never do anything offensive to anyone.” These are the true sorrows of our world. How do we heal them?

It’s easy for us to be so wrapped up in our lives – the daily routine, the demands that simple existence makes upon us – that we lose sight of our true purpose and calling. Like Job, we can be left struggling with our existence, failing to find a meaning in our lives. Sickness, mental illness, stress and anxiety in particular can so consume us that our life feels like no more than “pressed service” and “hired drudgery”. But that highly charged, symbolic good deed of Jesus points away forward us: Simon’s mother-in-law is restored by Jesus’ touch not simply to health but to service. Her encounter with Jesus transforms her suffering into the freedom to serve. This Gospel truth is a lesson the disciples struggle to learn: that true greatness lies in service, for Jesus himself came not to be served but to serve. Those of us who, like Simon’s mother-in-law, are touched by Jesus are raised to serve like Him, to continue His mission of bringing healing and wholeness into our world. So many people are weighed down by burdens of suffering, trapped by external forces of oppression and poverty, or enslaved by internal compulsions and addictions. The response of Christ – of the Christian – is to do more than simply ask “Why?” We are called to engage actively, by proclaiming the nearness of God’s kingdom through lives of loving service.

It is said that the greatest victory the devil has won in our modern age is to persuade people not to believe in him. His greatest skill is to deceive people. C.S. Lewis, who wrote a brilliant book called The Screwtape Letters, made the devil into a rather humorous figure.

In the New Testament the devil is no joking matter. In the first-century Palestine, the world of the demonic was taken deadly seriously. St. Mark sees the world into which Jesus comes. It was not neutral ground but occupied by Satan. The Messiah would have to be involved in a cosmic battle with him. In today’s Gospel the battle begins as he performs an exorcism in Capernaum. Jesus goes to teach in the synagogue. The devil recognizes Jesus not as a healer but as a destroyer: “Have you come to destroy us?” Then he tries to trick Jesus into submission by using two names for Him, Jesus of Nazareth and “the Holy One of God”. But Jesus is not deceived. He casts out the unclean spirit, who violently shakes his victim and screams out in defeat.

Imagine such a scene at a Sunday Mass. What would people make of all that shouting and writhing in the sanctuary? It’s not what we expect in church. In our modern, scientific society we may be embarrassed by all this talk of demons and Satan. Modern medicine can certainly explain a great deal of the sickness and disease that we see in the Gospels. On an individual level many people are taken over by powerful addictions, such as drugs, drink or pornography. They are imprisoned. There can seem to be powers at work that are more than the sum of individual people’s evil. The good news of the Gospel is that Christ has won the victory over evil and we can share in His risen power. Evil will never have the final word. Jesus calls us to stand firm against evil and unjust behavior in this world. We do not need to be afraid, as we can know that He is with us and has won the victory over Satan and all his works.

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.

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.