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Clare was born on 16 July, 1194, in Assisi, Umbria, Italy, the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, and his wife Ortolana. Ortolana was a devout woman who had made pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land. Later in life, she entered Clare’s convent. Stories that Clare heard Francis of Assisi preaching in Assisi about his new mendicant order, recently approved by Pope Innocent III, and was deeply moved by his words cannot be firmly established. In 1212, her parents had decided she should marry a wealthy young man, but Clare fled from her home and sought refuge with Francis, who received her as a nun.

Clare lived for short periods, first, at a nearby Benedictine convent, San Paolo della Abadesse, and then at a house of women penitents, Sant’ Angelo on Monte Subasio. Clare was joined here by her mother and two sisters, as well as by some of the wealthy Ubaldini family from Florence.

They both then moved to the church of San Damiano, which, in response to a vision, Francis had restored. Here other women joined Clare and they became known for their austere lifestyle. They were at first known as the “Poor Ladies”. San Damiano emerged as the most important house in the order and Clare became its undisputed head. They followed a life of extreme poverty and austerity, believed to be more severe than other nuns of the period. Like the Franciscan friars, Clare’s nuns rapidly spread to other parts of Europe. Spain saw 47 convents already in the 13th century and there were others in Bohemia, France and England. Four convents were established in England in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Unlike the Franciscan friars, whose members moved around the country to preach, Clare’s sisters lived an enclosed life. It would be much later before nuns could move round freely in public places. Their life, like monks, consisted of manual labour and prayer. In 1216, the order came directly under Francis, and Clare was given the title of prioress. In this role, she resisted attempts by church officials to impose a Benedictine rule rather than Francis’ more strict way of life. By the papal Privilegium paupertatis of 1228, three convents, including San Damiano, would live entirely on alms, renouncing all income from rents or other property.

For her part, Clare also played a significant role in encouraging Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure. During his illnesses towards the end of his life, she took care of him until his death in 1226. After his death, she continued to promote the growth of her Sisters while still resisting Church efforts to lessen her commitment to an austerely simple way of life, in spite of experiencing long periods of poor health up to her death. On 9 August, 1253, the Papal bull Solet annure of Pope Innocent IV confirmed that Clare’s Rule would serve as the governing rule for the Order of Poor Ladies. Two days later, on 11 August, Clare died at the age of 59.

On 15 August, 1255, Pope Alexander IV canonized her as Saint Clare of Assisi. In 1263, Pope Urban IV officially changed the name of the Order of Poor Ladies to the Order of Saint Clare, now commonly referred to as the Poor Clares.

On 17 February, 1958, Pope Pius XII designated her patron saint of television, on the basis that, when she was too ill to attend a Mass, she had been miraculously able to see and hear it on the wall of her room.

In art, she is shown carrying a monstrance or pyx, in commemoration of the time when she warded away attackers at the gates of her convent by raising the Blessed Sacrament over the wall.

Clare herself never left her convent at Assisi. She was regarded as one of the great medieval contemplatives, committed to serving her community with great joy and closely following Franciscan ideals, including Francis’ love of nature, long after his death in 1226. Although her body is no longer incorrupt, her skeleton is displayed in Assisi.

After her death, there was much controversy among the Sisters about the observance of poverty until Colette reformed the Poor Clares in the 15th century.

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Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8; James 1:17-18,21-22,27; Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

After five weeks of reflecting on the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel and the theme of Jesus as the Bread of Life, we return today to continuing our readings from Mark’s Gospel. The theme of today’s readings is the nature of true religion.

The Law of Moses was very important for the people of Israel. They were rightly proud of the legal system they had developed in their desire to be God’s people. Moses asks the Israelites in the First Reading:

…what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

Through the Law they were expected to lead lives which were different, better than their ‘pagan’ neighbours. There was, then, great emphasis on the observance of the Law as a sign of commitment and obedience to God. But, by the time of Jesus, the law had become so hopelessly complicated in its applications that only experts could interpret it in the many practical problems which would arise during daily life.

An end in itself
Another problem had arisen by Jesus’ time. The law was no longer a guideline helping people on their way to loving and serving God. Observing the law had become an end in itself. The emphasis was not on building a relationship with God and one’s fellow human beings, but on checking out one’s own external behaviour.

Sometimes our confessions can be like that. Many of the ‘sins’ we confess are often phrased as personal failures (I lost my temper, I was impatient, I was lazy, I was uncharitable) with very little reference to how I related with other people or how my actions (or, even more, my non-actions) caused them hurt.

As Jesus indicates in today’s Gospel, many of the Old Testament laws were of human invention. They had little to do with loving God, but rather were more concerned with conforming to social demands. On the one hand, they helped those in authority keep control; on the other, people knew where they stood. If they externally observed the Law, they were ‘good’.

In our time, we might say something like: “He’s a good Catholic; he’s always at church on Sunday.” There is no mention of what he does in church, what he thinks, or what he feels, or how he relates to the people around him during and especially after Mass. The important thing, in a way the only thing that matters, is that he is physically there.

Why no washing of hands?
The problem is presented in the Gospel today by a conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees. They challenge him:

Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?

The question really reflects tensions in the early Christian community of Mark, where some of the new Christians were Jews and some were Gentiles. The Gentiles did not follow Jewish customs and the Jewish Christians were upset.

The purpose of today’s Gospel, then, is to put these Jewish customs in proper perspective. Washing hands before eating is a very sensible precaution. How often as children were we told: “Don’t come to the table until you have washed your hands!”? There were many prescriptions in Jewish law which seem to be primarily hygienic in origin, e.g. the distinction between foods that were ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’. Experience had shown that certain foods could be dangerous to eat, and eating with dirty hands could be a source of disease or sickness. By attaching a religious sanction to recommended behaviour, observation was more likely.

Jesus is not criticising such precautions. What he is criticising is the disproportionate importance given to these things to the neglect of what is far more important, the love of God and the care for one’s fellow human beings. It was this sense of deep compassion that made Francis of Assisi throw caution to the winds and kiss the leper he met on the road.

So Jesus today quotes from the prophet Isaiah:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.

He admonishes them:

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.

These words seem directed not against the Pharisees as such, but against rigidly doctrinaire Jewish members of the Christian community, and against similar people among our own communities today.

Much of such enslavement to culture and tradition is a major source of conflict in our world today—between communities and within families. Such fundamentalism is a source of terrible hatred and violence in many countries and is the complete negation of true religion. We need to be very much aware of it in our own multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society. (And few societies today do not have an ethnic, cultural and religious mix.) With all our fancy technology, people today have changed very little from those of Jesus’ time.

Uncleanness on the inside
Jesus then speaks of the source of real uncleanness. The source of uncleanness is not any food or drink that comes from outside. Real uncleanness is in the heart. A person does not become ‘unclean’ by eating pork or by coming in contact with blood, still less by not washing hands before eating. He says:

For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly.

All these are in direct conflict with a genuinely loving relationship with God and people. Washing hands does nothing to change that.

Today we begin reading from the Letter of James and will continue doing so for the next few Sundays. In today’s reading the writer speaks of the real source of law:

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…

Jesus, as the Word of God, is the bearer of all this goodness and perfection. So James exhorts us to:

…rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls…be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

And, in striking contrast to what the Pharisees and scribes were saying to Jesus, James continues:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world [that is, from the spirit of the world].

In other words, religion has little to do with the observance of laws. It has more to do with being liberated from the corrupting influences of our environment, and being sensitive to the needs of the weakest and most marginalised among us. And this is true religion because, as Jesus said, whatever we did to the least of our brothers and sisters, “you did it to me” (Matt 25:40).

Attractiveness of law
There is a strong attraction for some to have a religion of laws and regulations. The question on their lips is often: “Is this a sin?” “Is it a mortal sin or ‘only’ a venial sin?” The main concern of such people is to know what they can get away with, and to be free from feelings of guilt.

But these are not the questions to ask. Our real concern should be: “Is this a loving thing to do?” There may or may not be any commandment or regulation about it, but if it is not a word or an act of love, then it is neither Christian, nor a truly human act, nor a moral act.

It is possible to keep all the laws and rules perfectly (as pharisees of all kinds do) and yet be very far from the spirit of Jesus and the Gospel. The law-keeper is primarily concerned with “saving their soul” or “being in the state of grace” (whatever that means!). Even when they show ‘charity’ to others, it is often simply to get ‘merit’ for themself.

Obviously in our Church and in our parish and wherever people have to work together, we have to have rules. But they are only means to help us work together more smoothly. Once the rules start dictating to us, then we are in trouble. There is a lot of truth in the statement, “Rules are made to be broken.”

Laws are meant not to restrict, but to maximise the freedom of individuals and groups without detriment to others. We often curse the traffic lights when they turn red against us, but we curse even more when they break down because of the chaos that ensues.

Vision, not laws
In the final analysis, each one has to discern for themselves just how, in given circumstances, they can best love and serve Christ. It calls for a great deal of honesty, integrity and a high level of real freedom—the freedom to choose what is good, what is better, what is more loving. The Gospel is not a code of laws. It provides a vision of a truly human life lived for God among other people. It is focused on relationships rather than individual actions.

This very day we will have many opportunities to love and serve Jesus in various situations. Instead of being anxious about what I may do wrong (“Is it a sin?”), ask rather, “Where and how can I be a more loving, caring and compassionate person this day?”

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Commentary on Joshua 24:1-2,15-18; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69

Today we have the fifth and final reading from the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel. Next week we will go back to reading from Mark’s Gospel. This passage is really a parallel to the scene in the Synoptics where Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. John, as often happens, puts it in a more dramatic way.

Jesus’ disciples are being presented with a crucial choice. It contrasts with the scene at Shechem from the end of the book of Joshua in today’s First Reading. God’s people have just entered the Promised Land. The people already living there have their own gods, gods who will seem very attractive to the Israelites.

Joshua has called together the elders, leaders, judges and scribes of Israel and presents them with a choice: either they can continue to serve the God who brought them out of Egypt and through the desert to the land where they are now settled; or they can adopt the gods of the Amorites whose land they have conquered for themselves.

The people make a clear choice for Yahweh and endorse the covenants that have been made in the past by Moses and their ancestors. However, they will not always be faithful to this promise and will fall away many times. In that, they were not so unlike us.

Too much to take?
We saw last week how shocking were the words of Jesus if they were heard literally:

…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53)

Now, not only the religious leaders, but Jesus’ own disciples are deeply scandalised:

This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?

And taken literally, how could any civilised person accept such a statement?

We, of course, know that the words are not to be taken in a literal sense. It is Jesus’ dramatic way of saying that we must accept him totally, without any conditions or reservation. His thoughts and attitudes, his values, his life-view must become totally ours. Above all, we are to identify with him in the offering of his flesh and the pouring out of his blood on the cross, the symbol of God’s unutterable love for us.

And, in the Eucharist, with which this chapter is closely linked, we recognise in our going to Communion the accepting of that challenge to be totally one with Jesus. It is not enough for him to come to me; I also have to go all the way to him, with him. When the minister says, offering the Bread: “The Body of Christ”, I respond with a total “Amen!”, meaning “Yes” That ‘Yes’ is not just an act of faith in the Real Presence, but a total commitment of myself to Jesus in the community of which I am a member.

Flesh and blood
There is then an ironic twist in what follows, when Jesus says:

It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.

The words of Jesus are spirit; they are life-bearing. To hear what he says about his “flesh” and “blood” literally is to hear with ears of flesh. It is only when we hear Jesus’ words in the spirit that they take on their real meaning, that they become, so to speak, flesh and blood. And, in their real meaning, they make radical demands.

Eating human flesh is repugnant, but we could do it (and it has been done in extreme situations). The total assimilation of Jesus’s spirit and outlook into our lives is far more challenging. And it was a challenge that some of Jesus’ disciples were not prepared to face. The reason:

…among you there are some who do not believe.

Only with a deep, unconditional trust in Jesus will we have that deeper insight into the real meaning of Jesus’ words. It requires an absolutely open mind ready to receive what is there, not what we put there. And this is a gift of God:

For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.

As if to prove the truth of Jesus’ words, the Gospel writer comments sadly:

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

The words “turned back” are very sad. The faith context of the word “con-version” means a turning towards God; but what has happened is an “a-version”, a turning away, even worse, a turning back to their old blindness. They no longer shared Jesus’ life and his light.

These are among the saddest words in the Gospel. This happens to many and it could happen to any of us. It happened to Judas, to the disciples in today’s Gospel and it almost happened to Peter.

Will you also go?
It is then that Jesus turns to the inner circle of the Twelve. Is there anxiety in Jesus’ question or is it a challenge:

Do you also wish to go away?

In words that remind us of the scene at Caesarea Philippi in the Synoptics, Peter, speaking for all, says:

Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

“Lord, to whom can we go?” Perhaps we too may feel like leaving Jesus, leaving his Church. We may sometimes even experience serious doubts about our faith. Perhaps we have had that experience already—it can be very painful and disconcerting. There are many reasons why this can happen:

• poor instruction in the Christian faith so that we go around with a distorted understanding of the Gospel message;
• negative witness or scandalising behaviour from other Christians, be they priests or lay people;
• conflicts with other Catholics or Christians;
• the powerful attraction of a seductive world which is not compatible with the Christian vision;
• a serious and conscientious choice of another life vision, joining another Christian or non-Christian faith.

On the other hand, many have reflected that, in spite of their difficulties or doubts, there is really no viable alternative to the way of life that Jesus proposes. It is a way of life that is not invalidated by the scandalous behaviour of some of Jesus’ followers. We learn to make a clear distinction between the essence of Christ’s vision and the messy way in which his followers try to live it.

Faith is not a given. It is not simply a set of ideas to be held on to. It is a living relationship with a Person and his vision of life. It is a relationship that needs to grow and be deepen with the years. It is a relationship that has constantly to be re-appraised in a constantly changing world. To be a Christian in our current time has different demands from being a Christian in earlier times.

A good example is today’s Second Reading. Proponents of women’s equal rights may not be very happy with some of the things said about marriage and wives in that passage. We cannot change the passage, which has many beautiful things in it, but we do need to sift what is the Word of God and what reflects Paul’s being a man of his times.

The parallel between the relationship of a husband and wife and that of the Church and Jesus its Lord is full of meaning. Certainly we may have problems with the wife’s having to submit to her husband “in everything”. But it is a submission of love, not of inferiority, and the same is required of husbands, who are to:

…love [their] wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her in order to make her holy…

Husbands are to “love their wives as [they love] their own bodies”. They are to give at least the same level of care to their partner as they would to themselves. This clearly involves a mutual bonding of deep intensity and commitment, which leaves little room for domination or exploitation by either partner.

Faith difficulties
To simply turn our back on Jesus and the Gospel because of a too literal reading of some words in this passage would seem out of proportion. While the message of the New Testament does not change, the way in which it is to be lived out has constantly to be adapted to a changing world and a changing me.

Many committed Christians have from time to time to grapple with serious faith difficulties in their lives. It is almost a necessary experience as one’s faith matures at different stages of life. Each time one finds oneself coming up with Peter’s response, “Lord, to whom [else] can we go?” Perhaps in doubt, one realises that a more satisfactory vision of life than that offered by Jesus in the Gospel had not been found.

The search for meaning
We all want, we all need meaning in our lives. At times, that meaning can become quite obscure. There can be times when the Church’s presentation of it simply does not convince. Emotions like fear, anger, resentment or passionate love can all get in the way, but we must remember that:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
(Matt 5:8)

There are other great ‘visions’ of life and millions follow them: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam. They have undoubtedly brought people to a very high degree of union with God. Personally, we here have opted to walk with Jesus’ vision. We will continue to do so unless a more convincing vision presents itself. If one were to find such a vision, one would have no option but to follow it. To do so would be a new conversion.

Probably that has not happened to us—so far—and somehow, it is not likely to happen. But we do need to respect it when it happens in others. What today’s Gospel warns us against is not so much being newly converted to what seems to be a deeper truth, but to guard against reverting back to a former state of blindness and darkness.

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Commentary on Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

Today we continue our fourth reading of the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel. The last one will be next week. The theme is the same: Jesus as the Bread of Life—although there is also a secondary, but related theme in today’s readings, that of wisdom.

Picking up from last week, Jesus says that whoever takes the food he has to offer will live forever—a life, we might emphasise, which begins in the here and now as soon as we start to partake of this special food. But today Jesus also says:

…the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Not surprisingly, the people around are deeply shocked at this weird-sounding statement, saying:

How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

There is a certain contempt, coupled with an ignorance of Jesus’ true identity, contained in the words “this man”.

A cultured people
Of course, the Jews were a highly cultured people with a long and distinguished history. Cannibalism was not one of their customs, and they abhorred the practices of some of their neighbours who were not above human sacrifice.

But Jesus, who must have been aware of their reactions, only gives greater emphasis to his words:

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.

To the eating of his flesh is now added the drinking of his blood.

We have been going to Mass for so many years now. We have become completely inured to many of the things we hear. Again and again we hear with complete equanimity:

Take this, all of you, and eat of it,
for this is my Body…

Take this, all of you, and drink from it,
for this is the chalice of my Blood…

Imagine a complete stranger to our liturgy coming in and hearing those words! And they do…any non-Catholic visitor to Mass will hear them.

So let us now hear them for the very first time from the lips of Jesus as he spoke them on that day:

…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood…

Very strange words! Not only strange, but humanly repulsive!

Horror of blood
The drinking of the blood must have seemed particularly disconcerting to a Jewish audience. They had both a reverence and a horror of blood. They saw it as the source of life. How often they saw their young men in battle lose all their blood and die! At the same time, to come in contact with blood was to become ritually unclean.

When a woman gave birth, she could not approach the Temple for several weeks…longer still, if the child was a girl. We remember the Gospel story of the woman who was suffering from a bleeding problem for 12 years. She desperately wanted Jesus to heal her but, because of the large crowd around, she did not dare to reveal herself and her condition. In faith, she just touched the hem of Jesus’ garment.

Almost certainly, too, this was the reason the priest and the Levite “passed by on the other side” when they saw the man lying on the road and undoubtedly bleeding in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). They were on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem and could not afford to become contaminated. And that was the lesson Jesus taught: they put ritual purity above the love of neighbour.

As we know, observant Jews today will only eat meat from which the blood has been drained (kosher). And now, here is Jesus asking these same people to drink his blood! You do not have to be a Jew to find the idea abhorrent. No wonder there were people who thought he was out of his mind, apart from the scandal his words gave.

And yet, this idea is not considered abhorrent to some cultures. We are told that the Jesuit martyrs of North America died such heroic deaths that the warriors who killed them removed their hearts and ate them in order that they might gain some of the courage of those missionaries.

What did Jesus really mean?
That is very much behind the idea of today’s Gospel, though not, of course, in any literal sense. So what was the exact meaning of what Jesus was saying? Was he just talking about the Eucharist, with which his words have an obvious affinity? It was much more than that. To eat the flesh of Jesus and to drink his blood is to be totally united with him and filled with his spirit and vision. It is to be able to say with St Paul:

…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.
(Gal 2:20)

It means totally sharing Jesus’ vision, his ideas, his values. It is to be totally identified with his mission to establish the Kingdom in this world. It is to be nourished by his Word as it comes to us through the Scriptures and have our lives directed by it.

Further, because his flesh and blood are so closely related with his suffering and death, we are to identify ourselves too with that total self-giving—to carry our own cross after him and to accept the sufferings which come into our lives. Today, Jesus is inviting us to follow him, to be with him, to share totally and unconditionally in his mission.

True wisdom
And that brings us to the secondary theme of today’s Mass: to live like this is true wisdom. In the First Reading, wisdom is personified as having built a house with seven pillars. She has prepared a magnificent banquet and then sent out her servants to call all those who are ignorant, who lack wisdom, saying:

Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity and live,
and walk in the way of insight.

The Letter to the Ephesians (Second Reading) also tells us today:

Be careful, then, how you live, not as unwise people but as wise…

The food that Jesus offers—the bread and wine that are his own flesh and blood—are the sources of wisdom, giving, as they do, a true understanding of the meaning and purpose of life. To eat that food is to be close to him, not just physically, but in mind and heart.

And that will be the link between Jesus as the Bread of Life and the source of Wisdom. The source of Wisdom in our lives is the total acceptance of the vision of life which Jesus gives. He is the source, the bread that provides that vision.

Eucharist as food
The special way in which we express that, and by which we remind ourselves of this call, is through our celebration of the Eucharist, where we eat the Body and the drink the Blood.

But we need to remember that this is a Sacrament—it is the sign that points to the deeper reality, our ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. In celebrating the Eucharist, we are saying that we want to deepen that relationship with Jesus, with his Gospel, and with the community which is his visible presence among us.

This life in Christ is the nourishment—in the most real sense—of our life. Without this food and drink, we will die of starvation; our bodies, of course, will keep going, but in a very real sense we will have died.

Active involvement
So when we do participate in the Eucharist and ‘receive Communion’, let us not do so passively as if Jesus was just coming to us. It is not just a pious, “Thank you, Jesus.” We need to receive actively. When we receive the host, the minister says, “Body of Christ”. And we answer: “Amen”, which means “Yes!” or “I believe!”

In so saying, we are accepting Christ and his whole Gospel; we accept his victories and his sufferings. We are saying we want to be with him all the way, to serve him with all our heart and soul and work with him for the making of a better world:

-A world of truth and love,
-a world of justice and peace,
-a world of freedom and happiness.

When we see ourselves as really part of that great endeavour, then we know that in a very real sense we have eaten the flesh and drunk the blood.

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Commentary on 1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30—5:2; John 6:41-51

For the third Sunday in succession, we continue our reading of John chapter 6, based on the feeding of the multitude by Jesus with a few loaves of bread and fish. Today’s Gospel opens with the people complaining about Jesus’ saying:

I am the bread that came down from heaven.

It reminds us of the way the Israelites complained about God to Moses in the desert. God’s response was to give them manna which seemed to come down from heaven. Here, however, they are complaining because Jesus describes himself as coming down from ‘heaven’.

The Jews are shocked by such apparent arrogance. They are saying:

Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?

But, of course, they clearly do not know Jesus’ full identity. It is a good example of Johannine irony where people say things without realising their full significance.

Called by the Father
And why do they not know? Because:

No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me…

To know Jesus and to accept him as Lord is to respond to a previous invitation or calling. God always takes the first step. We do not choose him; he chooses us. Every move we make in God’s direction is always a response on our part.

Here in the Gospel the people were being given that invitation, but they were not responding. They could not; they had already closed their minds, thinking: “This fellow is just the carpenter from Nazareth.” And, to be honest, we also do that frequently as Jesus comes in various forms and through all kinds of people into our lives inviting us to love and serve him. In many cases, the Jesus that people reject is a creation of their own or of people around them, but not the Jesus of the Gospel. Jesus says:

It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me…whoever believes has eternal life.

Here, ‘eternal’ means real – based on truths and principles and values that are enduring and universal and last forever.

The Bread of life
Again Jesus makes the claim:

I am the bread of life.

‘I AM’ is God’s own name, which Jesus applies to himself, and he is the Bread of Life. We should note that he is not talking primarily here of the Eucharist, of Holy Communion. Rather, Jesus is saying that he, his whole way of life, his teaching, his attitudes and relationships towards his Father and people—everything that the Gospel tells us about him is real nourishment and food for our daily living. Not to know and assimilate Jesus in this way is to be starved of essential nourishment for living a full life.

The people’s ancestors had manna in the desert. But that was only material food, and they died. Indeed, many died in sin and in rebellion against God. But that is not possible with the bread that Jesus gives. His is a life-giving bread. To eat that bread is to be totally united with God through Jesus. It is to have one’s whole life impregnated with the spirit of Jesus. And in the Gospel, that is a definition of life. Such a person is fully alive – now and forever.

The next statement must have sounded rather shocking:

…the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

It is that flesh which was offered up in love; that flesh that died on the cross is the key to life. So before Communion at every Mass we pray:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit,
your death brought life to the world.

Effects of eating the bread
We eat that bread by absorbing into ourselves the spirit, the truth and integrity, the love and compassion, the generosity and peacefulness of Jesus.

And how do we know we have truly eaten this bread? We know this by the kind of people we become, by the ways in which we behave. The Second Reading (from Ephesians) gives a few examples:

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another…be imitators of God…and walk in love…

In other words, we should not have grudges against others, lose our temper and shout at people, call people names, act spitefully and ‘get back at others’. Rather, we should be friendly, approachable, kind and forgiving, especially to strangers and outsiders.

Yes, today, let us taste and see and experience how good the Lord is. Let him be the primary food and nourishment of our lives.

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Commentary on Exodus 16:2-4,12-15; Ephesians 4:17,20-24; John 6:24-35

Last Sunday we switched from reading Mark’s Gospel to that of John. Today we continue with the 6th chapter of John on Jesus as the Bread of Life. In last Sunday’s Gospel we saw how excited the people were after Jesus had fed them with just a few loaves and fish. They were so excited that they wanted to make him king. They cry:

This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. (John 6:14)

Their being fed with bread reminds them of Moses, who fed the people with manna (see today’s First Reading). ‘Being fed’ can also be interpreted as a sign of the expected coming of the Messiah-King. But Jesus had fled to the mountains. He could have used this occasion to exploit the situation and further his own mission, but he rejected it outright as a temptation. He was indeed their Messiah-King, but not in this way.

The disciples, too, have been packed off in a boat in case they got the wrong ideas and tried to take advantage of Jesus’ popularity. They also had to learn the kind of king their Master was.

When did you come here?
The people now set off to Capernaum on the other side of the lake looking for Jesus. After finding him they asked:

Rabbi, when did you come here?

It is one of those ironic questions that John loves. A seemingly innocent and simple question which actually touches on the real origins and identity of Jesus.

Jesus tells them they are looking for him, not because they have seen signs, but because they had gotten a lot of bread to eat. They did not realise that the feeding itself was a spectacular sign pointing to something much deeper than the material bread they enjoyed. It was a sign of an altogether different kind of food, a different kind of nourishment on a different level entirely. This would be a food that endures forever, and this is the real food that Jesus has come to offer. But they still have not grasped what he is saying to them. Jesus says to them:

Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

Believing in Jesus
The people said to him:

What must we do to perform the works of God?

Jesus’ response was simple and straightforward:

This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

That is all and it is everything: to believe in Jesus, that is, to commit oneself totally and unconditionally to his Way. To believe in a person is to make an investment of one’s whole self. It is an act of faith, of trust and a letting go. It is much more than just accepting what a person says as being true.

But the people are still not satisfied. They ask for a sign which would give them a reason for believing in Jesus. They cite the example of the manna that Moses had fed the people with over their 40 years in the desert.

Jesus, the new manna
To this request Jesus replies:

Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

The real bread that comes from God is not material; it comes directly from God and it is life-giving. Then, hearing only the literal meaning of his words (and reminding us of the Samaritan woman by the well of Jacob who asked Jesus for the water of life after which she would never be thirsty again), the people cry:

Sir, give us this bread always.

Jesus then answers simply:

I am the bread of life.

This is much more than a statement of fact; the phrase “I AM” is the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush. It is the first of seven ‘I AM’ statements uttered by Jesus in John’s Gospel, all pointing to his divine origin.The others are:

I AM the Light of the World (8:12, 9:5)
I AM the Gate (10:7,9)
I AM the Good Shepherd (10:11,14)
I AM the Resurrection and the Life (11:25)
I AM the Way: the Truth and the Life (14:6)
I AM the Vine (15:1,5)

Now, however, we need to ask: How is Jesus bread and how are we to get it? We get it by going to Jesus, by becoming his close companion (derived from the Latin: ‘one who shares bread’ – cum “with” and panis “bread”) and follower:

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

We get this bread by believing in Jesus, by an unconditional and total giving of self to him.

But how does Jesus nourish us and be our food and drink? He does so, first, by giving us his Word in the Scriptures. In this way, he feeds our minds and hearts and enriches and gives meaning and direction to our lives. The Word of God in the Scriptures is really food and, in so far as the Bible is unknown to us, we are being starved of food that we really need.

Second, Jesus nourishes us through his Church – through the fellowship and mutual support we get through our involvement and participation in a Christian community.

Third, we are nourished through every loving and nourishing experience coming to us through people, books, radio, TV, the world of nature – in short, through everything which enriches and gives more meaning and understanding in our lives and increases our feeling of being loved and having self-worth.

And fourth, we receive nourishment through the Eucharist – the sign by which we celebrate God’s love shown to us through the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is in the Eucharist that we give thanks for all the life-giving ways by which God, through Jesus, comes into our daily lives.

The fact that we are indeed being fed and nourished is shown by the way we live our lives and share what we have received with others who are still hungry for life and meaning. As Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, says in today’s Second Reading, you are:

…to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

This is exactly what happens when we have been fed by the Bread of Life.

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Commentary on 2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15

God takes care of his people – that is the message coming across loud and clear in today’s readings. He feeds them not only with material food (“One does not live by bread alone…”) but with everything they need for a fully human life lived in close union with God, the Source and Goal of all life.

In search of Jesus
This Sunday, we were due to read Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 people by Jesus; instead, we are reading the version from the Gospel of John which serves as an introduction for a long discourse on Jesus as the Bread of Life. And, in fact, we will be staying with the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel for the next five Sundays (17th to 21st Sundays inclusive).*

Like Mark, John begins by telling us that Jesus crossed over to the opposite shore of the Lake of Galilee and that he was followed by a large crowd. He does not mention (as we saw last week) Jesus’ wanting to bring his disciples to a quiet place after all their work of teaching and healing, where they could reflect away from the crowds.

However, as we know from Mark, the crowds had gone before them on foot. What made people walk the nine mile distance (12 km) to see Jesus? John says they:

…kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.

This is likely an expression of the deep hunger and longing of people for healing and wholeness in their lives. At the same time, it could also be interpreted in a purely selfish and curious sense, the way people will flock in crowds after hearing about some “miraculous” event. (The end of today’s Gospel perhaps suggests this second interpretation.)

We will not be any better than the crowd, if we only see in this story a miraculous multiplication of a few loaves of bread and some fish. All Gospel stories are steeped in symbolism and this is especially true of John.

Like Moses, but also different
We are told first that Jesus “went up the mountain”. This is not just a factual detail. In that symbolism we mentioned, it reminds us of Moses on the mountain bringing God’s Law to the people.

Here, however, there is a great difference: Jesus is no mere intermediary; he speaks in his own right, with the same authority as his Father. As we saw last week, Mark has Jesus teaching the people first. Teaching the people is not mentioned by John, but is mentioned by the other evangelists. Here in John, the “teaching” (which we shall see in the coming weeks) flows out of the multiplication experience. And, while Moses went up the mountain alone, Jesus brought his disciples with him. They were partners in his work and they would continue that work after his resurrection. Further, just as Moses gave the Jewish people God’s teaching in the form of the Law and God later fed them with manna, so God, in Jesus, the new Moses, will feed both spiritually and materially those who come to him.

Passover
Again, almost as an aside, John mentions that the “Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near”. The Passover is the great feast when the Jews each year celebrate their liberation from slavery in Egypt and God’s leading them into freedom as his chosen people. Today’s scene is an anticipation of the new Passover where Jesus will be the central figure, and where Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection will be our liberation from sin and death.

Just before his death, Jesus gave to his disciples – and the Church – the Eucharist, the great ongoing sign of his Passover. The actions of Jesus in today’s story anticipate that Last Supper scene as he:

…took the loaves, and when he had given thanks [Greek, eucharistesas] he distributed them to those who were seated…

A small insignificant boy
But before Jesus does this, there are some important overtures. There is the dialogue with Philip, who always comes as across as rather naive and simple. He asks the questions that we would like to ask but are often ashamed to. He represents those who perhaps see life in too literal terms. Jesus asks him:

Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?

Says Philip in response:

Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.

(A denarius was the equivalent of one day’s pay for a labourer.)

This reflects the dialogue with the prophet Elisha in the First Reading when he was told to feed the people from 20 barley loaves. Elisha asks God:

How can I set this before a hundred people?

God responds:

Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord: They shall eat and have some left.

Elsewhere in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says:

…give, and it will be given to you…[it] will be put into your lap…

Then Andrew breaks in:

There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?

Presumably, the boy brought the food for himself and his immediate family. The next thing we know is that Jesus has taken those loaves and fish, and, after blessing them, distributes them to the people.

Using what is available
It is important to observe that Jesus did not feed the people with nothing. He started with something that was already available. What Jesus did was made possible because that little boy was willing to share what he had with others, including the many strangers around him.

The late Msgr Ronald Knox suggested the “miracle” that took place was that the boy’s generosity resulted in many others generously sharing what each had brought with the strangers around them. It does require a kind of miracle to break through people’s self-centredness and their concern for their own security. The little boy broke the ice. But we can also see that God gives life through what is already available to us. People are dying of hunger and malnutrition in our world, not because of a lack of food but because of poor distribution. The food is there; it is the will to share it or the means to provide it that is lacking.

Our sacramental Eucharist
So, the Eucharist we are celebrating today is also about giving, about loving and about sharing. The bread which has been offered by all is blessed at the consecration, then broken and divided and given out to all. The Eucharist only works when we consciously celebrate it in this way and when it is genuinely a sign of what is going on in our daily lives. St Paul has some very harsh words for Christians who want to celebrate the Eucharist, but refuse to help the needy members of their community.

Before they eat, the people are instructed to sit down and we are told that “there was a great deal of grass in the place”. This is an echo of the famous Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures…

Partners with Jesus
There is another detail worth noting here. In the Synoptic Gospels, it is the disciples who are told to distribute the bread and fish among the people. That is a sign of their future mission to bring Christ to the world. But here in John, it is Jesus himself who distributes. John is soon going to record Jesus’ words about his being the Living Bread which gives life to the world. Even though there are intermediaries, it is always Jesus himself who comes to us in Word and Eucharist. John wants to emphasise that Jesus is the source of all nourishment, spiritual and material.

In the end, what happened? After 5,000 people had eaten and had their fill, there was still so much left over. They collect twelve hampers of uneaten food, not signifying waste, but a sign of the liberality with which God caters to our needs, both spiritual and material. Twelve is a number of completion and fullness (see the book of Revelation). It reflects also the experience of Elisha, who had wondered how far 20 barley loaves would go. He has been told by God:

They shall eat and have some left.

And indeed, that was the case.

The Messiah King
The immediate reaction of the people is one of excitement. They see in Jesus a wonder-worker, a man of power, saying:

This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.

They want to make him their ‘King Messiah’.

And Jesus’ response:

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

He secluded himself from everyone. Why do this if they are calling him the Messiah? Isn’t that what he is? The reason is (as will be explained in next Sunday’s Gospel) that they have missed the real meaning of what just happened. They saw only a miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish. They saw the miracle; they missed the message.

Some commentators see, in this reaction of Jesus, a playing out of one of the three temptations in the desert when the devil:

…took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. (Matt 4:8-9)

Jesus’ mission was to inaugurate the Kingdom and bring all people under the lordship of God. Surely here, with the people literally eating out of his hand, was a golden opportunity to have them follow their King? Thanks, but no thanks, says Jesus. The only King they will see will be the one hanging in shame and nakedness, a convicted criminal among criminals, on a cross. Where will these crowds be then?

No, the real teaching here is that Jesus is the true source of nourishment for our lives. If we want to share that nourishment, we have (as he tells us elsewhere) to “listen to him”. We have to be prepared to enter totally with him into the paschal mystery of his love-centred life, his self-giving in suffering, and death as a way to life. Jesus will only acknowledge his title of King only when we follow him on that basis.

Signs of nourishment
How can we know that we are being nourished by God? We get some pointers in today’s Second Reading. Paul writes as a prisoner and, like thousands of Christian prisoners since, is denied the Eucharist. He asks us:

…to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called…

Two signs of such a life are:

1. A mutually supporting and outreaching love expressed through selflessness, gentleness and tolerant patience.
2. Each one doing their utmost to preserve a unity that comes through the Spirit by the bond of peace.

We are not a collection of individuals separately trying to please God and thus win a heavenly reward in the future. We form one Body, the Body of Christ, one community which people should be able to see is bound by love and caring. The Eucharist is the sign of that Body.

Paul continues, saying there is:

…one body and one Spirit…

It animates all of us and binds us together.

…one hope…

There is a firm expectation that God’s Kingdom will be realised and our happiness assured even now.

…one Lord…

And he shows us the Way to follow.

…one faith…

In this, we are all committed in our total trust in God’s love and care for us. That love and that care are normally channelled through the love and care that people show for each other.

…one baptism…

We have all, whatever our origin, become brothers and sisters in one caring fellowship, in one new family. Such unity cannot be achieved by ourselves alone. We need the help of Jesus our Lord as the Bread of Life, who comes to nourish and feed us in all kinds of ways.

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*Each year of the three-year cycle for ‘Sundays in Ordinary Time’ is devoted to one evangelist: Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B, and Luke in Year C. John’s Gospel, however, is spread out through different parts of the year. These five Sundays are the only Sundays in Ordinary Time where John’s Gospel is used.

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Commentary on Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34

The theme of today’s readings is Jesus as the model of a good shepherd. We see him teaching, healing and, in the continuation of today’s Gospel next week, feeding. At the opening of the Gospel, we see Jesus inviting his disciples to go with him to a quiet place to rest and have some quiet. Yet, when they get to their chosen destination, they find that the crowds have gone ahead of them and are awaiting their arrival.

We see here an example of the kind of tension that exists in the life of every committed Christian. On the one hand, there is the need to draw away to a quiet place and to recharge one’s batteries, to reflect on and evaluate what one has been doing and to regenerate one’s spiritual energy. At the same time, there are constant demands on our commitment to serve. We need to respond generously and empathetically to where there is real need.

The emphasis is on ‘real need’ and not just on the demands of others, or our own desire to be in demand. This calls for discernment. There will be times when, with difficulty, we know we should say ‘Yes’. There will be other times when, in spite of the criticism it may generate, we ought to say ‘No’. We need to be available but there is no absolute availability because we are limited in the quality service we can give.

In the life of Jesus, we see him at times leaving the people, in spite of their demands, and going away to pray. In today’s situation, although he had intended to have a quiet time with his disciples, it was clear that the needs of the people called for a positive response. They were like ‘sheep without a shepherd’. They needed to be taught and they needed to be fed. Jesus did both. The feeding was both for body and spirit.

Freedom
We, as shepherds, like Jesus need to be free and unencumbered either by material or mental or emotional or spiritual baggage. We, too, are called to be shepherds; we are called to teach, heal and to feed. But, if we are to do this effectively, we need also to set aside time for resting and renewal.

We live today in a hectic world where the cry “I have no time!” is constantly heard by priest and lay person alike. Yet, when we think about it, we have so much time to watch television and movies (consider the value of much of what we watch!). We have so much time to read the news or to go shopping or just to gossip about useless things. Still, we have no time to pray and reflect and renew our life vision.

Conveying the message
As shepherds, we have a message to convey. And what is that message? It is the same message that Jesus brought – the Good News about making the Kingdom a reality in our world. That Kingdom can be described in many ways. In today’s Second Reading from the letter to the Ephesians, it is described as following in the footsteps of Jesus:

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us, abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

May we say that that is an accurate description of our Christian lives?

Bad Shepherds?
To what extent could we be said to be ‘bad’ shepherds? In today’s First Reading, Jeremiah says:

It is you who have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.

This we cannot do!

It is time for us now to join the Good Shepherd in bringing a scattered and divided flock back together, to break down the barriers that divide and separate people from each other – whether that is on the level of the nation, a race or ethnic group, on the level of religion or social class, or simply bringing back into the fold those who because of social stigma or disease are consistently kept to the margins of our society. Only in this way will the Peace of Christ become a reality in our hearts and in our societies and in our Church.

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Commentary on Amos 7:12-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13

In today’s Gospel, the twelve Apostles receive their mission from Jesus. He tells them to go out, two by two, and drive out “unclean spirits”. What are these “unclean spirits”? Sometimes it seems there really was an evil influence – a demon, if you like – which controlled a person’s life, what he or she said and did. But in those days there were many manifestations which people did not understand fully. These, for want of a better explanation, were attributed to demonic influences and possession.

For instance, there were some sicknesses which people thought were due to the influence of a devil. A clear example is the story of the epileptic boy healed by Jesus. In an epileptic seizure, a seemingly normal person suddenly begins to act in strange ways, almost as if controlled by an outside force. It was a long time before people began to understand that physiological and neurological malfunctions were occurring in the brain.

There would be similar misunderstandings of people who had mental illnesses that manifested in other ways (e.g. psychotic behaviour, schizophrenic hallucinations) or, for instance, people who had some brain damage, but were otherwise of perfectly normal intelligence (e.g. people with cerebral palsy).

Demons of our time
Probably most of us have never seen a genuinely ‘possessed’ person, although one does hear of cases in other parts of the world. But in our own time, there are many other kinds of demons which can control people, where people become the slaves of these things.

For instance, there is the demon of nicotine, the demon of alcohol, the demon of gambling, the demon of promiscuous sex, the demon of materialism and consumerism, or any other activity which somehow can take control of our lives. All of these, or any one of them, can turn us into slaves – they reduce our freedom and we need the help of Jesus to liberate us. Jesus today is inviting us to cooperate with him. He wants us to be his instruments of liberation, to help others recover their freedom.

A free people
But if we are to help people recover their freedom, we too must be a free people. So Jesus tells his Apostles when they go out to evangelise, they should not bring many things with them. No food, no backpack, no money, no extra clothes. This teaching does not seem to be very practical to our ears.

But Jesus spoke like this because he knew that when his disciples went to any place to evangelise, a family or house would take them in, welcome them and give them what they needed. Hospitality is still an important tradition in the world of the Eastern Mediterranean (as it is in other parts of the world where people have not yet become paranoid about security and protecting their consumer valuables). They were to be satisfied with the first house that took them in and not go around looking for somewhere more comfortable. And, if no one received them in that place, they were to shake the dust off their feet and go to a more hospitable environment. The people in that place were obviously not yet ready for the Gospel.

This was all part of the ideal of the early Church – groups of mutually helping communities. In such communities those with more than enough came to the help of those in need; those in need would be taken care of. Paul spoke about this in the Second Reading last Sunday, where he urged those with enough to spare to come to the help of sister churches in need. Long before this was put forth (and distorted) by Marx and Engels, it was the spirit of: “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”.

How to do this now?
We cannot quite follow Jesus’ instructions literally in our own day, although the ideal certainly remains in place. Why as Christians we are not able to do so could be a matter of reflection. It could indicate that we have a rather individualistic concept of the Christian life. We are often ready to give ‘charity’ to people on the other side of the world while a fellow-parishioner in serious need is neglected or ignored.

Proclaiming the Gospel in freedom
Even so, the Gospel today is saying two things to us. First, each Christian is called not only to be a disciple, but also to be an apostle. A disciple (Latin, discipulus, from the verb discere, to learn) is one who hears, who accepts and who carries out the teaching of Jesus in his or her life. A disciple follows Jesus, imitates Jesus, becomes a second Christ.

An apostle (Greek, apostolos) is not only a follower, but also an evangeliser. The word comes from a verb which means to be sent on a mission with a message from a superior – an ambassador, an envoy. Every person who has been baptised has this mission and this calling, actively to share their faith with others.

We work with Jesus to help people find or recover their freedom. We help people to cure their sicknesses – not only bodily sicknesses, but psychological and emotional illnesses. It is not only doctors and nurses who can bring healing. A family member, a friend, a colleague, an evangeliser can heal.

Sharing my experience of Christ
But most importantly, evangelisers share with others their experience of knowing Jesus. In this context, we have the beautiful words in today’s Second Reading which are from the opening of the letter to the Ephesians. They are worth listening to again:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

The message we are to bring as evangelisers is all perfectly and beautifully summarised here, although for many it might need to be put in more contemporary language. And first, of course, it has to be assimilated and made totally our own.

We are sharing not just words, or ideas, or doctrines, but an experience, our experience of God and of Jesus. The evangeliser invites people – be they Christians or the non-baptised – to share this wonderful experience. Everyone of us is here today because someone (perhaps many people) introduced us to know and love Jesus. That person, those persons, were evangelisers. I am expected to do the same for others.

Following in freedom
The second thing that Jesus is telling us is to go through our lives with the maximum of freedom and the minimum of burdens. The Apostles were told to go out bringing with them only the message they had received from Jesus. All their other needs would be taken care of by others.

We can go through our lives so laden down with things, with property and possessions that are an endless source of worry and anxiety. We become their slaves. There are other worries and anxieties in our heads which also can paralyse us and prevent us living rich and enriching lives. It would be worth reflecting today on how free our lives are and where real wealth is to be found.

Jesus himself is a marvellous model. He only had the clothes on his back and had “nowhere to lay his head”. But Jesus was not poor in the sociological sense; on the contrary he was rich in all the things which really matter and was able to enrich those who came in contact with him.

Prophets not wanted here
Finally, evangelisers need to realise that they are not always welcome. In the First Reading today, the priest Amaziah tells Amos to bring his prophesying back to his own country. They don’t want to listen to him in Bethel. Amos replies that it was not his idea to become a prophet:

I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees…

But while he was a shepherd, the Lord plucked him out and told him to prophesy to Israel.

I am sure we can sympathise with his feelings. I am ‘only’ a housewife, or a clerk, or a shop assistant, or a factory worker, or a teacher…but because I have been baptised, Jesus is calling me in my working and living environment to evangelise, to invite people to know him, to love him, to serve him, to follow him. And I can be sure I will not often get a warm hearing.

In a word, if I want Christ to be in me, he has also to go through me. There is no other way. And then, in the end, those I influence in turn will hopefully become the evangelisers of others. That is how the mustard seed grows into a large tree.

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Commentary on Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6

Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth and he is accompanied by his disciples. As was the right of any devout Jew, he gave the homily in the synagogue on a Sabbath. The townspeople are amazed. They are astonished at the wisdom with which he speaks, and the power of the miracles they had heard he was performing.

They are even more amazed because they think they know who Jesus is. He is the carpenter, the son of Mary and Joseph, and they know all his relatives. They grew up with him. And because they think they know him, they refuse to accept him. They see the outward person, but they do not listen to the words he speaks. They knew him…they had made up their minds about him long ago.

So many people in our society have made up their minds about Jesus and presume that what they know is the whole story about him. And what they reject is often not the real Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels, but some distortion that has found its way into their thinking. Bertrand Russell, the English philosopher, once wrote a book called Why I am not a Christian. Many Christians would say, after reading the book, that if Christianity was what Russell said it was, they would not be Christians either.

Dangers of familiarity
The townspeople do not hear Jesus’ message because they are blinded by the familiarity of the person. Their behavior is a perfect example of the saying “familiarity breeds contempt” – not just boredom, but actual contempt.

We are not much different from the people of Nazareth. The same thing happens to us all the time. God is constantly speaking to us through the people we know, through things that happen to us, through situations in which we find ourselves. Again and again we do not recognise his voice or hear his message because he is speaking through someone we know very well, or someone we do not like, or someone who is a total stranger or foreigner to us.

Because of the blindness of the people, we are told that Jesus was not able to do any of his great works in Nazareth. How often have we too blocked out God’s love and healing power because we refused to recognise him in a particular person or a situation? Yet, it was precisely through this person or experience he was trying to reach us.

Jesus now makes a sad comment on his townspeople:

Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house.

While people in other places greeted Jesus with enthusiasm and hung on his every word, his own townspeople, even his own family, wrote him off; they treated him with cynicism.

A prophet’s lot is not a happy one
It is an experience all prophets must be ready for. A prophet is a person who has been commissioned to proclaim God’s message, to call people to accept God’s word and to urge them to change their lives and base them on truth and love.

Traditionally, prophets both in the Hebrew Testament and in the long history of Christianity have met with resistance, hostility and even violent deaths. We have a perfect example in the prophet Ezekiel, who speaks to us in the First Reading. He has been called to proclaim God’s message to his people. God does not promise him an easy time:

Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me…Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

It is strange that messages urging truth, love, justice, freedom and peace arouse such opposition, hostility, hatred and violence. But it is happening all the time. In fact, in many parts of the world, words like ‘truth’, ‘justice’, ‘freedom’ are seen as dangerous and threatening. Strange as it may seem, there are people who do not want to hear them. And more Christians have died for their faith in these enlightened and civilised(?) times than in any other.

In the not too distant past, Martin Luther King, Jr. died for promoting the equality of all human beings irrespective of race. Mahatma Gandhi died because, as a Hindu, he was friendly with Muslims. Bishop Oscar Romero died because he denounced the exploitation of the poor. Dietrich Bonhoeffer died because he attacked the racist evils of Nazism. And the list could go on and on.

All called to be prophets
It is something each of us needs to remember. Every one of us, simply because of our baptism, has been called to be a prophet. We have all been called to spread the message of the Gospel in our families, in our working places, among our friends, in our society.

Whatever is happening, we have to be ready to proclaim and defend truth, love, justice, freedom and people’s rights and dignity. There are some things over which we cannot compromise; there are some times when we cannot keep silent.

There are times when we may be afraid, or when we feel incompetent or inadequate. We can take encouragement from Paul in the Second Reading today. He had some sort of very painful affliction which he felt prevented him from preaching the Gospel effectively and he begged God to take away his suffering. The answer to his prayer was surprising. He was told that God’s power working through him shone more in his weakness. Otherwise what he said and did might have been attributed to his own brilliance. So he now totally accepts all his weaknesses, because then Christ’s power and light shine more clearly through him. Paul says:

Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

That is the voice of a true prophet. He is the fragile “treasure in clay jars” (2 Cor 4:7).

So let us too not be discouraged by our shortcomings – whether spiritual, psychological, social or physical. God wants us to be his instrument. He will stand by us and give us what we need when we need it. But take note – when the Church and its message are accepted with open arms by any society, then we need to be suspicious about the genuineness of what we proclaim.