17th Sunday of the Year

The Gospel of John chapter 6 is the subject of these five Sundays. 

 The chapter is a movement of the disciples’ hearts from a state of provision to decision.

It is hard for us to identify with real human hunger unless we have fasted. We are so comfortable with ready access to prepared and stored food without much effort on our part to prepare a meal. We have not known real need.This is unprecedented –  but it was not always so.

In Famine times in Ireland in the 1840s, a story is told of the Cistercian (Trappist) monastery of Mount Melleray in Co Waterford. During the potato blight due to people’s dependency on a single crop, there was nothing to eat. People starved in their thousands. A holy monk of Melleray predicted that as the monks gathered their corn and wheat that there would always be enough to feed the poor. As people came continuously for food and word spread it seems the grain stores were bottomless. Far and above an annual harvest supply there was always grain in the stores. This was undoubtedly a miracle and attributable no doubt to the efficacy of the faith and prayer of the monks.

A similar story is told of the miraculous supply of bread for the poor who came to the monastery where Venerable Solanus Casey was a priest-brother in the 1940s.  A bread van supplying bread to the community seemed to feed far more in the soup kitchen that was physically possible.

The miraculous provision of bread is given to us in the Gospel today but was not the first time God provided –there was the manna in the wilderness, Elijah himself was fed bread brought to him by birds, Elijah was able to feed a widow, her son, and himself sufficiently from her last remaining cornmeal. In the first reading of today barley loaves fed far more than was physically naturally possible. God intervened. God provided – though not without human help.

The compassion of the few for the many is rewarded once a total commitment is made.

The key words today however are the words of Jesus: ‘You yourselves give them something to eat’.

This is well illustrated in a little cartoon I read recently:  a person related to a friend, ‘sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice when He could do something about it’. ‘What’s stopping you?’ the friend asks. The first man says: ‘I’m afraid God might ask me the same question.’

Sixteenth Sunday of the Year

The need to recharge

 
Everywhere you go people are on the phone. You wonder how much of it is necessary. In cafés you often see groups of people at the same table who are out together but who are completely ignoring each other because each is catching up on texts and emails and the latest news or you tube clips.
But what happens if you are out and your phone battery is dead?

We have so many gadgets like iPhones and androids that we probably overuse that there is the danger of them going dead very quickly. We know probably from experience to keep our phones or other gadgets charged on a regular basis. Our cars have chargers and we pack our chargers on vacation. We get agitated if we leave them behind! And we panic if we have the wrong charger with us if a new phone requires a new different charger and we have packed the wrong one!

With all this concern and need of chargers we forget that we too need to recharge ourselves!
We of course need rest and recreation because we are physical, mental and emotional beings. We need rest in order to recharge and reboot ourselves. Lack of sleep, lack of mental breaks and lack of emotional downtime will take its toll. We burn out, get stressed, anxious, depressed and drained.

But at a much deeper level we need not just our Sabbath rest but spiritual rest. We are spiritual beings. We need silence and solitude because it is only in silence that God speaks. Silence is very much in short supply in modern lifestyles so it is no wonder we get so anxious and restless wondering why we are unhappy or discontented. We are spiritually ill at ease. We need help.

This is what the disciples needed in today's Gospel passage. They were so busy that they had no time for the basic necessities of life such as eating. Without food there can be no energy. Without spiritual food, prayer, reflection, meditation and above all Jesus in the Eucharist we fade, we wilt spiritually, and we don't have the spiritual reserves to keep going. Jesus is what and who we need when we are restless, anxious, afraid and lost in today's world of compulsive busy-ness.

Jesus tells the disciples to come away with him to a deserted place where they can be alone by themselves. This is necessary for all disciples on every generation. He is their shepherd first before He becomes the shepherd to the needy crowd. He teaches them at some length - they are fed with His teaching, His truth. The disciples have nothing left to give with what we might call their 'compassion fatigue'.

We all need to find a place - at home, in the parish or even at a distance such as a chapel, convent, monastery or designated retreat centre where we can switch off the interfering gadgets that call us back to frantic living. A place - when time and duty allow - where we can find that space where Jesus calls us each to be alone by ourselves with him. He wants to deepen our relationship with Him. Like all relationships and friendships this means spending time speaking and listening. We can be surprised by the sudden descent into silence and there He speaks to us as we try to make sense of life and our experiences that we need to process. There too, He gives us direction and guidance. It is amazing how calm and recollected we are after a prolonged period of silent prayer.

We find, as the disciples did, that we can be done without by others even for a while. Jesus is at work in the lives of others in our care even while we have been away. On our return we are better disposed to serve them and Jesus even solves a few of the problems that have occupied our minds or makes the solutions apparent to us.

Time spent in prayer, then, is never wasted time. Why not make a definite time commitment each day?

 Watch and see the results !

15th Sunday of the Year

Things that weigh us down

In this season of travelling and planning foreign trips – packing even for a journey of a weekend can be tricky. Who does the packing at home? Packing liquids and toiletries and saving money rather than paying out for baggage and hidden extras.

We all have stories to relate regarding packing for a journey. We might remember that there were things that are vital, and that we have forgotten. Things too we might have brought and wish we hadn’t, and the things that we always need.

What is today’s Gospel about for us? three simple words: ‘God will provide’.

What does that mean now today for us? Even the smallest hand-held luggage becomes cumbersome and dead weight if you are held up, transferred, unduly delayed for a long period - or any such inconvenience in your travel - at airports as at this time of year.

You may even wonder: why did I pack that? – I never wore it/used it/needed it. It became a nuisance, even a hindrance or of no use whatsoever. Did you ever return home with something that you had packed and never even used? It was deadweight. Jesus teaches us the same with material possessions on life’s missionary journey – material possessions and concerns and worries and anxieties which after all we cannot bring with us in any case.

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND FREEDOM FROM WORRY HELPS US SEE THAT OUR JOURNEY IS NOT SO MUCH ABOUT WHAT WE CAN TAKE WITH US ALONG THE WAY, BUT WHO WE ENCOUNTER, WHAT WE HAVE TO SHARE WITH THEM and they with us AND WHO IT IS HAS SENT US IN THE FIRST PLACE. By focusing on what is in our carry-on luggage we are not only burdened but distracted, and hence not free. Our concerns weigh us down, concerns that are not as pressing as what God wants us to focus our attention in the first place.

Time spent distracted and consumed with earthly concerns alone means that we are doing the Lord a disservice BECAUSE time THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER UTILISED in proclaiming the Gospel is now lost forever. We are ‘distracted’ and are caught up in worldly cares and concerns of our own, and hence sucked dry of resolve and our true purpose - simply to know love and serve God and to make Him further known, loved and served; to preach to others and to provide evidence in our behaviour that ‘there is a difference that Jesus makes’.

The urgency of the message is stressed and effectively preached because the Lord Himself provides all the necessary but secondary requirements of the disciples. In fact it is a challenge to the rest of us who are not at the coal-face to consider how we can be the providers for the Gospel-carriers (MISSIONARIES) to carry out their mission effectively and lighten their work-load through prayer and financial support, to provide for all the things that the disciples themselves are to deprive themselves of. Our prayers and sacrifices are necessary and ‘duly noted’ by the Father of all – who will never leave us short-changed because we have been generous.

To what extent therefore am I aware or conscious of my responsibility to build up God’s Kingdom – even with the basic raw materials?

– are similarly called to be disposed to the spreading of the Kingdom.

We are all part of the plan.  Detachment is therefore a Gospel necessity and a virtue so that my possessions are just that and that they do not possess me instead.

My voluntary deprivation of some material things means that others who have no choice in the matter in this materially inequitable/unequal can be provided for from my and our surplus.

We can teach others thereby the importance of trust in His Providence and that makes our mission our message and its content all the more credible and therefore make others receptive - they are convinced because we have conviction and integrity of purpose.

All this stems from the renewed sense of urgency we feel and the efficacy of a greater propagation of the Gospel message in the shortest possible time allocated before the coming of the Lord Himself in person ‘to judge the living and the dead’.

We are not called, therefore, to be ‘baggage handlers’ concerned with weight restrictions and dimensions and what is allowable or not. We are to jettison all excess baggage – it comes now with a price tag after all (!) – we are better off without it –and we more readily trim down to what we will definitely need for the journey. The Lord will provide. Let our concerns for others be aligned to His CONCERN – and our trust in His will. All else will follow in due course. It is a matter of first things first.

THERE IS A GREAT SENSE OF FREEDOM AND RELEASE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT WE HAVE DE-CLUTTERED OURSELVES THIS WEEK, DECLUTTER –

THE REAL PURPOSE OF THIS EMPHASIS ON BEING THUS ’LIGHT-WEIGHT’ IS THAT THE DISCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM ARE TO BE FREE OF FINANCIAL AND OTHER WORLDLY MATERIAL BURDENS AND CONSIDERATIONS IN ORDER TO RELIEVE OTHERS OF THEIR CRIPPLING SPIRITUAL BURDENS – ESPECIALLY IN THEIR CALL TO RELIEVE PEOPLE OF THE FOLLOWING

TO WHAT AM I BEING CALLED TODAY?

• GREATER TRUST IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

• GREATER GENEROSITY TO THOSE IN NEED

• RELIEF OF SIN THROUGH REPENTANCE

• RELIEF OF CLUTTER IN MY LIFE - AND THEREFORE SIMPLICITY OF LIFE

• GOD WISHES TO RELIEVE ME OF MY BURDENS AND TO TAKE PART IN THE GOSPEL MISSION OF RELIEVING OTHERS OF THEIRS

• GENEROSITY AND KINDNESS TO THE STRANGER IN MY MIDST

 

14th Sunday of the year

SUNDAY 14 B

We have all heard of the term ‘expert’. Mark Twain famously defined an expert as “some guy from out of town”.  Our unfamiliarity with someone new addressing us lends that person a greater air of authority or credibility or objectivity.  The old Irish proverb goes – ‘an rud is annamh is iontach’ – the rare thing is wonderful’.  In contrast we all know the expression ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’

There are three aspects to today’s Gospel:  The messenger – the crowd – the message.

The Messenger

What most strikes me about today’s encounter of the Lord Jesus with His own people is their rejection of Him and His failure to impress them: where did the man get all this?  That can be our experience too – of being rejected by our own family and friends and peers when we have something important to say.  How difficult it is not to hurt the feelings of a family member if they are going astray?  How difficult for us in our turn if we are at the receiving end of advice or ‘a lecture’ from a parent or relative?  We roll up our eyes and think to ourselves ‘not again’.  Those with a chronic problem like gambling, idleness or alcoholism, weight gain, and we will not listen readily when a family member says there is a problem. They may be right but we are closed to change, and we can even retaliate by answering in kind.

The crowd

The questions the crowd/congregation/synagogue/village people ask – 4 of them – all amount to the same thing. It is not a question of open-ended questions that hint at an openness to faith that we see right through the Gospel - that we have seen already - such as ‘who is this man that even the winds and sea obey Him?’ Rather, among His own people it is a case of ‘who does he think he is?’

Rejection for our part is not easy to take.  Rather than experience yet again the hardship of ejection, the pain of failure to succeed in effecting changes in our family or community, we would rather say and do nothing in order to avoid confrontation and conflict – a very understandable reaction to past pain and proven failure – the fear of angry rejection and personal ridicule and isolation by those who know us.  We would rather go on with the flow and strive for acceptance and a ‘quiet life’ rather than say what needs to be said – the prophetic truth.  It is easier to choose ‘safety’ over suffering. (See the movie Shadowlands on this theme).

The message

Yet it is the role and duty of the prophet to boldly speak the truth – a prophet speaks on behalf of someone else – in this case God Himself.

There is the urgent necessity of proclaiming repentance - despite obstacles and discouragement – even, and especially, to a generation and to a people that will not listen due to lack of faith. 

The difficult messages to proclaim - the so-called 'hot issues', of the sanctity of human life from natural conception to natural death; the indissolubility of marriage, that marriage involves by definition a man and a woman - are difficult to proclaim and defend. But the Church and the world need witnesses to life, truth and love.

To be a prophet is to be a witness to the truth.  St Paul in the second reading had to put up with ‘weaknesses, hardships, insults and persecutions’ (WHIPs), but he was consoled by the strength that Christ gave him.  Ezekiel in the First Reading is told by God that ‘whether the people listen or not they shall know a prophet was among them.’  As Blessed Mother Teresa famously said: ‘God did not call me to be successful: he called me to be faithful’.

What change do we bristle at? What message do I need to hear? What must my family, workplace, community hear now - despite the cost to myself? Christ has walked this lonely path, St Paul in his turn, Ezekiel and the prophets, and yet at my baptism, this too is my calling. As St Paul learned - as we also learn  - Christ is my strength.