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Commentary on Song of Songs 3:1-4 or 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Psalm 62; John 20:1-2,11-18

The Gospel reading, from John, describes the encounter of Mary Magdalene with the Risen Jesus. We are told that Mary went to the tomb early on Sunday morning, “while it was still dark”. The darkness not only indicates that it was before sunrise, but also expresses the feelings in Mary’s heart. She had lost her beloved Master and was in deep mourning for him.

She saw that the large stone guarding the entrance to the tomb had been removed and was very upset. So she ran back to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple:

They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

The use of “we” suggests that there were, as the other Gospels indicate, other women with Mary, but they are not mentioned by John.

Peter and the Beloved Disciple then run to the tomb to verify the women’s report. They see the empty tomb and the burial cloths, but it is only the Beloved Disciple who sees the significance of their arrangement and believes that the women’s report that Jesus is risen is, in fact, true.

They then go back to report to the larger group and Mary Magdalene is left alone outside the tomb. Still weeping, she looks into the tomb and sees two angels inside, one at the head and one at the foot of where Jesus had been. They ask her why she is weeping. The word “weeping” is used three times, indicating the depth of her grief. She tells the angels:

They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.

It is not clear who the “they” might be.

Just then, she turns round and sees Jesus there, except that she does not recognise him – a common feature of all the resurrection stories. He asks her:

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?

She thinks he must be the gardener. This was not surprising, as we had been told a little earlier (John 19:41) that Jesus’ tomb was in a garden. There is some Johannine irony here. At the very beginning, death had come to the human race in a garden, the Garden of Eden, where Adam and his wife had disobeyed Yahweh. Now, life is coming back in another garden. And, of course, Jesus is indeed the Gardener.

It is then that Jesus addresses her: “Mary!” In speaking of himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus had said,

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
(John 10:3-4)

So here, Mary immediately recognises the voice of her Master; she knows that it is Jesus who is calling her. And she turns. But, just now, she had already turned to face him. This is a different turning – it is an interior turning to her Lord.

Jesus then tells her to stop clinging to him. She thinks she is clinging to the Jesus she knew before. But this is the Risen Jesus, already on the way to be united to his Father. From now on she will have to find him in a very different way, in her brothers and sisters. So, she is told to go and tell the other disciples that Jesus is on his way to the Father, to his God and their God.

So Mary goes off to tell the disciples the exciting news:

I have seen the Lord!

In many ways, Mary Magdalene can be called a Beloved Disciple. No one shows a stronger love for Jesus than this woman who had been liberated from a seriously sinful life. She was there with Jesus’ Mother and some other women at the foot of the cross keeping vigil, while not one of the men disciples was to be seen. After Jesus was buried, she kept vigil by his tomb. Early on Sunday morning, she was there again when the tomb was discovered to be empty. After the visit of Peter and the Beloved Disciple, she alone stayed on to mourn.

In this Gospel, she is the very first person to whom the Risen Jesus reveals himself. And she is the very first of his followers to announce the Resurrection of the Lord. This gives her a unique place in the Gospel story.

There is a choice of two First Readings. The first is from the Song of Songs and expresses the lover’s distress at the loss of the one she loves and then her joy at finding him:

I sought him but found him not…The sentinels found me…Have you seen him whom my soul loves?

Just then, she comes across him:

Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him and would not let him go…

The similarity with the Gospel story is very close.

The alternative First Reading is from the Second Letter to the Corinthians. In it, Paul says:

…the love of Christ urges us on…

It was this love that drove Mary Magdalene. And it speaks of a new relationship with Christ:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way.

This was what Mary Magdalene had to learn. She could no longer cling to the Christ she had known earlier. The Christ we know now is to be found in every person and in every experience of our life. It is there that he is to be loved and served. We will ask Mary Magdalene to help us know Jesus better.

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Commentary on Ephesians 3:14-19; Matthew 23:8-12

The Gospel reading is from chapter 23 of Matthew. The whole chapter is a denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees. This is not to say that it is a criticism of every scribe and every Pharisee, but rather of a certain arrogant mentality which many of them displayed, especially in their dealings with Jesus. In general, the very laudable aim of a Pharisee was to try and carry out the Law of Moses as perfectly as possible, believing that that was the way to follow God’s will and grow in holiness. However, it could in some cases lead to a certain sense of superiority in looking down on other people who were not leading similar lives.

It should also be said that the Gospel, in speaking of this mentality, was very likely not thinking of the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ time, but rather of people in Christian communities who had this mentality. People who put legalism above love and service. We see traces of it in some of the communities to which Paul wrote his letters (not to mention even in our own day).

Just before today’s passage, Jesus has told his disciples to follow the teachings of the Pharisees, but not their behaviour because they do not practise what they preach. They lay heavy burdens on people, but do not carry them themselves. And their main concern is to be seen to be more perfect than everyone else, and to be obsequiously greeted by people and given special privileges of honour and respect.

The followers of Jesus are not to behave like this. They are not to arrogate titles to themselves, insisting they be called ‘Rabbi’ or ‘Father’ or ‘Master’, because there is only one Teacher and only one Father and only one Master. Greatness in the Christian community is earned by those who give themselves in loving service to all their brothers and sisters. Jesus himself gave the example:

…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…
(Mark 10:35)

Bonaventure was a person who could have demanded obsequious behaviour. He was a distinguished theologian, the Master-General of his Order and a cardinal-archbishop. Yet we know that when messengers came from the Vatican to tell of his appointment as cardinal-archbishop, he only received them after he had finished what he was doing—washing dishes for the community. His was a life of frugal simplicity and service.

In the First Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians we are reminded of Bonaventure’s mystical and affective approach to understanding his God. Paul’s prayer for the Christians of Ephesus sums up the goal of Bonaventure’s life:

I pray that…Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love…that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

May that prayer be fulfilled in our lives too.

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Commentary on Proverbs 2:1-9; Matthew 19:27-29

Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew is taken from the verses following the story of the rich man. Recall that in that story, the rich man came to Jesus and asked what he should do to gain eternal life. When Jesus told to him to keep the Commandments, he asked which ones Jesus had in mind. Jesus then cited the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th commandments. The significant thing about all of them is that they are concerned with relations with other people. Commandments on relations with God are not mentioned. The man said that he had kept all these commandments since he was young. “What else was lacking?” he asked. Jesus told him:

If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

That was too much for the wealthy man. He went away deeply disappointed because he was very well-off and could not take that step.

When he had gone, Jesus told his disciples that:

…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

On hearing this, the disciples were astounded because, for them, as well as anyone in the society of the time, wealth was a sign of God’s blessings. Their reaction was, if the rich could not be saved, who could be?

Peter, speaking in their name, said to Jesus:

…we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?

And it is then that Jesus speaks the words of today’s Gospel:

Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

All those who are ready to leave family and property in order to follow the Way of Jesus will be rewarded many times over—and in this life.

This was all confirmed by Benedict and the way of life suggested by his Rule. Many people left their families and their material security to follow the monastic life. They entered a life of material simplicity, but also a life of loving security where everyone contributed to the well-being of everyone else.

Today’s First Reading from the Book of Proverbs speaks of another great characteristic of the Benedictine way, arising out of their way of life. His monasteries became centres of learning and wisdom which had a great influence on the knowledge and culture of Europe.

For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

These monasteries are a clear signal that a life of simplicity is not a barren life, but one that is deeply enriching not only for those who live there, but for all those who come under their influence.

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(Note: While there are many choices for readings for today’s feast celebrating the the martyrs of China, this commentary focuses on the reading from John’s Gospel.)

Commentary on John 12:24-26

The Gospel reading from John is particularly appropriate for this celebration. Just before today’s reading begins we are told that some ‘Greeks’ had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. These were non-Jews who had probably converted to the Jewish faith. It is clear, too, that in Jerusalem they had heard people talking about Jesus and what he was saying and doing.

So they approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They may have approached him because ‘Philip’ (Filippos, literally ‘one who loves horses’) was a Greek name. They also probably knew that Philip was with Jesus so they told him:

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Philip then went to consult with his fellow disciple, Andrew (another Greek name, Andreas) and they both went to Jesus with the request.

It is at this point that our reading begins. Jesus answers their request in what seems a very strange and enigmatic manner. He says three things:

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.

In fact, this is a very clear answer to the ‘Greeks’. They asked to ‘see’ Jesus, but just to lay one’s eyes on him was not to see him. To see Jesus fully or properly requires that one have an insight and understanding of the inner mind of Christ. So Jesus cannot be ‘seen’ or understood unless one grasps the purpose and meaning of his death and resurrection. In order for it to be fruitful, a grain of wheat has to fall into the ground and effectively be disintegrated so that it will be transformed into a new plant, which in time will reproduce itself many times over.

This is exactly what Jesus will do. He will surrender his life through his suffering and death on the cross only to rise again in new life. But not only that, he will bring new life to countless numbers of people who, inspired by him, will become other ‘Christs’. And that is what we celebrate in the Eucharist when we take the bread, the fruit of wheat grains, and say the words:

This [bread] is my Body which will be handed over for you.

And we then share this Bread as a sign of our total identification with the Vision and the Way of Jesus.
And that is why Jesus says that, not only must he die, but all who wish to follow his Way will also have to be ready to surrender their lives—will have to be grains of wheat losing themselves to bring more life to others. All who serve Jesus must go his Way, because where Jesus is, his servant is there too.

All of this, of course, applies beautifully to the martyrs we celebrate today. They and all their flock, like the grain of wheat, fell to the ground and died, but out of their death came life. Far from being wiped out, the Church only flourished, and it continued to flourish during the worst days of the Communist regime—and it continues to thrive in easier, but still difficult conditions.

And what was the secret of these priests and the martyred lay disciples? It is faith in Jesus Christ that shows we are truly children of God. And we know that we truly love the children of God (and are not all his children?) when we show our love for God by keeping his commandments. As the Gospel says, the commandments of God can be summarised in one:

…that you love one another. (John 13:34)

That is how we will be recognised as followers of Jesus.

It was this faith-inspired love which led these priests to devote their lives to their people, to stay with them in times of danger and finally to die side by side with them. This is what we celebrate today. We remember that:

…this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5)

The witness of these four priests and the countless martyred lay disciples is the answer to the question. Let them be an inspiration to us.

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Commentary on Ephesians 2:19-22; Psalm 116; John 20:24-29

Today’s Gospel reading recalls the scene after Jesus’ resurrection when Jesus appeared to his disciples in the upper room. They first saw him on Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection, but for some reason, Thomas was not with them. When, later on, they told Thomas they had seen the Lord, he absolutely refused to believe them. He said that unless he saw with his own eyes the mark of the nails in Jesus’ hands and was able to put his hands into the wound in Jesus’ side, he would not believe.

Then, exactly a week later, when they were all gathered together again and Thomas was with them, Jesus suddenly appeared, although the doors were again locked. After giving them a greeting of peace, he immediately addressed Thomas:

Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.

Thomas is clearly overwhelmed. He can only burst out:

My Lord and my God!

It is clearly a statement of deep faith. He is the only person in the Gospel to address Jesus directly as ‘God’. And it seems to have been made without his touching the body of his Risen Lord.

Jesus then says:

Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.

Two comments can be made. First, Thomas in fact went beyond what he was seeing. He saw the Risen Jesus, but he addressed him as God. That was something which went beyond just seeing—it was a statement of faith.

Second, the rest of the statement is addressed to us. None of us has ever seen the Risen Jesus, but we firmly believe that he did rise from the dead and is in glory with the Father. It is on the basis of that act of faith that our Christian life is founded.

The First Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians reminds us that our membership in the Christian community is built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets with Jesus himself as the headstone. Thomas is part of that foundation. And it is through Jesus that the whole structure of the Christian community is held together and:

…grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In the Risen Jesus, we:

…are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

We, as Paul says elsewhere, are the Temple of the Lord, the Body of Christ, his visible presence on earth. This is both a huge privilege and a huge responsibility for each one of us. We remember that Jesus once said:

…whoever sees me sees him who sent me. (John 12:45)

But we also believe that whenever someone looks at us, they should also see Jesus. This is the faith that Jesus spoke of to Thomas. Are we really aware of this?

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Commentary on 2 Cor 5:14-6:1; Ps 148; John 3:29-36

Read Saint Bernardino Realino – Readings »

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Commentary on Ezekiel 34:11-16 or 1 Peter 3:8-18; Psalm 30; John 10:11-16

The Gospel reading appropriately is from the Gospel of John where Jesus speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd. And one of the signs of a good shepherd is that he is ready to lay down his life for his sheep. In this he is totally different from a hired man who, as soon as he senses danger, takes to his heels and abandons the sheep. He has no real concern for the sheep; he is doing it for the money he can earn.

The good shepherd, on the contrary, has a very special relationship with his sheep. To the outsider, they all look the same but the shepherd knows each one individually and they know him. And, if necessary, the good shepherd is ready to lay down his life for his sheep. And, he not only cares for his own sheep, but he will also be on the lookout for other wandering sheep he can bring into his flock.

Of course, this image matches perfectly the life and work of Jesus himself, the Good Shepherd. But it also should be the image of every good pastor in the Church and certainly applied totally to Oliver Plunkett, who took great risks to pastor his sheep and in the end, gave his life for them.

There is a choice of two First Readings. The first is from Ezekiel’s wonderful parable of the shepherds, addressed to the spiritual leaders of Israel. Here, too, God calls himself the Shepherd of his people:

As shepherds sort out their flocks when they are among scattered sheep, so I will sort out my sheep…I will bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel…I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture…I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.

And he says:

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…

This picture of God as the Good Shepherd was brought to life in the person of Jesus who, in turn, expected his followers to be cared for by shepherds with the same caring spirit. And again, we can see in Oliver Plunkett such a shepherd. Let us pray that we may never be short of such shepherds in our communities.

The alternative First Reading is from the First Letter of Peter. In the first part it speaks of how the Christian should behave—be of one mind, sympathetic, loving towards one another, compassionate, humble, not returning evil for evil, insult for insult but instead, a blessing. In fact, Oliver Plunkett was being described as a person of great gentleness.

In the second part of the reading, we are told not to be afraid of suffering where the living of our Christian faith is concerned. And, if we are criticised or abused for our beliefs, let us be ready to give an explanation, but with gentleness and reverence:

…so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

In all of this, we have the example of Jesus Christ who also suffered for sin, “the righteous for the unrighteous”. As Paul reminds us elsewhere, we do need to remember that Jesus died for us not because we were good, but because we were sinners! We are called to do the same. And, of course, it was what Oliver Plunkett did when he offered his life on the gallows at Tyburn. No wonder it is a specially holy place!

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Commentary on Acts 12:1-11; 2 Timothy 4:6-8,17-18; Matthew 16:13-19

On this day we celebrate a special feast of the Church, symbolised by the two great Apostles, Peter and Paul. They were the two men around whom the mission of Jesus to establish the Kingdom was centred, and from whom it grew and spread to every corner of the world. As the preface for today’s Mass puts it:

“Peter raised up the church from the faithful flock of Israel. Paul brought your call to the nations, and became the teacher of the world. Each in his chosen way gathered into unity the one family of Christ. Both shared a martyr’s death and are praised throughout the world.

Peter and Paul represent two very distinct roles of the Church in its mission to the world.

Source of stability
Peter represents that part of the Church which gives it stability:

• its traditions handed down in an unbroken way from the very beginnings,
• the structures which help to preserve and conserve those traditions,
• the structure which also gives consistency and unity to the Church, spread as it is through so many races, cultures, traditions, and geographical diversity.

Peter today is represented by the pope, who is the great symbol of unity and continuity. Without his role, we would see the Church break up and disintegrate, which has happened to a large extent with those parts of the Church that broke away from the central body. A number of the mainline non-Catholic Christian churches realise today the importance of that central role of Peter and they are trying to find ways by which we could all become one Church again, ways by which diversity could be recognised, but divisions removed, that all who believe in Christ might find and express that unity (but not uniformity) for which Christ prayed during the Last Supper.

Prophetic role
Paul, on the other hand, represents another key role, the prophetic and missionary role. It is that part of the Church which constantly works on the edge, pushing the boundaries of the Church further out, not only in a geographical sense, but also pushing the concerns of the Church into neglected areas of social concern and creatively developing new ways of communicating the Christian message. This is the Church which is semper reformanda, a Church which needs to be constantly renewed.

This renewal is spurred on by the Church’s contact with the surrounding world. This world is itself changing and, in our own times, changing with bewildering speed. Not only new technologies, but new knowledge, new ideas and new thinking continue to surface. Our rapidly changing societies call on us to express the core of our faith in new ways.

As a theologian once said, “The world writes the agenda for the Church.” That does not mean that the Church is to conform to the ways of the world—quite the contrary. What it does mean is that the Church’s evangelising work has to be in response to where people actually are. It is no good just handing out the same old things in the same old way. If the Church is to remain relevant, if it is to continue speaking in a meaningful way to a rapidly changing world, if it is to keep up with the new knowledge and ideas which change our ways of understanding the world in which we live, it has to renew itself constantly in the way it:

• expresses its message,
• structures itself,
• communicates its message,
• dialogues with the world.

The world may not like what the Church has to say, but it should be able to understand it and be stimulated by it.

New challenges
A changing world involves new challenges of what is right and wrong. A changing world brings about new social problems, new forms of poverty, of injustice, of exploitation and discrimination, of lack of freedom and the absence of peace.

Hence there have to be new ways of preaching and witnessing to the Gospel of truth, of love, of justice, of freedom, of peace. For this we need the prophetic role of the Church, built on the foundations of tradition and continuity. We have to avoid the two tendencies either of digging in and looking only to the past, or of neglecting the traditions and bringing in innovations with no foundations.

When faced with difficult situations, Catholics tend either to dig in and become fundamentalist, or to throw in the towel completely. Neither is helpful either to the Church or to society.

God’s accompanying presence
The readings today emphasise the presence of God in the work of his Church. Peter’s faith and acknowledgment of Jesus as the Messiah-Christ and Saviour-King are rewarded by his being made the foundation on which Christ will build his Church. Through Peter, Jesus gives his Church a guarantee of never-ending protection. And he gives to Peter, as his representative, the powers which he himself had received from the Father, the “keys of the Kingdom”.

Through the centuries, the Church has been battered and countless efforts made to wipe it out, but it continues to benefit from Christ’s promise and overall to grow in numbers. And as long as it remains faithful to the principles it received from Christ, principles which are of the very nature of God, and consonant with the deepest longings of human nature, it cannot fail. Truth and love cannot be suppressed.

Doing the only thing possible
We see this constancy of the Church in the First Reading, where Peter is thrown into jail for preaching the message of Christ and the Kingdom. As Paul, who was himself in prison more than once, will say later, the word of God cannot be bound. Peter finds release and then goes back to the only thing he can do—proclaiming the message of his beloved Master. The miraculous release from prison symbolises that protection over his Church which Jesus had promised in the Gospel. It is significant too that Peter’s imprisonment occurred during Passover week, the same week in which Jesus himself was arrested and suffered.

A well-spent life
Paul in the Second Reading speaks first with gratitude of how his life has been spent in the service of his Lord:

I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.

May we be able to say the same as we approach the end of our life.

Paul also speaks of how God continued to protect him through all kinds of trials and persecutions:

…the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it.

He too knows that the Lord will continue to protect him, but he also knows that when his time comes, he is ready to go.

Paul’s love for Jesus is so intense that he finds it difficult to choose between staying alive and working for the Kingdom, or dying and being reunited with Jesus, his beloved Lord. As he said once in a memorable phrase:

For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. (Phil 1:21)

In either case, he is with his beloved Lord.

Ever old, ever new
As we celebrate this feast today, let us both remain faithful to the traditions which have come down to us over 2,000 years ago, and at the same time, be ever ready to make the necessary changes and adaptations by which the message of Christ can be effectively communicated to all those who still have a hunger for that truth and love which over the centuries never changes.

Let us pray today:

• for the whole Church all over the world,
• for our pope as the focus of unity for Christians everywhere,
• for those who, while remaining faithful to the core traditions, are creatively finding new ways to proclaim the message of the Kingdom to people everywhere,
• for those places where the Church is working under great difficulties,
• for our own parish community, that it may truly be loyal to the faith of our fathers,
• to have a true missionary spirit, effectively to proclaim Christ to all those among whom we live.

In other words, what agenda is our local society writing for our local church?

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Commentary on Hosea 11:1,3-4,8-9; Ephesians 3:8-12,14-19; John 19:31-37

In today’s feast, we celebrate in a special way the love of God for us, especially as expressed through the life, sufferings and death of Jesus. In earlier times, especially in the Middle Ages, devotion was rather to the wound in the side of Christ and that event appears in today’s Gospel passage from John. In later times, especially arising from the visions of St Margaret Mary, the emphasis shifted more to the Heart of Jesus, as a symbol of the love of Jesus and hence of God for us. St Margaret Mary belonged to the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial in France, where she died in 1680.

John’s Gospel features a number of ‘signs’, which express the meaning and significance of Jesus’ life as God speaking to us through him in a special way. Among these signs would be the changing of wine into water at the marriage feast of Cana or the feeding of the 5,000 people by Jesus on the mountain. Others include the healing of a cripple beside a pool, the restoration of sight to a blind man and the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Each one has a spiritual meaning beyond the physical curing that took place.

In today’s Gospel we read of the piercing of the side of Jesus as another ‘sign’, and one not mentioned in any of the other three Gospels.

Blood and water
This sign occurs after the execution of Jesus by his being crucified and nailed to a cross – a common Roman punishment for criminals. Normally, crucified people could survive for several days on the cross and, in fact, it was a custom of the Romans to leave the bodies for an indefinite period, as a deterrent to other possible criminals. However, with the approach of the Sabbath, the Jews would not allow the bodies of the executed to be left beyond sunset. Hence, the two other criminals executed with Jesus had their legs broken to hasten their death. But, when they came to Jesus, they found that he was already dead. He had already suffered so much from the scourging and the crowning with thorns. However, to make sure, one of the Roman soldiers pierced the side of Jesus – and his heart.

John then reports that blood and water flowed out from the opening in the side of Jesus. Medically speaking, this was not a strange phenomenon, but for John it has special significance. It is another special ‘sign’ pointing to the meaning of the work and mission of Jesus. Already in his Gospel, water and blood have been established as signs of salvation.

In his interview with Nicodemus, Jesus had said:

Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. (John 3:5)

This is an obvious reference to Baptism. Then in his discourse on the Bread of Life, Jesus had said:

Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day…Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. (John 6:53-54,56)

In describing the water and blood flowing from the side of Jesus, it is likely that John expects his readers to link the ‘sign’ with Baptism and the Eucharist, the two main sacramental celebrations of the early Church. And this is the common interpretation of the Fathers of the Church.

Jesus’ moment of glory
For John, the Cross is Jesus’ moment of glory – encompassing his death, his rising to new life and reunion with his Father and the breathing out of his Spirit on his followers. So, just before the Last Supper, Jesus tells his disciples:

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. (John 12:32)

The ‘lifting up’ includes not just his being lifted up on the cross, but also his being raised to glory by his Father.

Hence it is understood that the Church can be said to have been born from the wounded side of Christ. Such importance is given to this ‘sign’ that in today’s Gospel, John strongly emphasises the reliability of his witness:

He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth, so that you also may continue to believe.

John concludes the passage with two other ‘signs’. He sees the manner of Jesus’ death – different from that of those crucified with him – as the fulfilment of a text of Scripture:

None of his bones shall be broken.

This refers to the preparation of the lamb for the Paschal celebration of the Jews where instructions were given that, in preparing the lamb for the meal, no bones were to be broken. Jesus, of course, is now the new Paschal Lamb, whose blood poured out in love will bring salvation to peoples everywhere.

Then John quotes a text from the prophet Zechariah which he sees as pointing to the death of Jesus. The original text reads:

And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn. (Zech 12:10)

And a few verses on, Zechariah continues:

On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. (Zech 13:1)

These texts point to the followers of Jesus who faithfully stood by his cross, and the ‘fountain’ can refer to the cleansing water pouring from the side of Jesus – dead but also risen in glory.

The whole Gospel passage speaks of the love of God poured forth through the sacrificial death of his Son. And that is also what we are celebrating today in remembering the pierced Heart of Jesus, for us now a unique symbol of Love.

God our loving parent
The First Reading is from the prophet Hosea, where Yahweh speaks as a loving parent of a dear child. A child he called “out of Egypt”, reminding Israel of the great act of liberation when they were released from slavery and began their journey to the Promised Land:

I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.

Yahweh is like a loving parent who lifts the child tenderly to his cheek – another beautiful image of our loving God.

The Second Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians has Paul make a beautiful prayer. He prays that those he is addressing may, like the rest of the Church, deepen their understanding of God’s plan of salvation in Christ. He prays that Christ’s love may live in their hearts – the same love that emanates from the Heart of Christ – through faith. Then, using a lovely phrase, Paul writes that they and their fellow Christians everywhere will be:

…rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

So today we celebrate the extraordinary love of God for us, manifested in such an extraordinary way by the sufferings, death and rising of Jesus Christ. Let us reflect today on the many ways in which that love has been and continues to be manifested in our lives.

But let us not stop there. If we are fully to receive that Love and if it is to be truly effective in our lives, then it must be passed on to every person we meet:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 12:35)

And this love is to have no limits, no exceptions. It is to be extended even to those who are hostile to us. Our love must be a love of forgiveness, reconciliation, healing and compassion.

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Commentary on Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14,18; Mark 13:24-32

Today is the second to last Sunday of the Church year. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.

On this Sunday, the readings traditionally speak about the end of the world—the end of time. This refers to the final coming of Jesus to take all peoples and all creation to himself, for Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the source and the end of all things.

In the passage immediately before today’s Gospel, Jesus spoke about the fall and destruction of Jerusalem (Mark 13:14-23). It was a catastrophic experience for the Jews—even worse than the destruction of Rome and St Peter’s would be for us. This is because for the Jews, Jerusalem and its Temple were the very dwelling place of God. It was not the first time the Temple had been desecrated and the Jews driven out into exile, but this destruction has lasted over 2,000 years. There is a Muslim mosque now on the site, and that is not likely to change in the foreseeable future.

For the early Church it was a very significant event. Even in the letters of Paul, which predated the destruction of the city and Temple, he already speaks of the “new Temple”, made of the members of the Body of Christ. Christ was to be found in people and not in a building—that is why the destruction of the Vatican and St Peter’s would not affect the essential nature of the Church. In the early Church, Christians assembled in private homes. Churches, as we know them, only came into existence when, because of the rapid growth of Christianity, homes were too small. Assembly halls (‘basilicas’ from the Greek, basileus, meaning ‘king’) had to be used which, in the course of time, were exclusively used for religious worship.

The coming of the Son of Man
Today Jesus speaks of the appearance of the Son of Man in glory and the final establishment of the Reign of God. Many people will come under that Reign, probably many more than we may expect. Others may reject it for ever and choose the outer darkness. In rejecting the Way of Jesus and the Kingship of God (and this is not necessarily the same as rejecting Christianity), they choose to be outsiders forever.

The ‘Son of Man’ here is understood as Jesus, the man on earth that the disciples knew and loved, but now appearing in all the unparalleled glory of God’s own majesty. Today’s Gospel speaks about:

…‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.

This echoes a passage in the Book of Daniel (7:13-14), but here the Son of Man is even more victorious.

Jesus’ appearance is described in terms usually used in the Old Testament for the appearances of God himself. He sends out angels or messengers and gathers all God’s people together—acts of God in the language of the Old Testament:

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

In the Old Testament prophecies, God manifests his glory in the final days:

…at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

The scattered people are gathered to Jerusalem and to God himself.

In today’s Gospel, they are gathered to the Son of Man, who commands the angels as if they were his own, saying:

…he will send out the angels and gather the elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

Thus we have an affirmation of the central place Jesus, the Son of Man, has in the expectations of the Christians and a reflection of the divine role he is understood to exercise.

Inner meaning
The first half of today’s Gospel leans heavily on traditional language and ideas from the Old Testament. We need to emphasise that the description of events is not to be understood literally as a prophecy of what is actually going to happen. Rather we are to look at the inner meaning of these happenings. The cosmic disturbances about the sun, moon and stars are traditional ways of describing manifestations of God’s judgment of Israel:

…the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

In ancient Israelite times, people believed that the sun, moon and stars represented deities who controlled world affairs. Israel believed that when God acted, these celestial bodies would be disturbed. (Of course, at that time, they had no idea of the real nature and structure of our stellar world.)

What is being said here is that these celestial bodies, which other nations believed controlled history, would be shown to be helpless under the power of God. And so, the sun and moon will stop giving light; the stars will fall from the skies.

In Mark’s time, of course, the belief in the power of the stars was very strong. So too, in imperial China, was the role of astronomers who could accurately predict eclipses was of the greatest importance. Because of their skill in such calculations, the Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century had access to the very throne of the Chinese emperor himself. And even today there are many people who religiously consult the astrology columns in our newspapers.

No time frame
While all these things are being forecast, there is no time frame given. There is no immediate link being offered between the destruction of Jerusalem and the final coming of Jesus as King and Lord of all.

Even so, the early Christians did expect that Jesus would come in their lifetime. This is reflected in Jesus’ words:

Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

It was natural for those who grew up in the Jewish tradition to believe that the end of Jerusalem could only mean the end of the world, just as some centuries later, St Augustine thought that the conquering of Rome by pagan barbarians was the end of Christian civilisation. But already, by the time this Gospel was being written, people were beginning to have doubts about the imminent coming of Christ.

Parable of the fig tree
Jesus then gives a short parable or lesson from the fig tree. Fig trees were a prominent and well-known feature on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus is speaking. This tree only sprouts its leaves in late spring. When they appear you know that summer is near.

So, in effect, Jesus is saying that although the end of the world is being described in calamitous terms, his disciples are to respond with faith, with hope, and with anticipation. The end of the world means good times, ‘summer’, for them. They are not signs that God has lost control of history, but that he is bringing things to a triumphant end. It is indeed the victory of God and the twilight of all the lesser gods which men have created for themselves over the centuries. Heaven and earth, the sun, moon, stars, galaxies and our own little planet may all disappear, but God’s Truth, Love and Justice will prevail forever.

No one knows how or when
Finally, in spite of the warnings that some people love to give, the ‘when’ of all this is completely unknown. As we came to the end of the millennium and entered a new one, there were many who warned that ‘the end is nigh!’.

There are those who warn—on the basis of various apparitions—that God, offended by so much evil, is going to take a terrible vengeance on our world. This is highly dangerous language we must be careful to avoid. God does not take revenge. God is not hurt or offended by what we do. His is a never-changing love. He has nothing but compassion for the sinner who does not and cannot hurt God, but only hurts himself. In the language of today, God is totally proactive, not reactive! No one, says Jesus, not even he himself knows when the end will come:

But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.

It is not for us to worry about that. In fact, worrying will not help.

On the other hand, we should not play a kind of Russian roulette with life and keep putting off the day of our conversion to God. The only way is to live today and every day in his love and service. It is the present which determines the future—so let’s just concentrate on the here and now. Then we already have entered the Lord’s Kingdom and when, early or late, he comes to call us to himself, it will just be a reunion of old friends.

In fact, God is already here—he always has been and always will be. It is not that he will come to us, but that we will enter into a deeper relationship with him when we pass through the kairos (Greek, ‘the right or critical moment’) of death to a different kind of life.
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Many of the ideas reflected in this commentary come from New International Biblical Commentary—Mark by Larry W Hurtado.