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Commentary on Exodus 32:7-11,13-14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32 Read Sunday of Week 24 of Ordinary Time (Year C) »

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Commentary on Wisdom 9:13-18; Philemon 9-10,12-17; Luke 14:25-33

Today’s Gospel begins with this statement about Jesus:

Now large crowds were traveling with him…

Many of our famous personalities today feed off the adulation of the crowds. They may be presidential candidates, pop stars, film personalities or sports champions. They are mobbed when they appear in public and people remain glued to their television screens as they perform. Popularity with the fickle public is an important element of their ‘success’. Once they begin to lose the crowds they know they are on the way down and out.

During his public life, Jesus had some of the star quality that we recognise in personalities who capture the public’s imagination. In a world that was much simpler than ours, Jesus must have been a kind of sensation in otherwise drab, dreary and sometimes poverty-ridden lives. Stories must have spread around like wildfire about the healings he had performed and there was that extraordinary occasion when no less than 5,000 men (not including women and children) were fed to satiety.

Sensation seekers
In the parable immediately preceding today’s Gospel passage, Jesus spoke of those who had been invited to the banquet of his Kingdom making all kinds of excuses not to come. Instead, said Jesus, people would be called in from all “the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” to come and fill the unoccupied places. (The implication is that many of Jesus’ own people had rejected his invitation to be his disciples so he would reach out to the despised and sinful pagans.)

It is implied that the crowds following Jesus were sensation seekers. They were out to get something from Jesus, not altogether unlike some of those who today converge in large numbers wherever some modern ‘miracle’ or ‘apparition’ has been reported. And, indeed, how many of us look on God or Jesus as someone to turn to when we want something we cannot get ourselves?

Challenging words
With the people in today’s Gospel, Jesus suddenly stops in his tracks. He turns round and says words that were quite shocking to his hearers and sound pretty harsh to us too:

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

The Jews, like a number of other ethnic communities, are recognised for their close family ties. What are we to make of such an extraordinary statement? And surely we have an incomprehensible contradiction here. Jesus, who tells us to love our enemies, now tells us to hate our nearest and dearest! Is this the same Jesus who cured the mother-in-law of Peter? Is he the same Jesus who told the story of the Good Samaritan? Could he be the same Jesus who enjoyed the hospitality of his good friends, Mary and Martha?

Most radical
Of all the Gospels, Luke’s presents the following of Jesus in the most radical terms. In following Jesus, we have to go with him the whole way. We have to accept totally his way of seeing life and then put that into practice in the way we live. There cannot be, as is the case with practically all of us, a kind of wishy-washy compromise, trying to have our cake and eat it.

I suppose the majority of us follow a lifestyle largely dictated by the surrounding culture. Our goals may be the goals of that culture and, somewhere on the side, we try to fit in some aspects of Christian living. In most of our modern, urban societies that lifestyle is for the most part competitive, consumerist and materialistic. We would not want our Christianity to get in the way of that. But it is precisely to people like us that Jesus is speaking.

Not to be taken literally
It is quite obvious from the overall context of Luke’s Gospel that Jesus could not mean us literally to hate our parents, brothers and sisters. Nor does Jesus literally mean us to hate our own lives. People who feel that way effectively commit suicide. (Hate and the anger and violence that hate produces are the product of fear.) On the contrary we are called to have love and compassion for every single person, irrespective of who they are or what their relationship may be to us. True love casts out fear. What Jesus is saying today is putting in another way what we have already seen in discussing other passages, such as, the story of the Good Samaritan and the Lord’s Prayer. Namely, those who are truly disciples of Jesus recognise that, as children of one God, we all belong to one family, that we are all brothers and sisters to each other.

We are therefore bound to love our close family members—but not only them. If we find, for instance, the wants of family members are being put before the genuine needs of others, then we are acting unjustly towards members of our wider family. In not recognising those other brothers and sisters, we fail in being disciples of Jesus:

Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. (Matt 25:45)

That immigrant, that homeless person is my brother or sister. That waiter in the cafe, that streetwalker is my sister. I owe them my love and care. I may, in fact, in certain circumstances owe them more love in action than my own family needs.

“My family—right or wrong”, or “My country—right or wrong” can never be the slogan of the disciple of Christ. And so, there may be times—and they can be painful experiences—when we would have to reject family members who want us to join them in behaviour that is harmful, unjust or unloving to others. We cannot support family members who cheat in business; we cannot support family members who practise racism or other forms of discrimination. To do so would not be really loving them. On the contrary, we would show our concern for their well-being precisely by opposing any immoral behaviour.

Loving our family
While saying all this, we might also draw attention to another common, but unfortunate, phenomenon. For there are those who have become totally or partly alienated from their own family. They will do anything for others, but nothing for their own flesh and blood. Quite obviously, such behaviour is as much against the Gospel as making one’s family the beginning and end of all living. That is certainly a kind of hate that Jesus is not promoting.

To sum up, as true followers of Jesus, we enter a new family where we recognise every person as a brother or sister. Family members are obviously included, but so are others. There are times when the needs of others precede family concerns.

At the same time, ‘Charity begins at home’—this is very true—and, in our day, there may be little love in the home. But charity does not end at home; it is constantly reaching out. Sometimes we have to challenge the wishes and expectations of our family. A boy wants to be a priest, a girl to be a sister; one decides on a career of service rather than one that wins prestige and money. In contrast, one refuses to condone immoral behaviour in business or sexual abuse.

A good example
The kind of love Jesus speaks about is described beautifully by Paul in today’s extract from the Letter to Philemon (the shortest of Paul’s letters and the shortest book in the New Testament). He is writing to his friend Philemon asking him to take back a slave who had apparently done something wrong, but who, under Paul’s influence, had become a Christian. Paul speaks with the greatest affection of this young man:

…whose father I have become during my imprisonment.

Of the boy, Paul says:

I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.

Paul asks Philemon to treat the young man, Onesimus:

…no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother…welcome him as you would welcome me.

This is a call for forgiveness. Onesimus may well have done wrong, but it is clear that, with his conversion, he is now a changed person who can be trusted and relied on. Even more, as a Christian, he is in a special way a brother to his owner, Philemon.

Hating our own life
We have yet to comment on the phrase about hating “even life itself”, i.e. our own life. This is just an extension of the earlier part. Jesus wants our lives to be lived in total truth and love. Our lives are not to be determined and manipulated by attachments, desires, ambitions or fears and anxieties which can become very much part of ourselves. We are to live in total freedom:

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

It is the ability to let go, even of health and life itself. Any aspect of a person or any thing that lessens that freedom to follow truth and love is to be ‘hated’ and transcended.

Are we ready for that? That is the meaning of the two parables, which Jesus gives as illustration. “Large crowds” were following Jesus with enthusiasm, but were they ready? Did they realise what it really meant? If not, they are like a general who goes out to war totally unprepared to deal with the opposing side. They are like a man who started out to build a tower and then ran out of funds or material, and he becomes a laughing stock.

If we try to walk on the Way with Jesus without being aware of what is involved, we will not exactly become a laughing stock (there will be so many people with us!). However, we will miss the joy and happiness of a totally fulfilled life that Jesus—despite the apparently negative language of today’s Gospel—is holding out to us.

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Commentary on Sirach 3:19-21,30-31; Hebrews 12:18-19,22-24; Luke 14:1,7-14

The whole passage from which today’s Gospel is taken deals with people eating together. The Kingdom of God—the perfect society, which is the goal of the Christian message—is often pictured as a banquet. As such, it is a meal for everyone, not just a private dinner for two by candlelight. All the dishes on the table are for everyone equally. There is enough and more for every person’s needs. It is an occasion of sharing and joyfulness. And in the New Testament, the meals in which Christians share—and the Eucharist is among them—are meant to be a true sign of that yet-to-be-realised banquet and Kingdom.

That is exactly what we do not find in today’s Gospel. A rather sinister atmosphere is established by the opening sentence:

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath…

While it should have been an occasion of fellowship, instead we are told:

…they were watching him closely.

They were not watching him out of admiration or curiosity (the way a young child might for the first time watch a stranger at the family table). No, they wanted to see if Jesus on this Sabbath day would put a foot wrong so that they could accuse him. He was, in fact, judged before he even opened his mouth.

Accessible to all
For his part, we might notice the impartiality of Jesus. He raised many eyebrows when he was seen eating with tax collectors and sinners. But he was no inverse snob—he also accepted invitations from the rich and powerful. God’s love is for all—the sunshine and the rain fall equally on all. So it is with God’s love, of which Jesus is the visible sign.

From this meal situation Jesus gives us two parables. It has been pointed out that in one Jesus speaks directly to the guests and in the other he addresses the host. In this way, Jesus involves them directly in what he is saying. As we watch and listen, we need to hear Jesus speaking to us also. The lessons are still totally relevant for our time and our society.

Being in the right place
The first parable was a response to the way the guests took their seats. Jesus had:

…noticed how the guests chose the places of honor…

In many formal dinners, the seating is a very delicate matter. Those regarded as important are put near the host and the rest lower down. Elegantly printed cards may be at each place and indicate exactly your ‘status’ for this occasion. At a wedding dinner, only a few can share the top table with the married couple and their immediate family. Others will find themselves tucked away in a corner feeling the heat of the kitchen!

As Jesus spoke, did some of his fellow guests begin to feel uncomfortable? Were some dissatisfied because others had a higher place than they? Where was Jesus sitting? Do you think he cared very much? If you were there, would you have cared? Do you feel your worth as a person depends on how you are treated on such occasions?

Reversing the procedure
Jesus reverses the normal procedure, saying:

…do not sit down at the place of honor…

You might suffer the indignity of being asked to sit lower down. Rather, he says:

…when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.

It is a risky thing to do, of course. You might be left sitting in your lower place! For some, that could be a social disaster.

Jesus, of course, does not mean for us to behave that way literally. What he does mean is that, in the Kingdom of God, such things have absolutely no importance. Someone with the spirit of the Kingdom knows that human status, that is, the status conferred by fickle society, does not mean anything at all.

The only status that counts is one’s relationship with God and with other people, irrespective of their classification by race, religion, profession or class. Our real status is measured not by our rank or occupation, but by the level of love and service offered to God through our relationships with those around us. What counts is not how we are looked on by others, but the degree of care and compassion with which we look at them. This calls for a strong inner security, which is independent of arbitrarily conferred status or position, so that one can say easily to another: “Why don’t you go to the top table and sit with the host?”

Those who find their security in their bonds of love with other people know that no status whatever is lost by having to sit near the kitchen. It gives them an opportunity to talk to the cook and the staff. It is put somewhat differently in the Second Reading (from Hebrews) today:

…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven…

Who to invite
In the second parable Jesus talks directly to his host, saying:

When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.

A look at the media social pages reveals a merry-go-round where the same people eat the same dinners in different venues night after night. On a lower level, most of us do more or less the same. And how many dinners are arranged as a bribe or a gentle form of blackmail? How many principals of ‘good’ schools have the experience of being invited out to expensive eating places only to find in their mail soon after a request for a son or daughter to be accepted into their school. It happens all the time. It is even regarded as ‘normal’ and “everybody does it”.

Jesus has rather different advice:

…when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

Invite those people in particular who will be able to give you absolutely nothing in return, who will be able to do absolutely nothing to further your career or your status in the community.

As an image, life can be seen as a ladder or a circle. Many of us live on a ladder, desperately trying to climb to the top. In so doing we often find ourselves climbing on the backs of others and even kicking them to the bottom so that we can reach the top. To be in the first place is deeply ingrained in many of our societies today—whether it is in business, in an examination, or even getting on to a bus. We are by and large a ladder society.

Circular living
The Gospel is proposing that we rather try to work towards creating a circle society. In a circle, there is no top or bottom. All are equal. All are facing each other. All are in a better position to know and respect each other. (How can you respect the person you are climbing over to get to the top of the ladder?) All are in a better position to share what they have with those who have less. Put a round table between these people and everything is ready for a banquet. And, as the story goes, provide each person with a chopstick too long to be used by oneself, but just the right length to offer food to the person opposite and you have the Kingdom in the making.

Is that possible? is it too unrealistic? Certainly it will not be achieved in a day or even a generation. But we could begin in our own homes first of all, and then extend to the small groups to which we belong. Our parish with its small communities would be a very good place to start.

And right now we are attending a Christian banquet, the Eucharist. What links do we see between sharing together the bread and wine that is the Body and Blood of Jesus and the sharing together of food and conversation that takes place at our own dining tables or the tables of others? Should not our Eucharists have more of the characteristics of good family meals and should not good family meals be, in their own way, a living out of the Eucharist? In the early Christian Church, both the Eucharist and family or group meals were put back to back as part of one single experience.

Is it not about time we started trying to do the same?

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Commentary on Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13; Luke 13:22-30

There is a worldwide tendency among people who believe in a religion to feel that they are a privileged group, that they carry with them some cast-iron guarantee that their future is absolutely secure. The concept of a ‘chosen people’ is not really confined to the Jews. We find it among Christians, Hindus, Muslims and even among militant Buddhists (perhaps a contradiction in terms?).

It is not for us here to evaluate other religious beliefs. We will confine ourselves to Christians. Even among Christians themselves there are divisions about who is chosen and on the right path. Just listen to some Christian groups speak about others.

Christians have believed for a long time that they and they alone will be, as they put it, ‘saved’. “Outside the Church there is no salvation” was a rallying cry for centuries and, if we are not mistaken, still is for some. Yet it was well before the Second Vatican Council that the American Jesuit, Fr Leonard Feeney, was condemned and excommunicated by the Holy See for denying salvation to non-Christians.

How many will be saved?
Perhaps this was what Jesus’ questioner had in mind when—in today’s Gospel passage—he asked:

Lord, will only a few be saved?

The question reflected the belief of many Jews in Jesus’ time that they and they alone were God’s ‘Chosen People’. For them that meant, on the one hand, that ‘pagans’ and ‘unbelievers’, people who did not observe the Law of Moses, were outcasts to be rejected by God forever. The salvation of God’s People, on the other hand, was virtually guaranteed, provided they kept the Law.

As often happens, Jesus does not answer his enquirer’s question directly. If he does not actually counter with another question, he will speak in parables or images. In any case, his meaning will be quite clear to an open mind. Jesus speaks today about coming in through a narrow door and about a householder who refuses to open the door after he has locked up for the night. The fact that those knocking claim to be companions known to him does not make him change his mind:

I do not know where you come from; go away from me…

These are terrible words to hear!

So, in answer to the person’s question, Jesus does not confirm or deny that only a few will be saved. What he does say is that salvation is not guaranteed for anyone. Saying “We are your Chosen People” will not be good enough. What Jesus is saying is that no one, no matter who they are, has an absolute guarantee of being saved, of being accepted by God. No one is saved by claiming identity with a particular group or by carrying a particular name tag.

Message is for all
Jesus does not at all say that only a few will be ‘saved’. The whole thrust of the Gospel, and especially of the Gospel according to Luke which we are reading, is that Jesus came to bring God’s love and freedom to the whole world. The message of that Gospel is that there is not a single person, not a single people, nation, race, or class, which is excluded from experiencing the love and liberation that God offers.

The primary role of the Christian community has never been simply to guarantee the ‘salvation’ of its own members. It is not the function of the Church to turn all its energies to seeing that its members ‘save their souls’ and sometimes pray for those in ‘outer darkness’.

The role of the Christian community from the beginning until now is first and foremost to proclaim to the whole world the Good News about God’s love for the world, to share the message of the Gospel about what constitutes real living with the whole world. It also hopes that many will respond to its message of life through a conversion of their lives. The Church completely betrays this mandate when it becomes obsessed with its own survival and its own ‘rights and privileges’.

And it is not only a verbal message, the verbal teaching of Jesus, which has to be communicated. Our whole lifestyle, individually and in community as Christians, is itself to be a proclamation to all those who hunger for a life of truth, of love, of justice and greater sharing, a life of compassion and mutual support, an end to loneliness and marginalisation, exploitation and manipulation. Is that a picture of the Christian community you belong to?

How to be ‘saved’?
How many people will be saved? What does it mean, ‘being saved’? It is not very helpful to toss out the old catechism jargon about those dying “in the state of grace”, “without mortal sin on their souls”. Trying to put it in more realistic terms, to be ‘saved’ means to live and to die in a close loving relationship with God and with others. It is to share the vision of life that Jesus offered to us. It is both simple and difficult to do. Jesus tells us:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

In other words, loving each other in the name and the spirit of Jesus is really all that is necessary to be ‘saved’.

How many, then, will be saved? No one knows, but surely it is God’s will that it should be many. And as the Scripture often says, God’s plans will not be frustrated. It is not for us to judge.

A graced position
But let us come closer to home and look at the second part of Jesus’ teaching today. To belong to the ‘People of God’ (a phrase used by the Second Vatican Council), to belong to the Christian community is, in many ways, a privileged, graced position.

If we really belong to a community which shares and explains the Word of God in a way that helps me to understand the deeper meaning of life, if I find comfort and support—spiritual, emotional, social and material—from that community, then I am blessed indeed. But such a grace also is one of responsibility.

Jesus expresses this in a number of ways. The path to life is through a “narrow door”. In terms of the Gospel, the doorway to life can be summed up in the word—love. In one sense, love is an all-embracing word in both its figurative and literal meanings. Yet, to guide all one’s action only by love is a choice that many are unable to make. Many find it extremely difficult and many simply reject it. They prefer to go by the broader way (which they even call ‘more human’) of hatred, resentment, jealousy, competitiveness and revenge.

How many of us can claim to have succeeded in walking the narrow way of unconditional and unremitting love? Yet, if we fail in love, what kind of Christians are we? Do we deserve the final reward of brothers and sisters, of disciples of Jesus?

Frightening possibility
So what Jesus is saying today is that many who regard themselves as ‘Catholics’ may find the door closed in their face. They will hear the terrible words, “I do not know you”. How can Jesus not recognise someone who was baptised as Catholic and who went regularly to Sunday Mass? Because these people in their turn did not recognise Jesus himself in all those people they may have hated, resented, used, exploited, manipulated, rejected and trampled on:

Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. (Matt 25:45)

When we do come face to face with God—and hopefully we will—we may be surprised at who is not there. We may even be more surprised at those who are there: people we regarded as ‘pagans’ (Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims), animists, agnostics, even atheists, people of other races whom we tended to despise and the ‘dregs of society’. There will be people from east and west, from north and south; they will all come to take their places at the banquet in the Kingdom of God.

These people will be in the Kingdom because, whatever labels we gave them, they were at heart loving, caring and sharing people, people who lived their lives for others as Jesus did. These people Jesus will recognise. Let us make sure that he will be able to recognise each of us, too. What will you do today to make sure that Jesus knows you?

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Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 2:2-8; John 21:15-17

The Gospel reading is from the very end of John’s Gospel. The whole chapter is divided into three parts. In the first, seven of Jesus’ disciples are out fishing and have caught nothing. Then in the early dawn, as light breaks, a stranger on the shore tells them where to drop their nets. When they do so, they make a huge catch of fish and at that point the ‘Beloved Disciple’, the one with the deeper spiritual insight, realises that:

It is the Lord! (John 21:7)

They then bring the catch ashore.

In the second part, after coming ashore the disciples find that a fire has been lit and a meal is ready for them, a meal of bread and fish, a Eucharistic meal. The disciples are somewhat confused. Jesus, on the one hand, does not look familiar and yet they know it is he.

At the end of the meal, Jesus begins to speak with Peter, although he addresses him by his own name, Simon:

Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?

It sounds like a simple question, but in fact it makes Peter very uncomfortable. He has not forgotten the shameful moment during the trial of Jesus when he swore three times that he had never laid eyes on Jesus. And this on top of an earlier boast that, even if all the others betrayed Jesus, Peter never would. He was in effect saying that he did love Jesus more than his other companions.

In this scene it is now a more humble and remorseful Peter. After betraying his Master he had wept bitterly, deeply regretting his cowardice. Earlier on, when they were in the boat and the Beloved Disciple had cried, “It is the Lord!”, Peter immediately dressed himself. Only the innocent can go naked (like our First Parents in the garden before their sin) and Peter was deeply aware of his failings. At the same time, his diving into the water to get to Jesus first was a sign that, sinner though he may have been, he deeply loved his Lord.

Now, in answer to Jesus’ painful question, he simply replies:

Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

And, of course, Jesus did know. The reconciliation then takes place and Peter is told:

Feed my lambs.

He is fully restored to his role as Peter, as the Rock on which the community will be built and to which he will be responsible.

But Jesus is not yet finished. Twice more he asks Peter if he loves his Master and twice more his leadership of the community is re-affirmed. Peter is all too conscious why he is being asked three times and it hurts:

Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.

And, of course, it was true.

It is not surprising that this passage should be the Gospel reading for today’s feast. Pius X had been chosen as a successor to Peter. He, too, was someone who was deeply committed to the love and service of his Lord and conscious of his responsibility as Shepherd of God’s people.

The First Reading is from the Paul’s First Letter to the Christians of Thessalonica (modern day Thessaloniki) in Macedonia where Paul had preached. In the reading he speaks of the principles which guided him in preaching and teaching the gospel. It was marked by sincerity and conviction.

At the same time, his aim was not just to please or flatter people, but to give them God’s message straight as it was, even if sometimes it might have been painful or challenging. His purpose was not to seek people’s approval, but to give the Christian message as it was.

As well, Paul wants to treat his hearers with gentleness and even affection, like a nursing mother caring for her child. He did not just want to preach an impersonal gospel message, but to give himself in loving care to the people.

Again, we can see a picture here of Pius X. On the one hand, he was known for his concern that the Christian message be preached without distortion. At the same time, he was a deeply spiritual person, he was an initiator of the renewal of the liturgy and opening the Eucharist to the young. He hungered for a life of simplicity and was not altogether happy living in the splendour of the Vatican. There is much we can learn from him.

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Commentary on Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53

Three Statements
Jesus makes three important statements in today’s Gospel. The first is:

I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!

This is not the fire of destruction or the fire that ravages forests every year:

• It is the fire of heat and light.
• It is the fire that cleanses and purifies.
• It is the fire of God’s presence:

-as in the burning bush that Moses saw,

-as in the pillar of fire that accompanied the Israelites in the desert,

-as in the tongues of fire at Pentecost where the bringing of fire was mandated to the disciples, to the Church, to all of us.

As a purifying fire, it can also bring pain and purification, but it ultimately leads to conversion and liberation.

His second statement:

I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!

This does not mean that Jesus is to be re-baptised in the Jordan. The word ‘baptism’ implies total immersion (the way sacramental baptism was carried out in the early church and in some churches today). There is a close link between the catechumen being ‘buried’ in water and rising with Christ, and Jesus being ‘baptised’ by being immersed in his suffering and death on the way to resurrection. Jesus does not look forward to his ‘baptism’ for the pain it brings, but for the salutary effects it produces for all of us.

Jesus’ third statement:

Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!

This is a statement with which critics of religion would cynically agree. Religion is seen by some as a major source of division, suffering and war in our world.

But to others it is a very puzzling, even alarming, statement. It seems to contradict the whole message of the Gospel. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples that he was giving them peace, a peace that the world could not give, a peace that no one could take away from them. We call Jesus the Prince of Peace. In the Beatitudes we read:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)

They especially are the ones who do the work of God—and of Jesus. In the letter to the Ephesians, Jesus is called “our peace”, breaking down the walls that divide peoples. And Jesus tells us:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

Painful words
It is especially painful to hear the Gospel speak of families being broken up because of Jesus. But this is less a prophecy or an expression of God’s will than a description of the Church’s very real experience from the time the Gospels were being written down to our own day. In many countries, both Christian individuals and Christian communities are seen as a threat to governments, various power groups and other religious groups.

Yet, in the long history of the Church, how many families have suffered because members became Christians? Most of us—especially those who have lived in non-Christian or anti-Christian societies—probably have met someone who was rejected by their family for becoming an active Christian. And, not infrequently, persecution comes even from other Christians, from within the Church itself.

It is significant in the First Reading that Jeremiah is dumped into a cistern, not by outsiders, but by his own people who did not like the message from God that he was bringing. And how many people realise that there have been more martyrs for the faith in our supposedly advanced and civilised ‘modern times’ than in all the preceding centuries of the past!

Non-violence
The Christian message is non-violent. It brings love, compassion, harmony, peace. It brings people together so that there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. But it also, of its nature, challenges injustice, corruption, discrimination, abuse, dishonesty and all attacks on human dignity. The role of the evangeliser is “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”

Vested interests—the rich, the powerful inside and outside the Church—will do anything to keep what they have. When the Church preaches and lives the Gospel, conflict is inevitable—even though in no way wished or intended.

So, in one way, religion should never divide. It is only a false Christianity and religion that deliberately creates division (‘them and us’). It is not Christianity or any other religion as such which has brought so much suffering, but certain people who call themselves ‘Christians’ (or Muslims, Hindus or Jews).

At the same time, true Christianity as lived out in defending truth, justice, human dignity and freedom will inevitably meet opposition and be attacked. The passage which says that the peacemakers are blessed also says that those who are persecuted in the name of the Gospel are equally blessed. Strangely enough, both go together.

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Commentary on Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19; Luke 12:32-48

Where your treasure is, there will be your heart be also.

We continue today with the theme of last Sunday’s Mass. There we heard a parable Jesus told about a man who made a great deal of money and was very happy with himself:

…I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. (Luke 12:19)

But God said to him:

You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
(Luke 12:20)

And, when that man died and went before his God, what had he to offer? All that stuff in his barns? No, all that had to be left behind for others. When my turn comes to face my God and he asks me what I have and I respond: “Well, during my lifetime I managed to deposit quite sizeable sums of money in the bank”, how do you think God will answer? Will he be particularly impressed? He may ask further, “But what have you brought with you”?

Readiness is all
So today’s Gospel passage is a further reminder that we must not be like that man in last week’s Gospel. It tells us, on the contrary, to be truly ready, implying that the man, in spite of all his efforts to build up his financial and material security, was in fact far from ready.

First of all, he pictured a long and bright future before him. Secondly, he regarded the material wealth he had garnered for himself as the sign and the reward of a “successful” life. He also believed that all he possessed belonged exclusively to him. There are an awful lot of people who seem to think the same way—are we among them?

Jesus tells us today to be ready, to be ready when the Master comes. For all our care and precautions, there is absolutely no way we can know when or how the Master will come to call us to himself. Jesus says about the thief:

…he comes during the middle of the night or near dawn…

We have probably all experienced having had something stolen from our house, our car, or even our person. In most cases, if we had known in advance, we could easily have thwarted the thief. Sometimes the theft was simply due to our not having taken the simplest of precautions but, after the theft had taken place, it was too late.

More important than property
Jesus is warning us today about something much more important than the property we own, namely, the quality of our lives. Apparently, some people give top priority to the property they own. One can walk along roads in more affluent areas of a city where many of the houses can hardly be seen. They are hidden behind high walls topped with massive iron spikes. There are cameras monitoring movements 24 hours a day. As far as is humanly possible, nothing will be stolen from those houses. They are prepared for every eventuality—or are they?

Are they, are we, really ready to meet the Master when he comes? It is no use telling God, “Lord, I have oodles in the bank. I have a lovely house in one of the most trendy suburbs and there is a Ferrari for me and a Mercedes for my wife. My son is a prosperous surgeon in the States and my daughter a thriving lawyer in London…” Quite honestly, Jesus is not likely to be terribly impressed or interested in such a litany. The really important things have not yet been said.

Take a different example altogether. His name was John. He was a devout Catholic in China. Like thousands of others, he had remained true to his faith during the dark days of persecution in China and spent long years in prison purely and simply because of his belief in Jesus. Eventually he was released. His body was stooped from the years of ill treatment he had experienced. Then, one day while attending Mass at the shrine of St Francis Xavier in nearby Macau, he collapsed and died just after receiving communion. Anyone who knew John, a man of no wealth whatever, knew that he was ready. His whole life had been lived in the company of Jesus. Jesus was all he had; Jesus was all he wanted.

The friends of Jesus
Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus makes this very plain. Those are his friends who have gone out of their way to share themselves and what they have (and not just their easily spared surplus) with the neediest of the needy—the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, those in prison—quite clearly only a sample list of those among us who are in need. Those who consistently make this their first priority in life are ready. They are no strangers to Jesus because they fully realise that:

…just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)

Our life, too, as the Second Reading suggests, is like that of Abraham. It is a journey into the unknown and no amount of precautions or insurance can take away all uncertainty:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out, not knowing where he was going.

We would love to have complete control and plans for our future life, but it seldom works out like that. In fact, we, like Abraham, do not know where our life journey will lead us. We do know the final destination but we do not know how or when we will reach it.

A question of quality
The journey that the Scripture speaks about, of course, is not so much about travelling as about the style and quality and direction of our living. It includes every experience we will have and how we respond to each one. It will include the people we come face to face with—either by choice or by accident—and how we respond to them. We can see experiences and people as stepping stones to our own self-advancement, as many seem to do, or we can see them as opportunities to respond in truth and love and service to God entering our daily lives.

Life is a pilgrimage. It keeps moving. Abraham and his family:

…stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents…

We would like to have gilt-edged securities for ourselves, but our Christian faith offers us another programme. It is a life lived in love and service for the Kingdom of God—for a society of justice and peace designed and built by God. It is in doing this that we amass real wealth not only for ourselves, but for others as well. By living like this, we are ready, at any time, to meet our Lord and Saviour. And when we do meet him we will know that all along we had lived with him in those we loved and served during our pilgrimage.

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Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5,9-11; Luke 12:13-21

Our attitude to material things is the subject of today’s readings. It is about the things that we really regard important in our lives. The readings also suggest that what we are is of far greater importance than what we have.

The Gospel begins by introducing a man who wants Jesus to act as a mediator in a property dispute:

Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.

It was quite common to bring such disputes to a rabbi to be solved. But Jesus has no interest whatever in dealing with this problem because it represents a point of view that is totally at variance with his own. Instead, Jesus gives a warning:

Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

It is possible that the man making the request was actually one of Jesus’ followers. If that was the case, he needed to learn very quickly that such problems have nothing whatever to do with the following of Jesus—with being a Christian.

A different agenda
It was quite irrelevant for Jesus that the man should get a fair share of an inheritance, especially if the man can satisfy his daily needs without it. This, of course, is not the way ‘normal’ people think. They would be prepared to hire lawyers and go through expensive court proceedings in order to get money that they believed was due to them—whether they needed it or not. We have frequently seen families torn apart in bitter disputes over the allocation of money.

So many dream some day of being rich, to be able to buy all the things they would love to have, to be able to travel, to have no worries. There is a belief, which we see contradicted every single day, that once we have financial security, all our problems will be solved: housing, children’s education, cars and other desirable luxuries, retirement and old age. Wealth, it is believed, is a sign of ‘success’, though it is not quite clear where the ‘success’ really lies. It also brings respect and status. Some dream of being able to drive up in a luxury car to a big hotel or exclusive club, hand the keys over to a hotel attendant, sit down at an expensive dinner table and knowingly peruse the wine list, and while waiting for the dinner to be served, to make a few calls on the mobile phone, get nods of recognition from other successful people who can also afford to dine at this place—what a life!

Quite honestly, for many of us Christians these priorities often take precedence over our following of Christ. Sincere young people want to establish their careers first—and once set up, then maybe consider being a ‘good’ Catholic.

Another approach
Today’s readings ask us to consider another approach altogether. It is important to emphasise that Jesus is not saying, “You must give up all these things and lead a life of bleak misery for my sake.” On the contrary, Jesus is offering a much more secure way to happiness and a life of real enjoyment rather than the way that most people insist on believing in, even though it is seen to fail again and again. Against the greed that obsesses many people, Jesus offers an opposite alternative to security and happiness—sharing.

How many can identify with the rich man in the parable that Jesus tells today? In his own eyes, this man had been really ‘successful’. He had just made a ‘killing’ not on the stock exchange, but in a particularly good harvest. It was so good he would have to pull down his barns and build even bigger ones. And then he could sit back and say to himself:

Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.

He had worked very hard all these years and this was what he deserved.

It is worth observing, however, that no other people are mentioned in the story. He himself was the absolute centre of everything—nothing else mattered, no one else mattered. The world and all its goods were there purely and simply for him to take hold of and keep for himself. And now there was nothing else to do but to enjoy it all.

But this was not to be the case:

God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

“How much did he leave?” someone asked of a multi-billionaire who had just died. “Every cent,” was the answer. Or as Ecclesiastes today puts it:

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity…sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it.

All the laborious days one spent, the cares of office, the restless nights—none of it matters in the end.

Jesus continues:

So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.

Jesus is not opposed to being prosperous, if there is no inequality, but he suggests that true and enduring wealth lies elsewhere. The rich and the poor both share the same common fate—they die. But to whom much was given, much is expected.

A better alternative
We get some hints of a better alternative in the Second Reading, which is from the Letter to the Colossians:

…if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is…Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth…

Not very practical advice, I hear you saying. But Paul is not telling us to close our eyes to mundane realities and, hoping for the best, keep looking heavenwards. Rather he is urging us to identify our understanding of life, our values, with those of God, which have been communicated to us by the life and words of Jesus. Paul continues:

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly…

By this he means a God-less, materialistic mentality. And then he goes on to list some “earthly” activities:

…sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).

As well, Paul says:

Do not lie to one another…

Lying can take many forms as it includes every kind of deceit, pretending to be what we are not and denying the truth in ourselves and in the world around us.

In following Christ’s way, Paul tells us we should see that we have:

…stripped off the old self with its practices and…clothed [ourselves] with the new self…

Our “new self” should share the same vision of life and the same value system and the same goals as those that Jesus proposes. It involves:

…being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

This is a knowledge that is not found in university courses, but rather in a deep insight and understanding of what life is really about. In this, Jesus is the perfect model. To grow more and more like Jesus is to grow more and more into the image of God, by whom and for whom we were created.

In the kind of society that is the Kingdom, we do not need the security of an inheritance or winning the lottery. Our security comes from being part of a loving and caring community taking care of each member’s needs. But even in the Church, which is the visible sign of that Kingdom, this kind of society, with some exceptions, has not yet been put in place. We still tend to believe that, if we do not look after ‘Number 1’ (ourselves), no one else will.

The society that is the Kingdom involves a life of total immersion in and involvement with other people and our environment. The old divisions which are the curse of so much living must fall away:

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.
(Rom 10:12)

Today Paul says there is no distinction between:

circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free…

As well, we could add, there is no room for distinction between Chinese, European, Filipino, Vietnamese or American as well. Rather:

…Christ is all and in all!

It is with Jesus that the security people long for lies. Real security is not in the future. Genuine security is in the here and now. And it is this security that is the real wealth we dream of. Material plenty by itself does not guarantee it. Real security is there for the asking, but most of us cannot see. We must pray like Bartimaeus:

My teacher, let me see… (Mark 10:51)

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Commentary on Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13

It was the custom for a Jewish rabbi or teacher to teach his followers a simple prayer they could regularly use. The disciples of Jesus make a similar request of their rabbi. And they use as an argument that John the Baptist had done so for his disciples. It would indeed be interesting to know what kind of prayer John the Baptist did teach, but it will have to remain something that is forever hidden from us.

In response, Jesus does more than they ask, for he teaches them what to pray for, how to pray and what results they can expect from their prayer.

It might be worth noting that Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them how to pray and not a prayer to say. In response Jesus says to them:

When you pray, say…

There then follows what we know as the “Lord’s Prayer”. The version in today’s Gospel passage is from Luke and is shorter than the version we have in Matthew. As such it may indeed be the earlier version and closer to what Jesus actually said. (We know that many parts of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels come from a common source which each adapted to their own particular needs.)

For centuries now we have been reciting the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew’s version). We do so before Communion at every Eucharist and, for instance, when we say the Rosary. Yet as it is presented here by Jesus, it is less a prayer to be recited than a list of things around which our prayer should be centred. In a way, each phrase can stand on its own and be a topic for prayer in its own right. Let us have a look at the contents of this prayer.

Father
It begins by addressing God as “Father.” We do not address him as Lord, or Master, or Judge. We do not even call him the Source of all being, Creator, but by the much more personal term, Father. And St Paul reminds us that this title is meant to be understood on the warmest and most intimate level. He tells us to call God Abba (‘Papa’)—a title used affectionately by young children all over the world. And thus, we too are to address him in this way.

But by each one of us together calling him “Father” there is a further implication, namely, that we are all his children and thus also brothers and sisters of each other—members of one great family. And this is no pious imagining, but a fact. Unless we accept this as fact, it will be difficult for us to call God “Father.” He is always “our Father”, never ‘my’ Father alone. And that ‘our’ is totally inclusive, not allowing of even one exception.

As we will see, the Lord’s Prayer is much more than just a prayer of petition; it is also a statement of who we are and what we are—to God and to each other. And we confirm or condemn ourselves every time we pray it.

May your name be revered as holy
For the Jews, a name was not simply a label indicating identity; it denoted the whole person. When Moses spoke to God in the burning bush, he needed to know God’s name in order to know who he was. So here we are praying that God himself and not just his name be revered by all. It is not just a prayer for people to avoid irreverent language. In a sense, too, who can make God’s name or God himself “holy?” His holiness in no way depends on us. What we are rather asking for is that God’s holiness be acknowledged by us, not only by our words, but by the way we live. In other words, it is a prayer that God’s holiness be reflected in our own lives and in the lives of every single person.

May your kingdom come
We should understand the Kingdom of God as a world in which everything that God stands for becomes a reality in the lives of people everywhere—a world that is built on truth, love, compassion, justice, freedom, human dignity and peace. We know it is God’s will that such a world should be the shared experience of all, but it depends a great deal on our response and co-operation. Some elements of the Kingdom can be found in many places and in many communities, but we are only too aware that, for the world at large, the Kingdom is still far from being a reality and much of the blame lies with us. So in saying this invocation we are not only calling on God’s help, but reminding ourselves to be working with God to make the Kingdom a reality.

Give us each day our daily bread
In the second half of the prayer we pray more directly for our own needs. And we begin with present needs. Notice that we ask for today’s bread, food—today’s material needs. Is that what we normally pray for? Or are our anxieties reaching far out into the future? Yet in praying this way we express our trust in a caring God. It is also the acceptance of a challenge by all of us to see that every person has their needs for today supplied. There is no need for worry and anxiety about the future.

Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us
Here we pray in repentance for our past sinful actions, but our prayer is conditional, linking us once again to all those around us. We pray that God will forgive us all that we have done wrong, because we already have forgiven all those who we think have done wrong to us. Again it is a prayer that throws us back on ourselves. We are praying to share God’s most beautiful quality—his readiness to forgive not just “seventy time seven times”, but indefinitely.

Do not bring us to the time of trial.
Finally, we pray for protection from future trials that might overwhelm us—trials where we might fail and betray our following of him.

We probably will have to admit that we seldom do justice to this prayer. It not only puts us in touch with God, but also in touch with ourselves. While we can, of course, continue to recite the Lord’s Prayer, it would be useful sometimes to take it very slowly, one petition at a time, even stopping altogether when a petition is particularly meaningful to us.

Two more points
Jesus, however, does not stop with teaching his disciples how to pray. He makes two points. First, he tells a parable about a man wanting some bread in the middle of the night. Naturally, his neighbour is reluctant to get up and give him some. But the man keeps badgering. Jesus says:

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he [the neighbour] will get up and give him whatever he needs.

The message is clear enough. When we really want something from God, we must keep asking:

Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matt 7:7)

Second, he reminds them that they are dealing with a loving and compassionate Father. Even human fathers will not give stones when asked for bread or scorpions when asked for eggs. Jesus concludes:

…how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

A contradiction?
At first sight, there seems to be a slight contradiction here. If our Father cares for us so much, why do we have to ask so insistently? We continue to pray not because God has to be reminded of our wants. Jesus said on another occasion:

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. (Matt 6:7)

God does not need to be persuaded or to have his arm twisted to give us what we need. But he certainly does not always give us what we want, for our wants are often short-sighted and self-centred. The way we pray and what we ask for can be extremely revealing of where we are in our relationship with God, with people and with the world around us. Persevering prayer can help us become more aware of what we should really be asking for. It helps to purify our prayer, make clear our values and hopes, and lead us to ask for what is really in our very best interests. And those things we can be absolutely sure God wants us to have.