Category: Homilies

The Ten Commandments

[Ex.22:20-26; 1Thess.1:5c-10; Mt.22:34-40]

Some time ago, a person of Protestant persuasion challenged me, asking: ‘What right does the Catholic Church have to change the Ten Commandments?’

At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was adamant that the Church had changed the Ten Commandments to suit itself. Since then, I’ve looked into this story, and now I’d like to share it with you.

The Ten Commandments are recorded in two books of the Bible (Ex.20:1-17; Deut.5:4-21). In both places the words are almost identical, but there’s no numbering system at all. This is puzzling, because the Bible mentions ‘Ten’ commandments three times (in Ex.34:28; Deut.4:13; and 10:4). But it doesn’t say how the words should be divided up to make 10 commandments. 

If you read these two texts carefully, you’ll notice that there are actually more than ten commands (or imperative statements) in them. In Exodus (20:1-17), for example, there are 14 commands. Most of them begin with ‘You shall …’

Centuries ago, various scholars tried to solve this problem by devising ways to identify the 10 commandments. So, today there are three main approaches:

• One is called the Talmudic division, and it’s used by most Jews;
• St Augustine devised another approach in the 5^th Century, and it’s mainly used by Catholics and Lutherans. (This tradition began long before anyone numbered the verses in the Bible); and
• A third method, called the Philonic division, was devised by the Church Father, Origen. The Protestants copied this from the Eastern Orthodox. 

What’s the difference? Well, comparing the Augustinian and Philonic methods, the main difference is in the grouping of the first and last commandments. St Augustine combined the commands about worshipping God at the beginning of the list, and he separated the commands about moral wrongs at the end. The Philonic method does exactly the opposite.

For example, St Augustine identified the last two commandments as:

9.   Thou shall not covet thy neighbour’s wife; and

10. Thou shall not covet thy neighbour’s goods.

But the Philonic method combines them:

10.  Thou shall not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife … nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.

However you slice and dice the commandments, though, the words haven’t changed. They’re just numbered differently. And while the Catholic Church does mainly use St Augustine’s method, it doesn’t prefer one method over another. It considers them all acceptable.

So, what is the point of this story? I think this story does two things. Firstly, it demonstrates that so much division in our world comes from misunderstanding. Our world would be so much happier if we all took the time to get to know each other better.

Secondly, this story reminds us that many people tend to focus on the letter of the law, rather than its spirit or essence. Their approach is rather legalistic.

The Pharisees were like that. They identified 613 laws in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), and spent all their time worrying about complying with the details, rather than trying to understand their meaning and purpose.

In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus which is the greatest commandment of the Law. Jesus side-steps the 613 laws in the Torah and goes straight to the heart of what they’re all about. He replies that the greatest and first commandment is to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ (Deut.6:5).

Then he says that the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Lev.19:18).

Loving God and loving our neighbour are two sides of the same coin. Together they represent the very essence of our faith. This is what it means to be Christian. But you must do both; it’s not enough to love God and ignore your suffering neighbour. And it’s not enough to love your neighbour while turning your back on God.

This is what Jesus is telling us. He basically says that we don’t have to be too concerned about the 613 laws in the Torah. We don’t even have to worry about the detail of the original Ten Commandments. For if we truly love God and our neighbour, with all our hearts, souls and minds, then we’ll naturally avoid breaking any of the Ten Commandments, regardless of the way they are numbered.

That’s why Jesus says, ‘On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets also’.

This is the very heart of our Christian faith. 

How well do you love God and your neighbour?

Giving to Caesar, Giving to God

[Isa.45:1,4-6; 1Thess.1:1-5b; Mt.22:15-21]

In Matthew’s Gospel today Jesus utters the famous line ‘give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God’. What does that mean?

To answer that, let’s go back into history. 2,000 years ago, many people in Israel were great haters. The Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, hated the Roman invaders. They also hated the Jewish Herodians who supported the Roman ruler Herod Antipas.

In return, the Herodians hated the Pharisees, because they thought they were too nationalistic. And both the Pharisees and Herodians hated Jesus because (like many people today) they considered him a threat to their comfortable lifestyles. 

In today’s Gospel, however, both groups put their politics aside and join together to challenge Jesus: they ask Him a question about the Roman census tax.  In those days, the Roman Empire expected every man, woman and slave aged between 12 and 65 to pay an annual tax of one denarius – the equivalent of one day’s pay.

The Pharisees hated the tax for religious reasons, while the Herodians supported it for political reasons. But now that doesn’t matter, for they all want to destroy Jesus. So, they ask him, ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’

They’re trying to trap Jesus. They expect that whatever answer He gives will be the wrong one. If He supports the tax He’ll anger the Jews, and if He opposes the tax He’ll upset the Romans. They quietly rub their hands with glee.

But Jesus knows what’s going on. He tells them that they’re hypocrites, and then asks them to show Him the coin they use to pay the census tax. One of them gives him a coin, a denarius. In those days, that coin had the image of the Emperor Tiberius on it.

Now, they are embarrassed. That’s because the first commandment says ‘you shall not have any graven images’, and here they are standing in the Temple, the holiest place in all of Judaism, with a coin bearing a graven image. 

And it gets worse for them. The coin also has an inscription on it which says, ‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus.’ 

And on the other side of the coin it says ‘Pontifex Maximus’, or supreme priest. Basically, this coin is saying that Caesar is a god. For Jews, this is both blasphemy and idolatry.

Jesus asks them, ‘whose image is this and whose inscription?’ They sheepishly reply, ‘Caesar’s’, and then Jesus says to them, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.’

By focussing on the image stamped on the coin, Jesus is reminding them (and us) that we’re all created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 tells us that in the beginning, ‘God created humankind in his image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.’

Jesus is subtly making the point that while Caesar’s image is stamped on the coin, God’s image is actually stamped on us – on our hearts and on our lives. 

By telling us to ‘give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,’ He is instructing us to be good, responsible citizens in this world. We need to pay our dues. And by telling us to ‘give to God what is God’s,’ Jesus is reminding us that we all belong to Him. 

We’re not only citizens of our country; we’re also citizens of God’s Kingdom, and we have responsibilities in both places.  We should not neglect one over the other.

So, how do we give to God what is God’s?

The answer is in next Sunday’s Gospel. That’s when we’ll hear a Pharisee ask Jesus, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the law?’ Jesus replies that we must love God with all our hearts, with all our minds, and with all our souls. Then He say we must love our neighbour as ourselves – and so we should, for if God’s image is inscribed on us, then it must also be inscribed on everyone else around us, too.

That’s how we give to God what is God’s. God created us; He loves us and we all belong to Him. In return, God wants us to love and honour Him. He wants us to recognise all the many blessings He has given us – our families, our friends and our lives.

At the end of our first reading today, God says, ‘…apart from me, all is nothing’ (Is.45:6). 

So, are you giving to God what belongs to God?

Excuses, Excuses

(Isa.25:6-10a; Phil.4:12-14; Mt.22:1-14)

Years ago, I worked with a man who was very often late for work. He had so many excuses that they became a running joke among the staff.

Why do people make excuses? It’s because they worry about what others might think of them, and they don’t like feeling embarrassed.

People have been making excuses ever since the dawn of time. In Genesis, when God asks Adam and Eve about the forbidden fruit, Adam blames both God and Eve by saying, ‘The woman you gave me for my companion, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.’ And Eve blames the serpent: ‘the serpent deceived me, and I ate’ (Gen.3:12-13).

Neither wants to take responsibility for their actions.

Moses, too, comes up with several excuses when God asks him to lead his people. He says he’s not good enough and he doesn’t know what to say. He also says he doesn’t have the authority and he’s not a good speaker (Ex.3:11; 4:13). Eventually, however, he comes around to doing what he is asked.

When we make excuses, we might feel happy for a while because we’ve dodged some discomfort. But we also risk feeling anxious or depressed later on, when we realise that we’ve neglected something important.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us his Parable of the Wedding Banquet. Heaven is like a wedding banquet, Jesus says, and he tells the story of the king who sends out invitations to his son’s wedding.

None of the guests is interested, however. They all make excuses. One person is too caught up in his work and can’t get away. Another is too busy shopping, and a third person is too involved with his family. He has just got married and simply can’t come (cf. Lk.14:15-24).

The king is annoyed, but doesn’t cancel the celebration. Instead, he extends the invitation to many other people, and lots of them attend.

In this story, the king is God Himself, and the wedding banquet represents the kingdom of God. Those He invites first are the religious leaders of Israel who hear the Gospel but refuse to accept it. The servant messengers are the prophets of old, and the second-round invitees are everyone else, including the tax collectors and sinners – and of course, you and me.

The king is offering his guests a feast of eternal happiness and joy, but none of those first invited can be bothered to attend. They all have other priorities.

The point Jesus is making here is that the doors of heaven are open wide, and He has come to invite Israel to join Him there. Sadly, these wayward guests are too busy with their worldly affairs to appreciate the value of His offer.

It’s only the tax collectors, the sinners, the poor, the blind and the lame, who are wise enough to understand what it means.

It’s no different today. God has not withdrawn His invitation to this fabulous event. It’s still current, and the doors of heaven are still wide open. As God says in Jeremiah 29:11, ‘I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’

But how do we respond? Are we making excuses? Are we avoiding the obvious? Sooner or later, we will have to take responsibility for our choices.

Let’s close with some verses from an old song by the Kingsmen quartet:

Excuses, excuses, you’ll hear them every day.
And the Devil he’ll supply them, if the church you stay away.
When people come to know the Lord, the Devil always loses
So to keep them folks away from church, he offers them excuses.

In the summer it’s too hot. And in the winter, it’s too cold.
In the spring time when the weather’s right, you find someplace else to go.
Well, it’s up to the mountains or down to the beach or to visit some old friend.
Or, to just stay home and kinda relax and hope some kin will drop in.

Excuses, excuses, you’ll hear them every day.
And the Devil he’ll supply them if the church you stay away.
When people come to know the Lord, the Devil always loses
So to keep them folks away from church, he offers them excuses.

Well, a headache Sunday morning and a backache Sunday night.
But by worktime Monday morning, you’re feeling quite all right.
While one of the children has a cold, ‘Pneumonia, do you suppose?’
Why the whole family had to stay home, just to blow that poor kid’s nose.

Excuses, excuses, you’ll hear them every day.
And the Devil he’ll supply them if the church you stay away.
When people come to know the Lord, the Devil always loses
So to keep them folks away from church, he offers them excuses.

So to keep them folks away from church, he offers them excuses. [i]

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[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtGBIOEf7ro

 

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

(Isa.5:1-7; Phil.4:6-9; Mt.21:33-43)

As Christians we know that everything comes from God.  We come from God, and all we have comes from God. Indeed, all of Creation comes from Him. Yet it seems clear that God is progressively being squeezed out of our society and even out of our lives.

For example, few people today speak of God’s Creation, even though He gave us responsibility for it. Now, it’s simply called ‘the environment’ and God is rarely, if ever, ever mentioned.

As well, our English language is full of biblical references, but few know this. Consider, for example, ‘Labour of love’ (1Thess.1:3); ‘Letter of the law’ (2Cor.3:6); ‘Apple of my eye’ (Deut.2:10); ‘Signs of the times’ (Mt.16:3); ‘At my wit’s end’ (Ps.107:27); ‘Bite the dust’ (Ps.72:9); and ‘Drop in the bucket’ (Is.40:15).

And did you notice the words ‘Sour Grapes’ in our first reading today? We all use these phrases, but who remembers where they come from?

For most people, too, Sundays are no longer for God. They’re for sports, shopping and seeing friends. And most are unaware that the Church started the schools, hospitals and welfare services we all now take for granted. And even when these services are still labelled ‘Christian,’ too many people don’t understand what that means.  Indeed, too many parents want the benefits of a Christian education for their children without any reference at all to Jesus.

Recently I read about some research which found that forgiveness is good for your health. Jesus made this point 2,000 years ago (and even forgave those who crucified Him), but He wasn’t mentioned in that article.

Step by step, God is being deleted from our lives, and too many of us seem happy to go along with that.

This isn’t new, however.

Our first reading today is Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard. It’s the story of a beautiful vineyard that its owner carefully develops and hands on to tenants to manage. But instead of producing a bountiful harvest, all they grow is sour grapes.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus continues this theme in his Parable of the Wicked Tenants. A landowner gives his beautiful vineyard to tenants to look after while he’s away. He expects them to look after it, but when harvest time comes and he sends his servants to collect his share of the produce, the tenants simply abuse or kill them.

The landowner then sends his son, expecting that he might at least receive some respect, but the tenants kill him, too. They have no sense of responsibility or gratitude.

In this parable, the vineyard represents the world the world we live in. The tenants are the people of the world, including you and me. The landowner is God, who has created this wonderful vineyard and given it to us to look after for Him.

The servants are the prophets God sends to remind us of our responsibilities. And the son is Jesus, who as we know was killed by wicked tenants in Jerusalem.

So what can we take from all this?

Well, these stories should encourage us, for it’s not just today that God has become unfashionable. The world has been trying to banish God ever since the time of Adam and Eve. But the truth is that we all need Him.

Just about everyone has a deep longing for peace, joy, love, kindness and trust. But we know that we cannot achieve any of these things on our own.

Indeed, St Paul in Galatians 5:22 tells us that these are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are the very fruits that God wants us to grow in our own vineyards.

And how might we grow them? By inviting the vine of Christ to take root in our lives.

Jesus is first ‘planted’ in us at our baptism, and thereafter we need to cultivate his presence all through our lives, nurturing and encouraging it to grow and produce an abundant harvest of fruits for all to enjoy. 

In John 15:5, Jesus says, ‘I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.’

Last Wednesday, the Church celebrated the feast of St Francis of Assisi. St Francis clearly saw God’s creation as his vineyard, and he seriously nurtured the vine of Christ inside himself. He did this so effectively that 800 years later he’s still producing abundant fruit today.

Now, this is our challenge.

What fruits are you producing in your life?

The Christ Encomium

[Ezek.18:25-28; Phil.2:1-11; Mt.21:28-32]

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, ‘Be like the bamboo; the taller you grow, the deeper you bow’.

In other words, be humble. Humility is important in some cultures, but not so much in ours. Our society seems to regard humble people as weak and passive, but that’s not humility. True humility means understanding your strengths and weaknesses and knowing how you fit into the world.

Henri Nouwen, in his book Bread for the Journey, says that our society believes that the only way to go is up. He says, ‘Making it to the top, entering the limelight, breaking the record – that’s what draws attention, gets us on the front page of the newspaper, and offers us the rewards of money and fame.’ 

Many of us work hard to climb that ladder at work or in our social lives. But isn’t this just feeding our pride? In his book Mere Christianity, CS Lewis describes pride as ‘posing and posturing.’ [i] And he warns that if you are proud, you cannot know God, for a proud person is always looking down on things and people, and if you’re looking down you cannot see anything that’s above you. [ii] 

In today’s second reading, St Paul is worried that the Christian community in Philippi has been split by rivalry and division. He reminds them of God’s deep love for them and the compassion and mercy they’ve had for each other. He says that if they want to live in Christ with all the joys the Christian life brings, then they must be united, sharing the same divine spirit and purpose. 

But this can’t happen, he says, if they’re filled with vanity and selfish ambition.    They need to start living as Jesus did, by always putting others first. 

Paul then describes Jesus, using an ancient hymn of praise which is often called The Christ Encomium. Jesus was equal to God, but He emptied himself and became an ordinary man. He lived as a humble servant and even accepted death on a Cross. This, Paul says, is how we should live our lives. 

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI explained this passage. He said that God deliberately makes Himself small for us so that we can understand Him, welcome Him and love Him.

God doesn’t come with power and outward splendour, Pope Benedict said, for He doesn’t want to overwhelm us with his strength. Instead, He comes to us as a defenceless baby, in need of our help and He does this because he wants our love.

And he added that by loving God and learning to live with him, we will discover the humility that is the very essence of love. [iii] 

In 1622, St Francis de Sales described humility using the example of spiders and bees. He said, ‘Don’t act like the spider, who represents the proud; but imitate the bee, who is the symbol of the humble soul.

The spider spins its web where everyone can see it, and never in secret. It spins in orchards, going from tree to tree, in houses, on windows, on floors – in short, before the eyes of all. 

The spider represents the vain and hypocritical who do everything to be seen and admired by others. Their works are, in fact, only spiders’ webs, fit to be cast into the fires of hell.

But the bees are wiser and more prudent, he said, for they prepare their honey in the hive where no-one can see them. Besides that, they build little cells where they continue their work in secret.

This represents… the humble soul, who is always withdrawn within herself, without seeking any glory or praise for her actions. Rather, she keeps her intentions hidden, being content that God sees and knows what she does.’ [iv]

Jesus and Mary both lived like bees, working quietly in the background. Pride and upward mobility meant nothing to them.

In 2017, Pope Francis said ‘Mary shows us that humility is not the virtue of the weak, but of the strong who do not mistreat others to make themselves feel important.’

He said that humility is like an emptiness that leaves room for God. We know that because God has done great things in the world thanks to humble people, and this shows that the humble person is powerful, not because he’s strong, but because he’s humble.

Pope Francis also said, ‘Behold the grandeur of the humble and of humility.’

Then he added: “I’d like to ask you – and also myself – but don’t answer in a loud voice, just answer in your heart: ‘How’s my humility?’” [v]

Yes, how is your humility? Is it something you cultivate?

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[i] Lewis, CS. Mere Christianity.  Fontana Books, London, 1969:111.

[ii] Ibid. p.108.

[iii] https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20061224_christmas.html

[iv] St Francis de Sales, Sermon for Ash Wednesday, 9 February, 1622

[v] https://zenit.org/articles/marys-assumption-concerns-future-of-humanity-tweets-pope-francis/

A Year Without Grumbling

(Is.55:6-9; Phil.1:20-24, 27; Mt.20:1-16)

When a big family finds itself squashing into a small house, you can expect lots of grumbling.

That’s what the Goyers found when they adopted seven children. They created a family of eleven people: two parents, eight children and one grandmother with dementia. As they gradually settled in together, there was lots of emotion and plenty of noise, mess, laundry – and grumbling.

Tricia Goyer, the mother, found all this grumbling hard to take, and one day she decided: let’s aim for a year without grumbling, and she wrote about it in her book, The Grumble-Free Year.

But what is grumbling? It’s an expression of disappointment or resentment. It’s a grumpy complaint that’s not targeted anywhere specific. It’s also an attitude that can sneak up on you, so that you might not even notice that you’ve become a grumbler.

Someone once joked that on the 7^th day God rested, and on the 8^th day he started taking complaints, and people have been grumbling ever since. Indeed, the Israelites soon complain after escaping from Egypt, and at one point God asks Moses, ‘How long will this wicked community grumble against me?’ (Num.14:26-29).

There’s grumbling in today’s Gospel, too, in Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. At 6.00 am, a landowner engages some labourers to harvest his grapes, at the standard rate of one denarius a day.  Later that day he employs more workers, offering them all a fair wage.

Then at sunset he pays them, giving them all one denarius. It’s a good day’s wage, but some start grumbling. ‘That’s unfair,’ they say. ‘We’ve worked hard all day and they’ve done very little. Why are they treated the same?’ 

In this story, the landowner is God, the vineyard is his kingdom of love, and the message is that God is surprisingly generous. That’s what the thief on the Cross discovered; he got to enter paradise by coming to Jesus at the last possible moment in his life (Lk.23:43).

But the typical response of so many is to grumble; they think they’ve been short-changed. However, as Isaiah says in our first reading today, God’s ways aren’t our ways. God doesn’t think like we do.

In our society, we tend to take a transactional view of things: if I do this, then I expect to get that. We have lots of rules to reinforce this thinking, and we often expect even God to comply. But this is not God’s way.

Nor is grumbling the solution. Grumbling makes things unpleasant, and it separates us from God, for when we grumble, we are effectively saying that we deserve more than He is giving us. But God is always looking out for us. We might not know it at the time, but with hindsight we can often see what God has been doing in our lives.

St Therese of Lisieux understood this. ‘Everything is grace,’ she said. From the beginning of life to its end, all is grace. Indeed, everything we have is a gift from God – the sky, the moon and the air we breathe. Even our darkest moments are blessings in disguise.

Using Holy Communion as an example, St Therese said, ‘No doubt, it is a great grace to receive the sacraments. When God does not permit it, it is good too! For everything is grace!’

So, what happened to the Goyer family? Tricia Goyer said it wasn’t like pushing a magic button, but hearts and attitudes did change in their grumble-free year.

They began by learning what grumbling means and becoming aware of negativity within their family. They then identified their individual grumbling styles, and memorised some key Scripture verses about God’s blessings and human grumbling.

They also focussed on how to handle disappointment, and the importance of speaking with thankfulness and gratitude, even in difficult times. And they learned that when someone grumbled repeatedly about something, sometimes all it took was rolling up their sleeves and making a change of habit.

As well, they recognised that it’s not good to repress all grumbling, because good communication involves sharing what’s deep in our hearts. For grumbling is essentially a heart issue, and no-one can change everything on their own.

The Goyer family learnt that God provides where we cannot, and that His presence is strength where we are weak and undone. They also found that God loves us amid our mess, and He transforms it into beauty.

The lessons they learned about God, faith and attitude, Tricia said, were better than she could have ever imagined. [i]

So, why not aim for a year without grumbling at your place?

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[i] Tricia Goyer, The Grumble-Free Year. Nelson Books, Nashville, 2019.

Agony and Ecstasy

(Ecc.27:30-28.7; Rom.14:7-9; Mt.18:21-35)

One of the biggest barriers to our peace and happiness is the guilt we sometimes suffer for our past sins.

In 1972, during the Vietnam War, John Plummer was a US Army commander. In June that year, he ordered the bombing of Trang Bang village, 25 km west of Saigon. To him, this was just another raid on faceless enemies, and he’d been assured twice that no civilians were there.

The strike went as planned, as bombers dropped napalm and explosives on that village. ‘I was pleased that everything worked,’ Plummer said.

But the next morning he was horrified. On the front page of his newspaper was a photo of nine-year-old Kim Phuc running naked from her village, screaming from the pain of napalm burns.[i] ‘It knocked me to my knees,’ Plummer said.

That image haunted him for years; he could not get it out of his head. He was so wracked with guilt that it gave him endless nightmares. He could not even talk about it.

He started drinking, he left his faith and had two failed marriages. Years later he had another conversion experience, but he still couldn’t forgive himself.

Meanwhile, Kim Phuc had 17 operations on her wounds. The burning napalm had fused her chin to her chest and what was left of her left arm was stuck to her rib cage. The surgery was successful, but she was horribly scarred. She moved to Canada and in 1982 became a Christian. She also took every opportunity to speak about her experience and the need for forgiveness.

In 1992, Plummer heard that ‘the girl in the picture’ was going to speak in Washington DC. He knew he had to go; he knew he’d never find peace without speaking to her.

Standing in the crowd, he heard Kim say that she still suffered terribly from the burns, but she was not bitter. She also said, ‘Behind that picture of me, thousands and thousands of people… died. They lost parts of their bodies. Their whole lives were destroyed, and nobody took their picture.’

Then she said that if she ever met the pilot of that plane, she would say she forgives him. They cannot change the past, she said, but she hoped they could both work together to build the future.  

Hearing this, Plummer scribbled a note, saying ‘Kim, I am that man,’ and someone took it to her.

Then they met. ‘Kim saw my grief, my pain, my sorrow,’ Plummer later said. ‘I fell into her arms sobbing. All I could say was “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over again.’

She also cried, saying, ‘It’s all right, I forgive you.’

They talked and prayed together for hours that day, and became friends.[ii]

Plummer said it was vital for him to meet Kim face to face, to tell her how he had agonised over her injuries. He also said that without this confession, he doubts he would ever have been able to let it go. But he did let it go. He finally forgave himself.

‘I was floating, I was free. I was finally at peace,’ he said.

In meeting Kim, John Plummer discovered the merciful eyes of Jesus. [iii]

In our first reading today, the wise man Ben Sirach says you should forgive your neighbour when he hurts you; and when you pray your own sins will be forgiven.

He asks, can someone who is angry towards someone else expect healing from the Lord? If you show no mercy towards others, how can you expect pardon for your own sins? So, remember the commandments, he says, and don’t be angry with your neighbour.

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus says we should always forgive others, not just seven times, but seventy times seven. In other words, always. We are obliged to forgive anyone who has offended us, and we must seek forgiveness from anyone we might have offended. 

Why? It’s because God is love, and we too must be loving if we want his divine life and power working within us. We must be forgiving if we want to let go of the past and live in happiness and peace.  

John Plummer became a Methodist pastor, and dedicated his life to preaching about regret, forgiveness and hope. ‘I still remember that photo,’ he said, ‘but the screams have stopped. It’s all quiet now.’

It’s not always easy to forgive or to say sorry, but we know how important it is.

If you need help, turn to Jesus. He is always there for us.

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[i] That picture won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

[ii] Anne Gearan, Embrace Silences Decades of Nightmares for Ex-Pilot, Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1997.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-20-mn-50586-story.html

[iii] Ken Barker, His Name is Mercy, Modotti Press, Ballan Vic. 2010:111-113.

The Gentle Art of Correction

(Ezek.33:7-9; Rom.13:8-10; Mt.18:15-20)

Many years ago, a man named Frank took me under his wing. He was a tall Dutchman with a large belly and a heart to match.

It was early in my working life, and he kindly encouraged me and shared his wisdom with me. He also gave me guidance, and he challenged me by saying the things that I needed to hear.

Today, I remember Frank as my second father, but really, he was my mentor. What is a mentor? It’s an experienced person who gives guidance to a beginner. There have been many famous mentoring relationships in history – Sigmund Freud, for example, mentored Carl Jung, Steve Jobs mentored Mark Zuckerberg, and Pope St John Paul II mentored Pope Benedict XVI.

Asked about this, Pope Benedict XVI said that his pontificate was inspired by Pope John Paul II. ‘My memory of John Paul II is filled with gratitude,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t and shouldn’t try to imitate him, but I have tried to carry forward his legacy and his work the best that I could.’

The idea of mentoring oeiginally comes from the Bible. The Scriptures don’t actually use that word; however, they do record many mentoring relationships.

Moses mentored Joshua (Deut.34:9), Eli mentored Samuel (1Sam.3), Paul mentored Timothy (1 and 2 Timothy), and of course, Jesus mentored his disciples. He met with them, he shared meals with them, he gave them advice and he modelled the way.

And importantly, Jesus not only encouraged them, he also challenged them by saying the things that they needed to hear (Mt.16:23).

It’s because of this continuing chain of mentoring relationships that we have our Church today.

As Christians, we share this duty to guide others, especially when we see them doing the wrong thing. This is important, because none of us is perfect; we all need to learn. Unfortunately, however, many of us prefer to turn a blind eye; we try to avoid getting involved.

But remember that in Genesis, when God asks Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ Cain answers, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (Gen.4:9).

In his reply, God says, in effect, that yes, you are your brother’s keeper. In fact, you are all brothers and sisters and this means you are responsible for everything you do and say to each other. You are a family.’ [i]

Indeed, we are a family because by our baptism we all share the same heavenly Father, the same mother Mary and the same brother Jesus.

That’s why in today’s Gospel Jesus says, ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him.’ That’s also why in our first reading, God sends Ezekiel to watch over his people. His job is to protect them by speaking up if they do anything wrong or if they put themselves in danger.

We know this isn’t always easy to do. Fear and pride often stop us from giving or receiving advice. But that’s why St Paul in our second reading reminds us to always respect others, to always love our neighbours as ourselves, for we have a responsibility to them.

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela talks about his long years of imprisonment on Robben Island. He tells how one day he was called to the main office. General Steyn was visiting and wanted to know if the prisoners had any complaints. The prisoners had chosen Mandela as their spokesman. Badenhorst, the prison commander, was also present. He was feared and hated by the prisoners.

In a calm but forceful and truthful manner, Mandela listed the prisoners’ complaints. But he did so without bitterness or recrimination. The general listened carefully. It really was a damning indictment of Badenhorst’s regime.

The next day, Badenhorst went to Mandela and said, ‘I’m leaving the island. I just want to wish you people good luck.’ That remark stunned Mandela. He thought about it for a long time afterwards. Badenhorst had been the cruellest of the prison commanders, but this incident showed that he had another side to his nature.

Mandela wrote: ‘It goes to show that even the most seemingly cold-blooded have a core of decency, and that if their hearts are touched, they are capable of changing.’ [ii]

The Scriptures often exhort us to look out for our wayward brothers and sisters (e.g., Jas.5:19; Gal.6:1; Col.3:16; Lev.19:17). This is a responsibility we all share because we want the best for them.

It takes courage, sensitivity and love to speak the truth to others.

If you find this hard to do, just ask Jesus for his help.

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[i] Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Year A. Word on Fire, Park Ridge, IL. 2022:653.

[ii] Flor McCarthy, New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies, Year A. Dominican Publications, Dublin, 2019:304-305.

Take up Your Cross

(Jer.20:7-9; Rom.12:1-2; Mt.16:21-27)

If you look, you’ll see the Cross of Christ most everywhere – in churches, in schools, in jewellery, in art and in people’s homes.

There are crucifixes and plain crosses of all shapes, sizes and colours, in gold, silver, wood, paint and paper. There’s the Celtic Cross, Jerusalem Cross, Cross of St Damian, Latin Cross, Maltese Cross, Cross of St Andrew and the Coptic Ankh. They’re everywhere: on walls, clothing, TV, online, in books, and in people’s hearts, minds and lives.

In our Gospel today, Jesus tells his disciples to take up their Cross and follow him. But what does that mean? What does it mean to take up your Cross and follow Jesus?

Christians have been trying to work that out for 2,000 years.

It can be confusing, because there are countless ways to understand what the Cross means, just as there are lots of ways to show what it looks like.

Ron Rolheiser says that the Cross of Christ is like a carefully cut diamond. Every time you turn it in the light you get a different sparkle. The Cross means many things, he says, but its depths can never be fully fathomed for there’s always more meaning to be found.

He also says that it’s not surprising that the Cross is the most universally-cherished symbol on earth, because the Cross is the deepest word that can ever be said about love. [i]

How then might we understand it? The surest way to begin is by going back to the original Cross, and the agony which led to the death of Christ. 

Jesus’ suffering shows us that real love doesn’t come cheap. It costs dearly. His Cross reminds us that if we want serious, faithful and life-giving love in our lives, then we must be prepared to pay a price, and that price is suffering.

Anyone who has ever raised a family knows that love and sacrifice always go together. 

Anyone who has ever supported a friend or relative through addiction or depression knows how hard it can be.

Anyone who has ever cared for an elderly parent, or a sick or disabled child knows how hard it can be to keep going.

Anyone who has lost a wife, a husband or a child knows what it’s like to suffer such loss and yet have to keep going each day.

And anyone who has carried a deep hurt knows how hard it can be to turn the other cheek and to remain a loving person.

The Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky once described love as ‘that harsh and dreadful thing.’ T.S. Eliot said that love costs ‘not less than everything.’ 

This is what Jesus is talking about when he asks us to carry our Cross and follow him. He wants us to do what he did – to love others, to really love them, even when it hurts.

St Teresa of Calcutta is a classic example of someone who loved until it hurt.  She sacrificed everything so that she could lovingly care for dirty, diseased and dying people in the streets of India, and she did it for fifty years. It can’t have been easy, but she did it because Jesus asked her to.

Jesus is asking us to do the same. Not in Calcutta, but wherever we live. He wants us to genuinely, seriously, love others – even if it hurts to do so.

That’s the key message of the Cross. If you want real love in your life, if you want to be a good parent, or a good friend, or to have a good marriage or to keep some other commitment you have made, then you must be prepared to suffer and sometimes die to yourself. There is no other way.

Our society doesn’t think like this. It doesn’t like hearing this. Lots of people would rather walk away, and they do. But Jesus says that if you try to hang on to your life, you’ll lose it. And he adds that if you give up your life for his sake, then you’ll save it.

That’s why St Francis of Assisi said, ‘it’s in giving that you receive, and it’s in dying that you are born to eternal life.’

This is fundamental to our Christian faith. 

There are crosses everywhere, but the Cross itself is so much more than a piece of jewellery, a work of art or a Church decoration. It’s a reminder of Jesus’ tremendous love for us and his call for us to love others, just as he did, even if it really hurts.

This is what it means to take up your Cross and follow Jesus.

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[i] https://ronrolheiser.com/the-cross-as-revealing-the-non-violence-of-christ/

Strange Gods

[Isa.22:19-23; Rom.11:33-36; Mt.16:13-19]

Do you remember the First Commandment? That’s the one which says, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’.

It tells us that God should always come first in our lives. Why? It’s because we owe our lives to Him. We all come from God, and right now we’re all on our way back towards God.

But many people forget this, or they choose to ignore it because they think the Ten Commandments are much too restrictive for our modern world.

GK Chesterton thought differently. He saw in the Ten Commandments not a world full of no, but of yes, and he argued for their beauty. ‘The curtness of the Ten Commandments is evidence,’ he wrote, ‘not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but… of its liberality and humanity because most things are permitted.’

In her book Strange Gods, Elizabeth Scalia writes: ‘We are so conditioned to think of religion as a bunch of rules that Chesterton’s words almost seem absurd. (But the truth is that) there’s nothing wider than God’s mercy or deeper than His love, if we agree to bend to Him rather than towards our own inclinations.’ [i]

So, who or what do you bend to in your life?

Sadly, most people barely give God a thought. They prefer the false gods of money, power, politics, pleasure and even themselves.

But ‘when we’re obsessed with ourselves,’ Scalia writes, ‘all our feelings, desires and thoughts become like gods to us. They lead us down a long winding path that seems to take us somewhere, but really they only take us down into the dungeon of ourselves. [ii]

In today’s Gospel, Jesus and his disciples are in Caesarea Philippi, near a very large cave at the foot of Mount Hermon. In ancient times this cave was considered the gateway to the dark underworld of Hades. It had a shrine where the Greeks used nasty rituals to worship Pan, the half-goat, half-man god of animals, nature and fright (hence the word ‘panic’).  

Nearby was a temple where the Romans worshipped Emperor Augustus.

Jesus has been with his disciples for perhaps two years now, but He wonders if they really know him. So, in the shadow of these false gods He asks them, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’

They answer: ‘John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’

Then He asks, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter replies, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

Jesus is delighted by this answer. But He knows that Peter’s faith hasn’t come from Him alone, so He makes the point that it’s a gift from God. Indeed, faith always starts with God, not with us. It begins with God opening himself up to us and inviting us to share in His divine life.

But invitations are either accepted or rejected, so today we must decide for ourselves: do we choose a life of faith? Do we accept Jesus as the Son of God?

In his book Mere Christianity, CS Lewis says that it would be wrong for anyone to say that they accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but not as God himself.

‘That’s the one thing we must not say,’ he says, ‘because a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.’ Rather, ‘he would either be a lunatic – (like) the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.’

‘You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call him Lord and God. But let’s not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.’ [iii]

When Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ they were surrounded by the false gods of ancient times.

Today, surrounded by the false gods of our own time, Jesus is asking us the very same question.

Who is Jesus to you?  

How you answer that will shape the way you live your life, both today and tomorrow.

It will also determine how you spend your eternity. 

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[i] Scalia, E. Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press. 2013:118.

[ii] Op cit. p.23.

[iii] Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. Fontana Books, London, 1969:52-53.