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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; 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 Gospels 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; 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. 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,
• for us 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.
_________________________________________
Many of the ideas reflected in this commentary come from New International Biblical Commentary—Mark by Larry W Hurtado.

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Commentary Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11,16-17; John 2:13-22

Today’s reading from John’s Gospel is the account of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple. The synoptics report this event just before the Passion, but John puts it much earlier, just after the story of the wedding feast at Cana.

We are told Jesus had gone up to Jerusalem from Galilee because the Passover feast was near. When he entered the Temple area he found people selling oxen, sheep and doves to be offered by pilgrims as sacrifices. There were also money changers because Roman currency could not be used in the Temple and had to be changed for Jewish shekels. Jesus was not at all happy about these activities.

He made a small whip of cords and began driving out those selling animals and overturned the tables of the money-changers, saying:

Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!

Of course, what the sellers were doing was not against any law; in fact, it was a necessary service. The problem was that commerce like this should have been done outside the Temple area, just as we would not be happy to see trinkets and such being sold inside the church building after Mass. Hawkers tend to get as close to the action as they can and that is what was happening here—but it was still inappropriate.

However, some Jews challenged Jesus, asking: “What sign can you show us authorising you to do such things?” What Jews were these? Were they priests or officials of the Temple who were getting a ‘cut’ on the hawkers’ profits and turning a blind eye to their selling inside the Temple precincts?

Jesus gave them a strange answer:

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

The Jews took him literally saying:

This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?

This was the mighty Temple of Herod, which even after 46 years was not yet quite finished.

But as John comments, Jesus was talking about the Temple of his Body. And it was only after the Resurrection that the disciples came to understand the meaning of Jesus’ words. They are words we need to remember today. We are celebrating the dedication of a church building, the Lateran Basilica, but what is much more important are the people who use that building. It is they who give it its significance, and not the other way round.

In the New Covenant, there is no temple building. The temple is now the Christian community, which is the Risen Body of Christ. Jesus is in effect saying: “Whoever sees you, sees Me.” So it is important in today’s celebration that we recall who we are, and how we are to be seen to be the Temple of Christ’s Body for the world.

There is a choice of First Readings today.* One is from the prophet Ezekiel and is part of a beautiful image of fresh water flowing out from the Temple in Jerusalem and bringing new life and fertility to wherever it flows. This fresh and clean water flows east into the Dead Sea and makes it fresh again:

Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes…On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail…

It is an image of the Temple of Jerusalem as a source of life for all. And in today’s celebration, it points to the life that comes to the world through the communities which gather together in a church like St John Lateran and all our cathedrals and parish churches. Again, it is not the building which is the source of life, but the community which gathers together there.

In the alternate First Reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks very strongly of the Christian community as the true Temple of God:

For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Paul sees himself as a builder, but it is not a building of bricks and mortar he is erecting, but a building of people. And he is only initiating the building work; others will take over from him and continue it. This building of people can have only one foundation, and that is Jesus Christ.

And Paul concludes in words that leave no room for doubt:

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

So, in celebrating today’s feast, we are being called on to focus more on the kind of temple that we are than on the building, however important and beautiful it may be. In the beginning, there were no churches and people met in each other’s homes for the Eucharist. Church buildings became necessary because of growing numbers. In fact, if St John Lateran, St Peter’s and all the churches in the world were to collapse into ruins, the real Temple of God would continue—in us:

For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. (Matt 18:20)

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*When this feast falls on a Sunday, the passage from 1 Corinthians is read as the second reading.

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Most people probably think that St Peter’s Basilica is the pope’s main church in Rome. But actually, it is the Church of St John Lateran which is the cathedral and hence the pope’s church as bishop of the Diocese of Rome. On the façade of the basilica there is an inscription in Latin which reads:

We tend to forget that the pope is primarily a bishop, a ‘first among equals’, and that this church has a special and symbolic importance for the whole Church.

The first church building on this site was built in the 4th century when the Emperor Constantine gave land he had received from the wealthy Lateran family. That church, and others which replaced it, suffered over the centuries from fire, earthquakes and war, but it remained the church where popes were consecrated until they returned from exile in Avignon, in the south of France. When the Avignon papacy formally ended and the pope could return to Rome, the Lateran Palace and the basilica were in a serious state of disrepair. The popes took up residency at the Basilica of St Mary in Trastevere, and later at the Basilica of St Mary Major. Eventually, the Palace of the Vatican was constructed, and it has been the pope’s residence into the present time.

The current Lateran basilica was erected in 1646. It ranks first among the four major basilicas in Rome (the others are St Peter’s, St Mary Major’s and St Paul’s Outside the Walls) as the Ecumenical Mother Church. On top of its facade are 15 large statues representing Christ, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and 12 Doctors of the Church. Underneath its high altar are the remains of a small wooden table on which tradition claims St Peter celebrated the Eucharist.

St John Baptist and St John the Evangelist are regarded as co-patrons of the cathedral, the chief patron being Christ the Saviour himself, as the inscription at the entrance of the basilica indicates, and as is the tradition in the patriarchal cathedrals. The basilica remains dedicated to the Saviour, and its titular feast is the Transfiguration. Its full title then is:

Celebrating the dedication of the pope’s cathedral today is a way of expressing the unity of the whole Church with the pope, the Bishop of Rome. And the union of each local church with this church is an expression of the unity of all churches both with Rome and with each other.

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Commentary on 1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

We live in a very image-conscious society. Status, respect and ‘face’ are very important. How we are seen is more important than who we really are. The scribes and Pharisees are presented today as very image-conscious. It was more important to be seen and thought of as good and holy than to be really so. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says:

Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!

In fact, scribes, as interpreters of the Law, were deeply respected for their great learning. They wore long white robes as a sign of their devotion to the Law. People were supposed to stand in their presence and greet them with titles like ‘Master’ or ‘Father’. The problem was that they began to feel that such respect was a right, and this was accompanied by arrogance and pomposity. The respect for God’s Law, they began to arrogate for themselves.

The status-seekers
All of us can think of people in prominent positions in our own society who behave in a similar manner. They include some belonging to the ‘nobility’, those whose only claim to prominence is that they were born into a particular family; certain political leaders; some people in well-paid professions; some people who simply have a lot of money to throw around and can surround themselves with the perks of luxury; and last, but not least, some church and religious leaders.

At the same time, Jesus accuses the scribes of being rapacious exploiters who “devour widows’ houses” while making an outward show of piety. Power and position are all too frequently linked with material greed and corruption. Again, church leaders cannot always claim innocence. In our own time we have seen some so-called ‘televangelists’ raking in contributions from thousands of simple people and then living the high life (and even an immoral life) on these contributions.

All of these things we can observe in our own society. We see rich socialites anxious to make the world’s Ten Best Dressed list. When some famous celebrity, e.g. a member of the family of the US president or of royalty comes to town, there are people who jockey to get into the welcoming banquet and to be seated near (and above all to be seen to be seated near) the ‘distinguished’ guest of honour. We see politicians, community leaders and even clerics who not only get, but demand to be treated specially. We know of people in England desperate for that knighthood, or in France for the Legion of Honour, or people lusting after other prizes and honours that are dished out every year.

St Teresa of Calcutta
By contrast, one might remember the video footage of St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) coming to visit a school in Hong Kong. Over her habit she wore an old grey cardigan and on her feet an ageing pair of leather sandals. A couple of weeks later she was back in India receiving the Templeton Award from Queen Elizabeth of England. Photographs showed her shaking hands with the queen and wearing the same cardigan and the same sandals. The queen did not seem to mind or probably even notice. Can you imagine the tizzy that some would be in on such an occasion? What will I wear? How will I look on TV?!

Perhaps we feel that Mother Teresa was different and could get away with it. And of course, she was different and that is the point. But why should we be different from her? Is she saying something to us we might profitably take note of?

When we are concerned about image and ‘face’, when we are worried about what people are thinking of us or are anxious about whether our weaknesses are too visible, we cannot relate to other people freely and concentrate on how we can be of help to them.

In speaking about the scribes and Pharisees, the Gospel is really talking to us Christians who suffer from exactly the same problems as they did. It is the Pharisees in our own midst that we need to be concerned about. Even more, it is the Pharisee in myself that should be a cause of most concern.

The widow’s lot
The second part of the Gospel shows a very different picture. In a way, it is a completely different scenario, and yet there are connections. The linking word between the two is ‘widow’.

The poorest people in Jesus’ society are represented by orphans and widows. In a society with no social welfare, these were people often without family support. The orphan, by definition, has no family and no means of support and is not wanted. The widow, in a society where husbands could often die young of disease or death in war, may often have been relatively young herself. In a world of arranged marriages, she might never be chosen again as a bride. With her husband dead, she was of no interest either to her husband’s family or even her own. If she had no children, she was alone and uncared for and possibly—and perhaps even probably—reduced to poverty.

There is a striking contrast between the poor widow described in the second part of today’s Gospel and the scribes and Pharisees in the first part. The simple piety of this woman of no social standing is contrasted with the arrogance and social ambitions of some so-called religious leaders. She is also contrasted with the rich donors ostentatiously offering money they can easily afford. It is doubtful that what they gave involved even the slightest diminution in their standard of living.

How often have we foregone a vacation, or a weekend away or even a single meal in a restaurant because the money for it was given to people who were living on the edge of survival? Again, the Gospel is pointing the finger at us and not to people who lived a long time ago.

A daring act of trust
This poor woman, in a daring act of trust in God’s providence, put into the treasury everything she had—and it was next to nothing. She had two small coins. She put in both. By the Law, she could have kept one for herself. But the service of God can never be in half measures.

The First Reading from the First Book of Kings has a similar story. It also features a poor widow and her son. Reduced to absolute penury, she is on her way to get firewood to cook a last meal for them both from “a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug”—all that she has left. She sees nothing but death before them. Then Elijah, the prophet, himself hungry, comes and asks her for water and bread. When she tells him her situation, he still asks her to make a “little cake” for him. In a generous act of sharing, she does so, and she is rewarded by there being enough for all three of them, and the jar of meal and the jug of oil does not empty until the drought is over. The message is clear: when everyone gives, everyone receives.

It may seem a foolish thing to do, but there are countless examples of people doing this in the service of the Gospel. The Gospel today is saying it is only when we realise that God and the Way of Jesus is the only real source of security that we will find the happiness, peace and security we all long for.

It is not money, or property, or university degrees, or professional status, or health that really matter. These can all disappear without warning. What really matters is that people take care of each other.

A bridge story
This story in Mark also forms a bridge between the teaching life of Jesus and the Passion narrative which is soon to follow. This widow, who gives up everything she has to God and puts all her trust in God, is a symbol of Jesus himself who will soon make the total offering of his life, his work and his good name to his Father out of love for us.

This story is meant to be also a summation of all Jesus’ teaching about discipleship. He wishes us to identify with this apparent ‘nobody’ over against the avaricious, arrogant, ambitious, image-conscious mindset represented by some of the scribes and Pharisees and the wealthy Temple-goers—the rich and famous of the day. In fact, the widow was anything but a ‘nobody’; she had a greatness which they totally lacked.

What matters is not what we have or what we can get; not what we can do or what people think of us. What matters is that I be fully, freely, truly my real self before God and before others. Can I let go of everything to give myself totally into God’s hands with the sure conviction that he will give me the support I need? When a lot of us do that, our faith will be confirmed.