Deacon Peter

Camera, Action

(1Kgs.19:9a,11-13a; Rom.9:1-5; Mt.14:22-33)

Have you heard the story of the photographer who took no photos?

That photographer was Jeff Cavins. He used to dream of capturing images of beauty and truth in a way that reflected his faith, so he decided to become a photographer.

He bought dozens of photography magazines and began learning all he could about cameras, camera techniques, the history of photography and the lives of great photographers. He also joined a photography club and mingled with professional photographers, sharing all he had learned.

After five months, his wife asked him, ‘Why don’t you buy a camera?’

‘Yes!’ he thought, but first he had to choose a good one. So, he bought more magazines, read the reviews and finally bought a camera and other gear. After setting it all up at home, his wife asked him, ‘Why don’t you take a picture?’

He’d been a photographer for a year now, but still hadn’t taken a picture. Then the photography club asked him to give a speech and to judge their best images. And someone else asked him to photograph their daughter’s wedding.

Suddenly, Cavins realised that he didn’t know the first thing about photography. He had been a fan, but not a true follower.

He writes about this in his book, The Activated Disciple, and says that it’s just the same with the Christian faith. Many people call themselves Christian, and might be fans of Jesus, but they’re not followers because they don’t actually practise their faith.

There’s a big difference between a fan and a follower, he says. You might be a fan of the Faith, watching and listening to Catholic radio and TV and even having Catholic bumper stickers. But it’s not the same as living the faith, for as St James tells us, ‘Faith without works is dead’ (Jas.2:17).

Cavins says that knowing all about theology, doctrine and Church history is not the point of Christian life. Such knowledge is good, but if we don’t actually use it, we will never really understand it.

So, what is the goal of the Christian faith? It’s to develop a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s walking with Jesus, becoming like him and joining him in his mission in our modern world. [i]

That is the essence of the Christian life.

But if we don’t have such a relationship with Jesus, how might we start? One good place to start is in today’s readings.

In our first reading, the prophet Elijah is hiding in a cave on Mt Horeb. He’s scared because Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, wants to kill him. He asks God what he should do, and waits for an answer. Then some strange things happen: there’s a mighty windstorm, an earthquake, and a fire. But God isn’t in any of these things.

Then in the silence Elijah hears a gentle whisper; he realises that it’s God telling him to go to Syria. From this, Elijah learns that the true God is not the God of mayhem or destruction, but the God of love, because love speaks in whispers.

For us today, this means that if you want to talk with Jesus, then make space for silence in your life. (And note that the words ‘silent’ and ‘listen’ share the same letters.) 

In our second reading, St Paul says that to inherit eternal life, your faith must be genuine. You must love Jesus and believe in him, and this must be reflected in all your words and actions.

And in our Gospel, Peter starts walking on water towards Jesus, but then he starts to sink. ‘Man of little faith!’ Jesus says, ‘Why did you doubt?’ Peter learns that to keep going, he must keep his eyes fixed firmly on Jesus.

It’s the same with us: we all have to deal with nasty storms, tough decisions, great temptations and sad times. To walk through these things safely, we must keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus.

So, try to picture these special moments: Elijah in his cave, listening carefully for God’s quiet voice. Paul telling the Romans that all their words and actions must reflect their faith and love for Jesus. And, Peter walking through storms with his eyes fixed firmly on the Son of God.

These are all good ways to start developing our personal relationship with Jesus.

You don’t need a camera to be a good Christian.

But you do need to become an image of Jesus, reflecting him in all you do.

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[i] Jeff Cavins, The Activated Disciple. Ascension, West Chester, PA. Ch.1.

Message from the Mountain

[Dan.7:9-10,13-14; 2Pet.1:16-19; Mt.17:1-9]

The Holy Land is quite a hilly place, so it’s not surprising that the Bible mentions hills and mountains more than 500 times.

Indeed, mountains play an important role in the unfolding story of God’s love for us. Moses, for example, receives the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai. Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel, and Solomon’s Temple is built on Mt Moriah.

Mountains are also where people go to pray and find safety; they are where God reveals himself to people, and they feature prominently in Jesus’ life.

Jesus is tempted on a desert mountain. He preaches on the Mount of Beatitudes. He prays on Mt Olivet and is crucified on Mt Calvary. And in today’s Gospel, Jesus visits Mt Tabor with his disciples.

There, for just a moment, Peter, James and John see who Jesus really is: the Son of God. His face shines like the sun, and his clothes are as white as light.

Fulton J Sheen says that this luminescence isn’t because of a light shining on Jesus. Rather, it’s because of his divine beauty shining from within him. [i]

The disciples see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. But why is he talking with them rather than someone else? It’s because Moses and Elijah are the greatest of the Old Testament saints.

Moses is the lawgiver who gave God’s law to his people. His appearance today tells us that God’s laws are central to Jesus’ mission, for ‘he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfil it’ (Mt.5:17).

Elijah is the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, and a prophet’s job is to remind the people how God wants them to live. His appearance today reminds us that this is Jesus’ job, too: to show us how to live.

Together, these three ‘spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.’ The Old Testament has always anticipated the Messiah’s coming and suffering on the Cross, and this meeting highlights the fact that Jesus’ mission began with these two great saints.

God has spoken through Moses and through Elijah, and now he’s speaking through Jesus Christ, so listen to him!

The disciples are amazed by this experience, and Peter wants it to last forever. So, he suggests that they erect three tents – one each for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

But such mystical moments aren’t meant to last; we’re all meant to return to ordinary life, and that’s what happens here. Jesus leads his disciples back down into the valley.

Through the ages, people have long associated mountains with the spiritual life. Perhaps it’s because mountains are ‘close to heaven,’ and ideal places for quiet prayer and reflection. But they also have something to teach us.

Firstly, it’s significant that today’s story begins with Jesus and his disciples going up to pray. Something always happens when we pray. Sometimes the effects are subtle and internal (we are changed from within), and sometimes they’re more obvious and external, like Jesus’ Transfiguration. But the point is that something always happens when we pray.

Secondly, some people think they can never be as good as the Biblical saints, but today’s story reminds us just how human the saints are. Peter, James and John go up with Jesus to pray. Do they pray? No, they fall asleep. And when Peter wakes up, he makes a silly suggestion about tents. We should feel encouraged, because God always uses flawed people to do his work. Indeed, we are all flawed, so we should feel quite at home among the saints.

And thirdly, the Transfiguration of Jesus reminds us that this world is not our final home. Like these disciples, we are all journeying towards heaven, our true home. And along the way, these mountains serve as a gift to us. They speak of beauty, vision and challenge, and they symbolise our ascent towards our spiritual home (Ps.24:3-4).

But we’re not meant to stay on the mountain forever. As someone once wrote, rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit. The sun does not shine on itself, and flowers do not spread fragrance for themselves.

In other words, living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other, no matter how difficult that might be. And while life is good when you are happy, it’s much better when others are happy because of you. 

That’s why Jesus leads his disciples off that mountain and back down into the valley.

There, a desperately sick boy is waiting for them, and Jesus heals him.

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[i] Fulton J Sheen, Life of Christ, Image Books, NY, 2008:213.

 The Pearl of Great Price

[1Kgs.3:5, 7-12; Rom.8:28-30; Mt.13:44-52]

In 2006, a Filipino fisherman found the world’s biggest pearl, weighing 34 kilos. It was worth around $130m. [i]

Surprisingly, he didn’t sell it. For 10 years he kept it under his bed and used it as a good luck charm. Then he lent it to his city council for use as a tourist attraction. Clearly, this fisherman’s treasure wasn’t money.

Here’s another story about treasure, from Anthony de Mello.

Just outside the village, a wise man settled down under a tree for the night. Then a villager ran up to him saying, ‘The stone! The stone! Give me the precious stone!’

‘What stone?’ asked the wise man.

‘Last night God appeared to me in a dream,’ said the villager, ‘and told me that if I went to the outskirts of the village at dusk I should find a wise man who’ll give me a precious stone that will make me rich forever.’

The wise man rummaged in his bag and pulled out a stone. ‘He probably meant this one,’ he said, and he gave it to the villager. ‘I found it on a forest path. You can have it.’

The man gazed at the stone in wonder. It was a diamond, probably the largest diamond in the world – as large as a person’s head. He took the diamond and walked away. But all night he tossed about in bed, unable to sleep. At dawn the next day he woke the wise man and gave it back to him. 

He said, ‘Give me the wealth that lets you give away this diamond so easily.’ [ii]

Now, that’s the question, isn’t it? How do these people give up such treasure so easily?

In today’s first reading, God appears to young King Solomon in a dream, and says, ‘Ask me what I should give you.’

Now, Solomon can ask for anything at all. He can choose fabulous wealth, long life, a sharp mind, or even for his enemies to disappear. But he doesn’t ask for any of these things. What he wants is a heart full of wisdom. 

Solomon wants to be a good leader, for his treasure is his people. God likes this answer and gives him a heart that’s wiser than anyone else’s in history.

In today’s Gospel there’s even more treasure. The first is in Jesus’ brief Parable of the Poor Workman. A man is ploughing a farmer’s field, when he stumbles upon some buried treasure. (That wasn’t so unusual in those days. Before the banks, people hid their valuables.) The excited workman sells everything he has to buy that field, and the treasure is all his.

The second is in Jesus’ parable about a rich merchant who finds a rare pearl and sells everything he has to possess it.

Now, what is this rare pearl, this great treasure? It’s the kingdom of God. Most people seem to think that God’s kingdom is somewhere up there, high in the sky. But God’s kingdom is not a geographical place. It’s a state of the heart. It’s the power of God’s love working in and through our hearts and lives.

It’s the most precious thing in the world.

The message from all these stories is that the greatest treasure of all isn’t diamonds or pearls or money. It’s the love of God, and it’s available to everyone, rich and poor alike. And we don’t have to go anywhere special to find it, for we can find it wherever we are. Even as we go about our daily lives.

The merchant found it after a long search. The workman found it in his day job. But like young King Solomon, we need hearts of wisdom to see and appreciate this remarkable treasure.

When we do find it, though, it will transform our lives. That’s what St Paul found on the road to Damascus. When he met Jesus, he fell off his horse and it changed his life completely. He knew he had to give up everything else to possess this great gift.  

And so it is with us. When we truly discover Jesus, our lives change, too. But to possess this treasure, we must be prepared to pay a price. That price is letting go of whatever else used to obsess us. 

‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,’ Jesus tells us (Mt.6:21).  So, what is your treasure? Is it Jesus himself?

When Jesus really is your treasure, it becomes easy to give other things away. 

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[i] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/fisherman-hands-in-giant-pearl-he-tossed-under-the-bed-10-years-ago

[ii] De Mello, Anthony. The Song of the Bird. Doubleday, NY, 1984:140-141.

Grandparents’ Day

(Wis.12:13, 16-19; Rom.8:26-27; Mt.12:24-43)

Today, as we celebrate World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, we remember Saints Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the grandparents of Jesus.

Anne and Joachim aren’t mentioned in the Bible, but we know of them from other writings.[i] Joachim was a wealthy and generous man, and Anne was the daughter of a Levite priest. For years they prayed for a child of their own, then one day an angel told them that God had heard their prayers. To their great delight, Mary was born in their home. They adored her.

Anne and Joachim were very good parents. When Mary was little, they offered her to God, and they let her spend time in the Temple, learning about God and serving him with the other girls. They loved Mary and gave her a strong faith, teaching her to pray and to listen carefully for God’s quiet voice.

Anne and Joachim helped prepare Mary’s heart, so that when the Archangel Gabriel asked if she would be the mother of God, she was ready to say yes. 

When we think about Jesus being raised as a boy, we usually think of his parents, Mary and Joseph. But we should remember his grandparents as well. They were a big influence in Jesus’ life, because it was Anne and Joachim who chose Joseph to be Mary’s husband. And it was their good parenting (and God’s merciful grace) that taught Mary to be a wonderful mother.

There’s an old Latin saying, Verbum sonat; exemplum tonat (‘words make a noise, but example thunders’). Through the ages, many grandparents have done wonderful things caring for children.

St Macrina the Elder (270-340AD) was a Christian woman who lived in Pontus, Turkey. This was in the days when violent persecution by the Romans was common, and for years Macrina was forced to hide in a forest with her family. After her husband died, she raised their son as a single parent, and when he got married she helped raise his children.

St Macrina did a great job because many of her family became saints.  Her son was St Basil, his wife was St Emmelia, and four of her grandchildren also became saints: St Basil the Great, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Peter of Sebaste and St Macrina the Younger. [ii]

Because Macrina was holy, her family became holy, too.

More recently, other grandparents have also done wonderful things.

U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were both raised by their grandparents. Obama said his debt to his grandparents was beyond measure, and Clinton said his grandparents gave him his love of learning.

Oprah Winfrey was raised by her grandma on a farm. She taught her to read, and Oprah says her grandma gave her the foundations for her success in life.

Other famous people raised by grandparents include Louis Armstrong, Eric Clapton and Pierce Brosnan.  Here in Australia, the singer David Campbell was also raised by his grandmother.

Today in Australia, it’s estimated that over 30,000 children live with their grandparents, and another 850,000 children are minded by their grandparents each week.[iii]  In Spain, half of all grandparents look after children every day, and in cities like Shanghai, 90% of youngsters are looked after by at least one grandparent.

In 2013, Pope Francis called grandparents a ‘treasure’. He said that they ‘transmit history, doctrine and the faith, and they give them to us as an inheritance.’ [iv]  

Pope Francis also told the story of a family with a mother, father, many children and a grandfather who got food all over his face when he ate. The father bought a small table and set it off to the side so the grandfather could eat, make a mess and not disturb the rest of the family.

One day, the Pope said, the father came home and found one of his sons playing with a piece of wood. ‘What are you making?’ asked the father. ‘A table,’ the son replied. ‘Why?’ the father asked.

‘It’s for you, Dad, for when you’re old like grandpa.’

We don’t always appreciate our grandparents, but in so many ways they help make our world a better place. Through their love and kindness, they share wisdom and pass on the faith and values that are so important to our society.  They help set young people on the right path through life.

The American writer Louisa May Alcott once wrote, ‘A house needs a grandma in it’.  Someone else said, ‘A grandpa has silver in his hair and gold in his heart.’

Today, let’s show our love and gratitude for our grandparents.

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[i] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/sts-anne-and-joachim-313

[ii] http://myocn.net/macrina-elder/

[iii] https://nationalseniors.com.au/be-informed/news-articles/call-greater-support-women-who-provide-childcare-grandkids

[iv] http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2013/11/19/grandparents-are-a-treasure-says-pope-francis/  

The Parable of the Sower

(Is.55:10-11; Rom.8:18-23; Mt.13:1-23)

‘Faith is a free gift from God.’ I expect we’ve all heard that before.

As a child I thought that’s marvelous; it means that everyone has faith, for surely no-one would reject a free gift!

But later I learnt that some people don’t have any faith at all. So, I wondered if God only offers his free gift to some people. But Scripture tells us that isn’t true (Rom.12:3; Acts 14:27).

Since then, I’ve learnt that while faith really is a free gift, some people don’t like accepting any gifts.

I was once at the Sydney Opera House with four spare tickets to a show. I simply couldn’t give them away. The people looked at me with suspicion. One Christmas, I also gave someone a nice gift, but when she went home, she left that gift behind, unopened. She clearly didn’t want it.

Why won’t some people accept gifts?  The reasons can be complex, but among them is pride; it takes some humility to accept a gift. Some people also have a poor self-image; they don’t think they’re worthy of any gifts. As well, accepting a gift can mean making ourselves vulnerable to the giver, and some people don’t want to do that.

So, there are two sides to gift-giving. There’s the giving, and then there’s the receiving.

In Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, a farmer lavishly scatters his precious seeds wherever he goes. Some seed falls on the pathway and is eaten by the birds. Some falls on rocky ground and starts to grow, but soon withers in the hot sun. Some seed lands in the thorns, where it’s choked. And some seed falls on good rich soil, where it produces an abundant harvest of fruit.

Living in a rural society, Jesus enjoyed talking about farming, and like all his parables, this one can be read in various ways. One way is to focus on the different elements of the story, like the seed, the sower, the soil and the harvest.

The seed symbolises the Gospel, the Good News, which is Christ himself. It’s the story of God’s love for us, which is not only abundant and free, but also good and nourishing. If we accept this seed and nurture its growth, it will surely produce a great harvest of fruit in us.

The sower is God himself, who lavishly spreads his message of eternal love everywhere, through Jesus Christ and all his creation. It’s available to everyone, regardless of who we are. It’s simply there for the taking.

The soil is our human hearts. But are our hearts ready to receive such a gift? Are our hearts filled with rich, deep soil? Or are they too shallow and too cluttered with rocks, weeds and thorns to grow anything? If we don’t clear away the rubbish and develop some deep soil, God’s seed will never take root in us.

And finally, there’s the harvest. This parable promises that the effort of nurturing the seed of faith in ourselves will be more than worth it, for the return will be thirty, sixty or even a hundredfold.

But before there can be any harvest, we must first welcome that seed of faith.

It was St Augustine who said that faith is not something we merit, for it’s always a free gift from God. And it was St Paul who said that it’s God who gives the growth, because faith is impossible without the grace by which we’re taught to know Christ (1Cor.3:7).

Fortunately, God doesn’t give up. As Isaiah says in our first reading, God’s Word will ultimately be fruitful.

Like the gentle rains that soften the earth and make it rich and fertile, so Jesus is constantly working in our daily lives, trying to break up the hard ground of our hearts. He’s encouraging us to clear away the obstacles that choke our growth, preparing us for a rich harvest.  

Let’s close with a story. In 1973, some archaeologists found seeds from an extinct Judean date palm buried under rubble at the ancient fortress of Masada, in Israel. Those seeds were around 2,000 years old, and that tree had been extinct since 500A.D.

The seeds were lovingly planted and in 2005 a date palm emerged from the soil. They called it ‘Methuselah.’ [i]

The message for us today is this: It’s never too late. The seed of God’s Word, dropped into the human heart, never dies.

As Emily Dickinson once wrote,

‘A word is dead when it is said, some say.

I say it just begins to live that day.’ [ii]

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[i] https://arava.org/arava-research-centers/arava-center-for-sustainable-agriculture/methuselah/

[ii] https://monadnock.net/dickinson/word.html

Two Kinds of Life

(Zech.9:9-10; Rom.8:9, 11-13; Mt.11:25-30)

The Ancient Greeks recognised two different kinds of life: biological life (they called it ‘bios’) and spiritual life (‘zoe’). Both words were used in the New Testament when it was first written in Greek.

But in English Bibles, these two words were simply translated as ‘life,’ and their differences were lost.

So when we hear Jesus saying, ‘I came that they may have life, and have it to the full,’ (Jn.10:10), most of us aren’t aware that Jesus originally said, ‘I came that they may have zoe, and have it to the full.’

There’s a big difference between bios and zoe. We are all naturally born with physical life – bios, but it doesn’t last. Bios naturally degrades over time, and eventually dies.

The spiritual life of zoe, however, is eternal, but we are not born with it; it’s something we have to cultivate. Zoe begins with our baptism, and it grows in our hearts.

In his book Mere Christianity, CS Lewis says that the movement from earthly biological life to eternal spiritual life is what Christianity is all about. [i] But such change doesn’t just happen; we have to work at it.

In our second reading today, St Paul contrasts the worldly life with the life of the Spirit, and says that if you live according to the world (bios), you will die. But if you live by the Spirit (zoe), you will remain fully alive.

Someone who learnt this lesson well was Walter Csizek. Born in Pennsylvania in 1904 to Polish parents, he was a delinquent child, often picking fights, skipping school and roaming with street gangs. His father became so worried about him that he once took him to a police station and asked them to lock him up.

When he was thirteen, Csizek surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to be a priest. His family wouldn’t believe it, but he did join the seminary and later, when Pope Pius XI called for priests for the Russian mission, he volunteered to go.

He went to Rome to learn Russian and finish his studies, and in 1937 he was ordained. However, he wasn’t allowed to enter Russia, so he served in Poland instead.

In 1939, when Germany and Russia invaded Poland, Csizek slipped quietly into Russia to see if he could minister there. He found work in lumber camps in the Ural Mountains, but in 1941 he was arrested as a ‘Vatican spy’.

For five years he was imprisoned, tortured and interrogated in Moscow, and then sentenced to 15 years’ slave labour in Siberia.

Despite the wretched conditions, he supported the other prisoners where he could, and he helped them discover the extraordinary strength and joy that comes from the Holy Eucharist.

They took great risks celebrating the Mass, sometimes in remote forests where they worked or in their barracks where they pretended to play cards. Small drops of wine were smuggled in and tiny pieces of bread were saved from their meagre rations. They had to look out for informers, but the Bread of Life was always a great source of comfort to them.

As CS Lewis said, the journey from earthly biological life to eternal spiritual life is what Christianity is all about. In essence, this is the story of Walter Csizek. By being forced to let go of the worldly comforts of bios, he discovered the eternal strength and joy of zoe.

Reflecting on his experience, Csizek said that through these ordeals, God was ‘bending himself’ to him and pursuing him. God had led him to an understanding of life and his love that only those who have experienced it can fathom. He had stripped away many of the physical and religious consolations that people rely on, and had left him with a few simple truths to guide him. And yet what a profound difference they made; what strength and courage they gave him. And he thought the reason God had brought him safely home was so that he could share this understanding with others.[ii] 

Csizek was released in 1955, but forbidden to leave Russia. So, he worked as a mechanic and served openly as a priest until the KGB stopped him.

In the meantime, he managed to contact his family and in 1963 he was exchanged for a Soviet spy and returned home.

Many people tend to think that God is with them when life is good, and that he has abandoned them when things get tough.

But as Walter Csizek learnt, God is with us constantly, and he’s always encouraging us to live the only kind of life that lasts: zoe.

Our only long-term hope is the life of the Spirit. 

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[i] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Fontana Books, London. 1969:135.

[ii] Walter Csizek, He Leadeth Me, Ignatius Press, Fan Francisco, 1973:15.

A Benedictine Welcome

(2Kgs.4:8-11, 14-16; Rom.6:3-4, 8-11; Mt.10:37-42)

In the 5^th Century, the Roman Empire was attacked by the Goths, Huns and Vandals, and eventually collapsed into chaos.

It was at this turbulent time that St Benedict of Nursia (480-547) founded his monasteries in Italy, the first in Subiaco. They were havens of peace and stability, and people from many different backgrounds wanted to join, including peasants, pagans, monks and even royalty. Despite the risks, Benedict always welcomed them.

In his biography of St Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great tells the story of one monk when Benedict was the abbot. This monk had been a Goth, perhaps a soldier or a servant, but it seems he was used to punishment. One day while clearing some thornbushes, he panicked. The blade of his scythe had flown off into the lake and disappeared. He thought he’d be punished.

Hearing about this, Benedict went to see the monk, but he wasn’t angry. He fixed the tool and returned it to him. ‘Here you are,’ he said, ‘now, go back to work. There’s no need to worry.’ [i]

Benedict’s hospitality has long been famous. But what inspired it? It was Holy Scripture.

‘You shall love the stranger, for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt,’ the Old Testament says (Deut.10:19). The Bible is full of examples of generous hospitality. In Genesis, God welcomes Adam into the Garden of Eden. Abraham welcomes three visitors at the oaks of Mamre (Gen.18:1-10). Elijah is welcomed by the widow of Zarepath (1Kgs.17-18).

And in today’s first reading, a woman warmly welcomes the prophet Elisha to the town of Shunem. In ancient times, strangers were often seen as messengers of God’s blessing (Heb.13:2). This woman knows Elisha is a holy man, and she invites him to stay whenever he’s in town.

Elisha is grateful and wants to repay her kindness. When he learns she has no son, he prophesies that God will reward her with one, and his prophecy is fulfilled.

In the New Testament, too, during his public ministry, Jesus often relies on the hospitality of strangers for his food and stay. He also teaches at mealtimes, and often uses the language of hospitality to describe God and his kingdom.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says, ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me a drink, a stranger and you invited me in, naked and you clothed me… Truly, whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters you did for me’ (Mt.25:35-40).

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples, ‘Anyone who welcomes you, welcomes me; and those who welcome me welcome the one who sent me… And even a cup of cold water will not go unrewarded.’

Hospitality, then, is central to the Christian life. St Benedict knew this, and that’s why he always insisted that his monks welcome all strangers and guests as if they are Christ himself. [ii]

In the Greek New Testament, the word for ‘hospitality’ is philoxenia, love for the stranger. Its opposite is xenophobia, hatred of the stranger.[iii] We know from history that xenophobia can lead to serious trouble and conflict, which we certainly don’t need. Philoxenia, however, can turn strangers into friends. That, we do need.

Let’s close with a story from Oscar Wilde. He was quite a celebrity when he was sent to gaol, and he found the experience humiliating.

As he was led by two policemen from prison to court, a noisy, hostile crowd had gathered outside. But then a friend of his appeared and made a simple gesture of friendship and respect that silenced the crowd. As Wilde passed by, handcuffed and with bowed head, this man raised his hat to him. It was a very small thing, but it meant a great deal to Wilde at the time.

Reflecting on that simple gesture, Wilde wrote in his letter de Profundis, ‘Men have gone to heaven for smaller things than that. I don’t know if my friend is even aware that I saw his action. It’s not something I can give formal thanks for, but I store it in the treasure house of my heart. I keep it there as a secret debt that I can never possibly repay.

‘…the memory of that lowly silent act of love has unsealed for me all the wells of pity, made the deserts blossom like a rose, and brought me out of the bitterness of lonely exile into harmony with the wounded, broken and great heart of the world.’ [iv]

That simple act of raising a hat made a huge difference to one miserable man.

Even the smallest of kind gestures can change someone’s life.

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[i] Pope Gregory 1, The Life of Our Most Holy Father St Benedict, Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, p.13. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/g/gregory/life_rule/cache/life_rule.pdf

[ii] https://christdesert.org/rule-of-st-benedict/chapter-53-the-reception-of-guests/

[iii] https://beingbenedictine.com/category/hospitality/

[iv] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/921/921-h/921-h.htm

Hypocrisy

(Jer.20:10-13; Rom.5:12-15; Mt.10:26-33)

In the days of ancient Greece, the word for actor was hypocritēs. A hypocrite was someone who simply wore a mask and played the part of a character in a play.

But by New Testament times, that meaning had changed. A hypocrite became someone who wore a mask in real life, pretending to be something he wasn’t.

There are lots of examples of hypocrisy in literature, history and life – and dare I say it, in the Church. In Shakespeare’s Othello, for example, Iago appears as an honest and loyal friend, but deep down he’s a nasty man plotting to destroy the prince.  

Do you remember Graham Richardson, the former Australian senator (1983-94)? He was a Minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments, and a ruthless political player. He was sometimes called the Senator for Kneecaps.

After he retired, he wrote his memoirs, Whatever It Takes. In them, he admits the duplicity, dishonesty and trickery he used to achieve political success.

The trouble with such hypocrisy, however, is that you can only hide the truth for so long; you can’t fool all the people all the time. As well, hypocrisy makes you live a double life; it causes you to live in fear; it destroys reputations and relationships; and it leads others astray.

It also draws us away from Jesus Christ.

In last week’s Gospel, Jesus summons his disciples and gives them a mission: to help and heal the lost people of Israel and to proclaim the kingdom of heaven.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives his disciples some good advice. He tells them (three times) that they should not be afraid, and he says that ‘everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.’

‘What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight;’ he adds, and ‘what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.’

In other words, live openly and honestly in the clear light of day, and most especially – avoid hypocrisy.

Jesus often thunders against hypocrisy; he knows it’s one of the most dangerous of sins. ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!’ he says in Matthew 23. ‘You’re like whitewashed tombs on the outside, but inside you are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean!’ (Mt.23:27).

In 2017, Pope Francis said that Jesus railed against hypocrites because the language of hypocrisy is the language of deceit. It’s the language the serpent used with Eve: it begins with flattery, and it ends up destroying people.

‘It tears the personality and soul of a person to pieces,’ he said. ‘It destroys communities and it hurts the Church.’ [i]

Psychologists tell us that the root of all hypocrisy is the desire to be loved and accepted without judgement.

But there is a better way to earn love and acceptance; it’s by living authentically, by living a life of genuine honesty and humility.

People who are honest and humble don’t need to lie. They don’t need to paint false pictures. They accept who they are, with all their strengths and weaknesses. They understand what they can and can’t do, and whatever’s missing they make up for with faith and love.

Jesus’ message for us today is this: if you are serious about being his disciple, if you are serious about living a good Christian life, then avoid hypocrisy, because there’s no reward in heaven for hypocrites.

Let’s close with a little poem from Grenville Kleiser (1868-1953), a Canadian who taught public speaking at Yale Divinity School:

You can fool the hapless public,
You can be a subtle fraud,
You can hide your little meanness,
But you can’t fool God!

You can advertise your virtues,
You can self-achievement laud,
You can load yourself with riches,
But you can’t fool God!

You can magnify your talent,
You can hear the world applaud,
You can boast yourself somebody,
But you can’t fool God! [ii]

Yes, ‘you can’t fool God.’

And there’s no point even trying to, for he’s already counted every hair on your head.

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[i] https://www.catholicregister.org/faith/homilies/item/25372-pope-s-homily-hypocrisy-destroys-communities-and-hurts-the-church

[ii] https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/you-can-t-fool-god

Never See a Need

(Ex.19:2-6; Rom.5:6-11; Mt.9:36-10:8)

2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire totally controlled the Mediterranean world. All power and wealth were held by the Roman elite and their supporters.

Below them were huge numbers of poor, landless peasants, burdened by high taxes. And anyone opposing the regime was punished, often by crucifixion.

This is the world Jesus lived in. Even as a child, he saw hundreds of people crucified along the road between Capernaum and Nazareth.[i] He knew how desperate the people were. He understood the poverty and injustice, the resentment and the anger.

But Jesus didn’t just feel sorry for these people. He had compassion for them, and compassion is much more than an emotion. To have compassion is to feel someone else’s pain, and then do something about it.

This is the background to Matthew’s Gospel today. Jesus sees a crowd of dejected people; to him, they look like sheep without a shepherd. He knows they are troubled and vulnerable, and his heart is filled with compassion.

So, what does he do about it? He summons his twelve disciples, and he authorises them to go out to help and heal these people. ‘Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,’ he says.

This is a turning point in Matthew’s Gospel, because Jesus commissions his disciples to continue the work he has started. He knows he can’t do it all alone. That’s why Matthew calls them the ‘12 Apostles,’ for an apostle is a messenger sent by Jesus to spread the Gospel and continue his mission of love.

Just like the Good Samaritan who found a wounded man lying by the roadside, Jesus commissions his disciples to meet suffering with compassion.

This is what Caroline Chisholm (1808-77) did when she first arrived in Sydney from England in 1838. Sydney was a convict town then, and she arrived with her husband and children. She was appalled to see so many young women being exploited in the colony. Many had come hoping to start a new life, but instead found themselves unemployed, destitute and living in filthy conditions.

Caroline Chisholm was 30 at the time, and a recent Catholic convert. She was shocked by what she saw. She persuaded the governor to provide accommodation in a ‘Female Immigrants’ Home’ in Sydney. Then she began organising work for these girls, and she started the first free employment agency.

She also took women and girls by wagon and boat to country regions where they quickly found well-paid positions.

By 1846, when she returned to England, she had helped 11,000 people find jobs or settle as farmers in New South Wales. Back in England, she continued to publicise and work for improved emigration to Australia. She raised funds to help families travel to the penal colony, to be reunited with their loved ones, and she worked on improving conditions on the ships.

In the 1850s, her focus moved to Victoria, where she got the government to establish roadside shelters for miners caught up in the Ballarat and Bendigo goldrushes.

When Caroline Chisholm converted to Catholic Christianity, she not only felt a burning love for Jesus Christ. She was also filled with a deep compassion for those who suffered. When she saw a need, she did something about it.

In his book Food for the Soul, Peter Kreeft writes that when Jesus commissioned his disciples to serve as his missionaries and evangelists, he didn’t say ‘These words apply to the clergy only.’ Jesus wants all his disciples to take up his mission of spreading the Gospel of love. But how might we do that today?

Kreeft says that we spread the Gospel not only by our words, but also by our deeds. ‘The Gospel that converted the hard-nosed Roman Empire was not first of all beautiful words but beautiful deeds, deeds of love.’

‘You can argue with words,’ he says, ‘but you can’t argue with deeds, with lives, with saints.’ [ii]

Indeed, you can’t argue with Caroline Chisholm’s remarkable work.

Many people who call themselves Christian today seem to live by the creed, ‘never see a need.’ In many ways they are quite switched off. But St Mary of the Cross McKillop, Australia’s first saint, often used to say, ‘Never see a need – without doing something about it.’

Never see a need – without doing something about it.

This is compassion. This is Christian love.

There are unmet needs – large and small – all around us.

What might you do about them?

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[i] Frank Andersen, Jesus: Our Story.HarperCollinsReligious, Sydney, 1994:14.

[ii] Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul – Cycle A. Word on Fire, Park Ridge, IL. 2022:520-521.

Highway to Heaven

[Deut.8:2-3,14-16; 1Cor.10:16-17; Jn.6:51-58]

Many people think that saints aren’t relevant today, because they belong to another age.

What they don’t realise is that every age produces its own saints, and right now, many remarkable young people are on their way to sainthood. One such person is Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who was born in London in 1991.

Carlo was raised in Milan, and his mother described him as a normal boy who was joyful, sincere and helpful, and loved having friends. ‘To be close to Carlo,’ she said, ‘was to be close to a fountain of fresh water.’

He had a generous heart and like many young people today, he especially loved computer programming, video games and the Internet.

But the beating heart of Carlo’s life was Jesus. He discovered Jesus when he was a little boy. His parents were non-practising Catholics, but they had him baptised and did not object to his First Holy Communion and Confirmation. His mother said that after his First Communion he never missed daily Mass or the Rosary, followed by a moment of Eucharistic adoration. Indeed, whenever he saw a church, he wanted to enter and say hello to Jesus in the tabernacle. He could stay for hours, praying in front of the Cross.

Carlo was fascinated by the Eucharist; he knew it was special. When he was 11, he said ‘the more Eucharist we receive, the more we’ll become like Jesus, so that on this earth we’ll have a foretaste of Heaven’.

He called the Eucharist his ‘Highway to Heaven,’ and asked his parents to take him to the location of every Eucharistic miracle. He also started recording the details of all these miracles, cataloguing 164 of them from all over the world, creating a virtual museum on the Internet for all to see. He also helped create an exhibition that has already travelled the world to thousands of parishes. [i]

Despite his young age, Carlo shared many profound thoughts. He believed that every teenager who wants to be ‘normal,’ can still be holy and individually unique. And he said that his life plan was ‘to always be close to Jesus’.[ii]

He also said that all people are born as originals, but many die as photocopies. If you want to die as an ‘original,’ he said, then you need to be guided by Christ and look at him constantly.

Sadly, in 2006 Carlo was diagnosed with an aggressive type of leukaemia and ten days later, he died.

He had suffered terribly, but his faith in Jesus gave him great courage. He offered up his sufferings for the good of the Pope and the Church, and as he requested, he was buried in his favourite place, Assisi.

In 2020, Pope Francis beatified Carlo, and now he is a patron of the 2023 World Youth Day, in Lisbon. He’s expected to be canonised soon.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, ‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.’

Many people struggle to understand these words; they wonder how the bread and wine at Holy Communion can possibly be the body and blood of Christ. But young Carlo understood. That’s why he was so fascinated by Eucharistic miracles. He knew they were signs pointing to God’s profound love for us. He knew they were evidence of the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Just nine days after Carlo’s death, another Eucharistic miracle occurred in Tixtla, Mexico. A priest noticed a reddish substance pouring from the host he was holding. Scientific examination later found the reddish substance to be blood type AB, the same as that found on the Shroud of Turin. The blood came from inside the host, and the tissue was found to be heart muscle.[iii]

This finding matches the results of three other Eucharistic miracles as described in Ron Tesoriero and Lee Han’s remarkable book, Unseen. These miracles occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1996), Lanciano, Italy (750 AD), and Sokolka, Poland (actually on the anniversary of Carlo’s death in 2008). 

In all three cases, the Eucharistic host was found to contain human heart tissue and the blood type AB. As well, the white blood cells indicated that the heart was alive and had suffered trauma when the tissue samples were taken. [iv]

The Eucharist is God’s remarkable gift to us. But it’s also a mystery, and that’s why every now and then God gives us a sign – a miracle – to demonstrate what’s really happening.  These miracles show us just how much God loves us, and they confirm the Real Presence of Jesus in every Eucharistic host. 

Yes, every age produces its own special saints.

Carlo Acutis is a very modern saint for today’s world, sent by God to point to the truth of his Eucharistic gift.

(To explore Carlo’s Highway to Heaven go to http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/)

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[i] http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/

[ii] https://www.simplycatholic.com/blessed-carlo-acutis/

[iii] https://zenit.org/articles/eucharistic-miracles-shown-to-the-world-thanks-to-carlo/

[iv] https://reasontobelieve.com.au/unseen/