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Commentary on Zechariah 2:14-17; Psalm: Luke 1:46-55; Matthew 12:46-50

The Gospel reading is from Matthew. It is a short, isolated passage between a number of separate incidents taking place between the discourse on the mission of the disciples (chap 10) and the discourse on the parables of the Kingdom (chap 13). Today’s passage concerns the family of Jesus.

There are slight differences between Mark’s account of this event and Matthew’s. As usually is the case, Matthew’s treatment is softer, more gentle, but Mark’s may be closer to the original.

Matthew says that, while Jesus was speaking to the crowds, he was told that his mother and his ‘brothers’ were outside, looking for him. ‘Brothers’ is normally understood here in a wider sense to include cousins (even today in some cultures it is quite common for people to talk about their ‘cousin brothers’ or ‘cousin sisters’). Jesus was told:

Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.

Jesus’ reply seems rather abrupt and unexpected, if not downright impolite, especially coming from him:

Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?

Then, stretching out his hand towards his disciples, he says:

Here are my mother and my brothers!

And he then defines what constitutes being a member of his family:

…whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

Jesus, of course, is not being rude to his mother or the rest of his family. But he is making what he regards as a very important point, and it is put in other ways in other parts of the Gospel. To be a follower of Jesus is to belong to a new family, a family with stronger ties than flesh and blood. It is a family which is bound in love and obedience to God as Father, to Jesus as Brother, and committed to living according to the Way of Life they propose.

Part of that Way, of course, is unconditional love of every single person, including even enemies. Surely then, the members of one’s own family would be included. But if ever there was a conflict between what God wants and what a family member wants, then there is only one choice available.

In Mark’s account of this story (Mark 3:31-35), he tells us earlier in the chapter, that Jesus had gone “home” and implies that he was in a house. This unspecified house, mentioned a number of times, is a symbol of the place where Christ’s disciples gather together. It is significant that in today’s passage we are told that Jesus’ family members were ‘outside’, indicating they were outside in more ways than one. Jesus and his disciples are on the ‘inside’.

And where does Mary come into all of this? Was she an outsider? Hardly! The girl who made her unqualified commitment to God’s will at Nazareth, never once withdrew it. And she was one of the very few who was with her Son to his last dying breath. She was with him in every way.

I need to ask myself if I am truly a member of Jesus’ family.

The First Reading is a short passage from the prophet Zechariah. The passage is a song of praise for Israel, called here “daughter Zion”. But the words can very easily be applied to Mary, especially where the Lord says:

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For I will come and dwell in your midst…

Then, the Lord says:

And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

Today’s feast, even if it may lack historical veracity, is full of meaning. It suggests that from her youngest days, Mary was being prepared for her unique role as the Mother of the Son of God, an extraordinary privilege shared by no other. At the same time, the real greatness of Mary is suggested in the Gospel where true greatness does not come from birth, but from the total giving of oneself to doing what God wants. In this Mary had no peer.

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Commentary on Matthew 18:21 – 19:1 Read Thursday of Week 19 of Ordinary Time – Gospel »

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Commentary on Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26,28; Matthew 25:31-46

Today is the thirty-fourth and final Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday we will start a new year with the First Sunday in Advent. As is the custom now, on this last Sunday of the year, we celebrate the feast of Jesus Christ our King. All during the past year we have been hearing the Gospel read to us and reflected on in Sunday (and weekday) homilies. Perhaps we have done some prayer reflection of our own. Today somehow sums up all that we have been hearing. The Jesus we have watched going around the towns of Galilee, Samaria and Judea, the Jesus we have watched teaching, healing, consoling, liberating is our Lord and King. He is the visible presence of God in our midst.

Contrasting images
There are two very contrasting images of Christ presented to us in today’s readings. In the Second Reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul presents a powerful and awesome picture of Christ as Lord and King. As all have died because of the fall of Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. Christ is presented as the all-powerful ruler to whom every other power and authority must eventually give way:

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Christ represents life, life in all its fullness. And that life he wants to share with every single person.

The gentle shepherd
The other two readings, however, give a very different picture of God and Jesus, who is his visible incarnation. The First Reading presents God as a shepherd. We know that sheep, which are brought out onto hillsides to graze, can wander far in search of the best grass. This would be especially true in the arid hills of Palestine. Not only that, there will be sheep belonging to other shepherds out on the same hills and they can get mixed up with each other. The shepherd then spends considerable time looking after his own straying sheep and bringing them back.

God sees himself as such a shepherd:

I myself will search for my sheep and will sort them out.
As shepherds sort out their flocks
when they are among scattered sheep,
so I will sort out my sheep.
I will rescue them from all the places
to which they have been scattered
on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
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…

Jesus himself will pick up this image and will call himself the Good Shepherd. He will also compare God’s concern for the sinner with a shepherd who leaves behind ninety-nine good sheep to go in search of even one which has gone astray and got lost.

God’s bias
But there are others who will not be so well treated:

…the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

God is biased. He is biased against those who exploit the weaker and poorer members in their society. Justice for God is not just based on moral rectitude. It is rather based on an equitable sharing and access to the resources available and necessary for a life of dignity and self-respect.

We remember the parable of the rich man clothed in purple and dining sumptuously every day. At the foot of his table sat a poor man, covered in sores, his wounds licked by dogs, a man who longed to have even the crumbs that fell from the table. Perhaps the rich man went to the temple regularly, perhaps he observed all the festivals and requirements of his religion. But he did nothing for the man at his feet. And that was his sin: he did nothing. And that in some ways is the greatest sin of all.

Standards of judgement
And that is precisely the point in the Gospel reading for today. The scene is the final judgement. Incidentally, this is not to be taken in too literal a sense. It is the meaning behind the scene which we are to focus on. It would be a worthless piece of speculation to imagine our encounter with God as taking place in any particular way analogous to life on earth. One wonders, too, if there is any real validity to the distinction sometimes made between the “particular” and the “general” judgements. The images of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with hosts of angels are typical biblical images pointing to God’s awesome greatness and transcendence, and are not descriptions of some visual experience we might expect to have.

There will be two kinds of people coming for judgement, described respectively as ‘sheep’ and ‘goats’, the good guys and the bad guys. And how are the good and the bad guys to be distinguished from each other? It is quite obvious that both groups are very surprised at the criteria that Jesus presents.

Speaking first to the sheep, Jesus says:

Come, you who are blessed by my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world,
for I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me,
I was in prison and you visited me.

Surprised reaction
The sheep are clearly very surprised. This is obviously not what they were expecting to hear. One gets the impression that they hardly remember doing these things, although definitely they had done at least some of them. And certainly they do not remember ever doing anything of the kind for Jesus:

Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food
or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you
or naked and gave you clothing?
And when was it that we saw you sick
or in prison and visited you?

Were they even more surprised at the answer they got? And the King responds to them:

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.

Then turning to the goats, whom he calls “accursed”, he condemns them for not doing any of the things he mentioned above and for not recognising Jesus in their brothers and sisters.

There are a number of things to notice here:

• none of the things Jesus mentions are religious in nature
• there is no mention whatever of any commandments being observed or violated
• people are condemned not for doing actions which were morally wrong, but for not doing anything at all
• the actions are done (or not done) to Jesus and not just for Jesus. In other words, Jesus is truly present in every person I meet. I am not just nice to this person (whom I may not care about very much) in order to do a “good act” which Jesus will reward and add to my bank account of “good works”. People cannot be used – even for spiritual purposes.

The really “good” Christian
To sum up, Jesus is saying that, if I wish to be counted among the sheep, then I must be an actively loving person, irrespective of the response I get to my love. This is the way God loves me. It is not enough just to fulfil obligations, religious or otherwise. It won’t do to say, “I am a good enough Catholic”. I am expected to keep going out of my way and reach out in love especially to those in need – the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the poor and naked, the sick and those in prison. It does not matter how they got sick (illness because of a sexually promiscuous lifestyle, overindulgence in alcohol or nicotine…) or why they are in prison (murder, rape, terrorism…). These people are especially to be loved because they are the most in need of having their lives turned round.

This is the King I am called to serve. And the way he wants to be served is for me to be filled with care and compassion for brothers and sisters everywhere, and especially for those who are furthest from him and those who are not experiencing the abundance with which he has filled this world. I serve by loving those who are materially, socially, psychologically, morally and spiritually poor.

The picture of the Judgement in the Gospel is not meant to fill us with fear and trembling. No, it is a challenge not about the future, but about today. The surest way to guarantee that I will be numbered among the sheep is for me to become right now a loving, caring, tolerant, accepting person:

Help me, Lord, to seek and find and respond to you
in every person and in every experience of this day.
Grant, Lord, that all my thoughts,
intentions, actions and responses may be directed solely
to your love and service this day.

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Commentary on Revelation 3:1-6,14-22

Today we read two more of the seven letters to the churches in the Roman province of Asia. These letters are addressed to the churches at Sardis and Laodicea.

Sardis
The first is to the Christian community in Sardis. Nowadays called Sart, Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, and at that time a city famous for its wealth. Its acropolis, which rose 500 metres above the valley below, was a natural fortress on the northern slopes of Mount Tmolus.

This letter is far more critical than the one we read yesterday to the Ephesians. Quite bluntly, the church in Sardis, which seems to be alive, is in fact spiritually dead. The people there are urged to rouse themselves before they die out completely (sadly, dying churches are by no means a new phenomenon—the problem goes back to the earliest days).

The letter comes from:

…him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars…

The seven “spirits” are the seven archangels which stand before God.

John can find nothing in their present way of living that could be commended, and reminds them of their enthusiasm at the time of their first conversion. They should go back to that and sincerely repent of the situation they have let themselves get into. Otherwise, the Lord will come on them like a thief, and that could mean some unpleasant experiences. This warning is not about the Final Coming as mentioned in the Gospels, but of something likely to happen sooner.

In spite of that, some have remained faithful. These:

…have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy [to go with the Lord].

Elsewhere in the book the faithful are also described as dressed in white. Their names will remain recorded in the “book of life”. In the Old Testament this referred to a register of all citizens in the kingdom community. To have one’s name removed from this book would indicate loss of citizenship in the kingdom.

Could we say that the letter to the Christians of Sardis in any way describes the church community to which we belong? Even though there are some external signs of church activity (e.g. going to church), how alive are we in reality? The answer will vary greatly from community to community.

The life the Letter speaks of is there for the asking—Jesus said:

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)

But it is up to us both individually and collectively to take the steps needed to experience that life.

Laodicea
The second letter today is addressed to the church at Laodicea. It contains some of the most striking and lovely phrases from the whole book and is totally relevant to modern readers.

Now known as Pamukkale (in southwestern Turkey), Laodicea was, in Roman times, the wealthiest city in Phrygia. We are told it was especially known for its banking, its medical school, and its textile industry. Its major lack was that of an adequate water supply. These characteristics are all touched on in the passage that follows.

Again, the message comes through John from “the Amen”, meaning God, who is described as:

…the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation…

Isaiah speaks of the “God of Amen”, usually translated “God of truth” or “God of fidelity”. God’s fidelity is clearly contrasted here with the behaviour of the Laodiceans. He is the “first” (arche) of all creation—either in the sense of being the ultimate source of God’s creation, or the first in rank above all creation.

John’s principal complaint against this church is its tepidity:

…you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot…

“Hot” could be a reference to the hot spring in nearby Hierapolis. The church in Laodicea neither afforded the healing power of heat for the spiritually sick, nor the cool refreshment for the spiritually weary. And like a drink, which should be either piping hot or refreshingly cool, but is neither—God says:

…I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

The problem is that the Laodiceans are blinded by material wealth which conceals their spiritual poverty from them. They are both spiritually blind and naked. To remedy this situation they are urged:

…to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich…

These are the spiritual riches that have been thoroughly tested in time of trial. Then, they really will be rich.

In addition to that, they should fit themselves out with:

…white robes [of virtue] to clothe yourself and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Each of these three items in material form—their financial wealth (gold), their extensive textile industry (clothes) and a famous eye salve—were things of which the Laodiceans were particularly proud and renowned for.

Whatever sufferings come their way should not be a matter of concern for them. God tells them:

I reprove and discipline those whom I love.

This is a phrase taken from the Book of Proverbs:

My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
for the Lord reproves the one he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights. (Prov 3:11-12)

The Letter to the Hebrews also uses this text and enlarges on it (see Heb 12:5-11). As well, Paul tells the Corinthians:

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
(1 Cor 11:32)

It seems at first to be contradictory, and yet it is only when we are tested that our love can grow and mature. That is just as true of our relations with our parents as it is with God. The totally undisciplined child becomes ‘spoilt’ and sometimes flawed for life. And the trials we experience are often calls and reminders from God to redirect our lives more in his direction, in other words, to repent, to reform, to convert.

So the Lord tells the Laodiceans:

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me.

This is one of the most beautiful images in the New Testament and it has been extended to encompass the desire that Jesus has to come into and be part of all our lives. But his coming in depends entirely on us.

One of the most famous representations of the scene is by the English artist, Holman Hunt. It shows Jesus, wearing the crown of a King and holding a lamp in his hand standing outside the door of a house waiting to be admitted. The picture is entitled, The Light of the World. What has often been pointed out is that the door has no handle on the outside. It can only be opened from the inside. Jesus will not force his way in; he will only enter at our invitation. He is there right now and will be there all during this day and every day. Are we going to invite him in or not?

The letter concludes with a promise that the victorious, that is, those who have successfully committed themselves to following Christ and living the Gospel, will sit with Jesus Christ just as Jesus himself sits with his Father. As we read in the Second Letter to Timothy:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he will also deny us… (2 Tim 2:11-12)

Echoing the words of Jesus, the letter’s final words are:

Let anyone with ears listen! (Matt 11:15)

Let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

This letter is probably the most powerful of the seven, and the one which speaks most eloquently to our day. It warns us of the tepidity, the ‘I-am-a-good-enough-Catholic’ syndrome that can take hold of our lives and lead us to lead lives of spiritual complacency and even smugness. It reminds us of our basic poverty, even if—indeed especially if—we are doing extremely well on the material level. Furthermore, sufferings, failures and disappointments in our lives should not be seen as punishments from God. On the contrary, God is with us through these experiences and uses them to show his unwavering love for us. It needs a special insight to be able to see this.

Jesus our King is standing outside the door of our inner home and asking to be admitted. He wants to come in and share himself with us, but it is up to us to open that door.

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Commentary on Luke 19:1-10

Today we have one of the most delightful stories of Luke and indeed of the whole Gospel. It follows immediately—and not by accident—after the healing of a blind man as Jesus enters the city of Jericho, to the northeast of Jerusalem.

The central figure is Zacchaeus, who, Luke tells us, was a “chief tax collector” and a rich man. This is the only reference in Scripture to a ‘chief tax collector’. It probably means he was responsible for a district or region with other tax collectors answerable to him. The region at this time was prosperous, so more tax collectors were needed.

Knowing he was a chief tax collector, it was hardly necessary to mention that he was wealthy. Tax collectors were studiously avoided and despised by their fellow-Jews. They made contracts with the Roman authorities to collect taxes and made sure that they got from the public what today we might call generous ‘commissions’. After all, it was a business and they had to make a living. And, if an ordinary tax collector could do well, it is easy to imagine how much a chief tax collector might earn.

Apart from forcing people to part with their hard-earned money, tax collectors were seen as traitors to their own people by taking their money and giving it to the pagan Roman colonialists occupying their country. One can see how Jesus could cause great offence to the religious-minded by sitting down and eating with such a despised person.

Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was in town and he was very curious to see what Jesus was like. Already we have here an echo of yesterday’s story, because Zacchaeus too wants to “see”. However, at this stage, it seems to be only a kind of curiosity. He just wanted to get a glimpse of a person of whom he undoubtedly heard people talk. Maybe he had even heard that Jesus had a name for mixing with people like himself.

Because he was a small man (in more ways than one?), he could not see over the large crowd of people surrounding Jesus. So he ran on ahead and climbed into the branches of a sycamore tree to get a better look. A sycamore tree can grow to a height of 10 to 15 metres, with a short trunk and spreading branches and hence easy to climb and easily capable of carrying a grown man.

Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but he did not expect that Jesus would see him. He must have practically fallen out of the tree from surprise when he heard Jesus look in his direction and say:

Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

What beautiful words! And yet it is a self-invitation that Jesus constantly extends to us:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him and he with me. (Rev 3:20)

Is my house ready? Is my door open to let him in?

Zacchaeus could hardly believe his ears. He rushed down and delightedly welcomed Jesus into his house. Immediately, those around began to grumble:

He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.

Of all the people in Jericho, Jesus picks the house of the one person in the town who was regarded as a social and religious outcast.

But, as usual, Jesus sees beyond the public image to the real person. Zacchaeus may be a chief tax collector, but he is ready to give half of his property to the poor and, if he has cheated anyone, he promises to pay them back four times what they lost. Fourfold restitution was demanded by Jewish law, but in one case only, for the theft of a sheep (Ex 22:1). Roman law demanded such restitution from all convicted thieves. Zacchaeus, however, promises to pay in any case of injustice for which he has been responsible.

Some commentators read the passage as saying that Zacchaeus has already been making these forms of restitution and sharing his wealth with the poor. If this is the case, it shows that Jesus is able to see beyond the stereotype that makes Zacchaeus the tax collector an outcast. He was not going to the house of an unrepentant sinner, but to that of a good man. Jesus always sees the real person and goes beyond the label. Can we claim to do the same?

Whatever the interpretation, we can see that, though Zacchaeus may have belonged to a discredited profession, his heart was in the right place, in the place of compassion and justice.

And so Jesus tells Zacchaeus that “salvation”, wholeness and integrity has come to his house. In spite of his despised profession, he is “a son of Abraham” because his behaviour is totally in harmony with the requirements of the Law, and in fact goes well beyond it. For Jesus, too, no social status closes the door to salvation. For this is what it means to be a “son of Abraham”, namely, to be a loving, caring person full of compassion, with a sense of justice, and not just a keeper of ritualistic observances.

Zacchaeus, who had originally just wanted to have an external glimpse of Jesus, has now come to ‘see’ Jesus in a much deeper sense. This ‘seeing’ changed his whole life as it did that of the beggar in yesterday’s story.

Further, in answer to the accusation that he has entered the house of a sinner, Jesus says:

…the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.

As Jesus said on another occasion:

Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:31-32)

Jesus is the Good Shepherd leaving behind the well-behaved ninety-nine and going in search of the single one that has gone astray.

As we read this story, there are a number of things we could reflect on. We too want to see Jesus in the deepest possible sense. Only then can we truly become his disciples. We need to hear him saying to us:

I want to stay in your house today.

Let us open the door and welcome him in.

And we need to be careful in judging people from their appearance, or their social position, or their occupation. As a Church, we could spend a lot more time looking for those who are lost instead of concentrating on serving the already converted. In fact, Christ himself invites us to be active evangelisers, both through our actions and through our words.

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TODAY’S FEAST is one which many preachers would prefer not to have to talk about.  What can one say that is meaningful about such an abstract concept as the Holy Trinity?  In one sense, of course, they are right.  It was the great St Thomas Aquinas who said that it was much easier to say what God was not than what he is.  In other words, every positive statement made about God has to be immediately denied.  If we say God is “good”, it is obviously true but our concept of “goodness”, however exalted, is so limited that God’s “goodness” cannot remotely correspond to our limited concept of it.  And so of every other attribute applied to God.

When it comes, then, to speaking of the meaning and inner relationship of three “Persons” in one God we are floundering in territory where ordinary human language is totally inadequate to express the reality.  Our God can only be reached in the “cloud of unknowing”, as Julian of Norwich so beautifully expressed it.  God is not any of the things we say he is.  It is, as Fr Anthony de Mello used to put it, something like trying to explain the colour green to a person who has been totally blind since birth.

No getting off the hook

However, we should not try to get off the hook too easily and decide to speak or think about something altogether different on this Sunday.  Provided we are aware of God’s basic unknowability by our limited minds, there are still many helpful things we can consider about our God and the inner relationships which are part of his* being.

While it is of the utmost importance that we realise this, there are many statements we can make which will help in our relationships with God.

To go back to Thomas Aquinas again, one of his basic principles was that “Behaviour is determined by the nature of things” (Agere sequitur esse).  From the way things act we know something about what they are.  We can thus distinguish the different natures of minerals and other non-living substances, plant life, bacterial and viral life, animal life, human life from the different ways in which each is able to function and react.  We normally will not confuse a cow and a horse, a bird or a bat, a shark or a whale, a gorilla or a human being.  It is not simply their appearances that are different.  We realise that each has certain capabilities and that those capabilities arise from the way they are essentially constituted in their inner being.  We don’t expect animals to talk as humans do, except in TV cartoons.  We don’t expect snails to run in the Derby or the Grand National or horses to fly.

And, in our daily rubbing shoulders with other people, the only way we can know them is by what they reveal of themselves through their behaviour and interactions.  We say they ARE kind, because they consistently behave in a way that is kind.  Or they ARE cruel, again because of what is perceived as consistently cruel behaviour.  “By their fruits you will know them,” said Jesus.  “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a bad tree good fruit” – because agere sequitur esse.

A level of unknowability

At the same time, while we may feel we can know a lot about people from their behaviour (and do not hesitate to pass judgement!), we can by no means know everything.  Every human being, indeed as science constantly discovers, every created thing is a mystery whose innermost reality is really impossible for us to penetrate totally.  And that even applies to our own selves.  We do not know ourselves totally.  We are a mystery to ourselves – and, a fortiori, to others!

If this is true of created reality, we should not be surprised to face the same dilemma with the Creator.  God, in his deepest being, is a mystery we cannot ever fathom.  This is not just a “cop out”; it is a fact.  Nevertheless on the basis of what God DOES we do get some very clear indications of what he IS.  Agere sequitur esse applies to God also.

What the Scripture tells us

And it is in the Christian (New) Testament especially that it has been revealed to us that there are three Persons in our one God.  What it means to have three Persons in one Being is something we do not even try to understand.  But we can get some inkling if we confine ourselves to seeing what each of the persons DOES as a clue to what they ARE.

In Greek classical drama in the time of Jesus and earlier, the actors put on a mask to indicate the role they were playing (not unlike the elaborate painting of the face in Chinese opera).  The Greek word for this mask was prosopon (proswpon, literally, ‘in front of the face’) and the Latin translation was persona (that through which the sound of the speaker’s voice came).

So, speaking analogically, we can say that in our God there are three masks, three personae, three roles pointing to three separate sources of action.  This is not an explanation.  It is a groping effort to get some understanding.  Those three roles are that of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit acting from one single Source.

Father

We see God as Father, a loving and compassionate Father.  Not a daunting patriarchal figure but one that is easily approached and who can be addressed by the familiar and intimate term Abba (Abba, compare the English ‘Papa’ or ‘Ah Ba’ in Chinese and other languages).  He is the creator and giver of all life.  Everything good that can be discerned in the world around us comes from him and through him.  In him, through him and with him all things exist.

He is the one who cares, the one who waits for the Prodigal to return and forgives completely and immediately.  He is the Father of truth, the Father of love and compassion, the Father of justice.  The whole of this beautiful world in which we lives is a testimony and, at the same time, only a faint indication of what he really is.  If we really look at the world he has made (and not at the one we have unmade), our hearts can only be overcome with praise and thanks.

Son

We see God as Son, who in an extraordinary way came to live among us, and whom, in a paradox beyond all understanding, we humans killed.

In the Son as a human being, we can see, hear and touch God.  We see something of the nature of our God as Jesus heals the sick, identifies with the weak and socialises with the sinful.  We see him challenge the dehumanising values that form the fabric of most of our lives and, in the process, he is rejected by those he loves.  Though he is God, he empties himself of all human dignity that he might open for us the way to true and unending life.

Spirit

We see God as Spirit, becoming, as it were, the soul of his people.  All the good that we do, all our evangelising work, our hospitals, schools, works of social development and social welfare, our care of the sick, the weak, the oppressed and the outcast – all are the work of God’s Spirit working in and through us.  Wherever there is genuine loving there is the Spirit of God at work.

Growing into his likeness

And yet, being aware of all this, we still cannot say that we know our God.  But there is enough here – if we pray and reflect on it – that is already overpowering in its significance.

We need to remember that we have been called to be and to grow into the image of God himself.  In what has been revealed to us through Jesus and the Scriptures, we have more than enough to challenge us and to help us to approach closer to our God.  Our ultimate goal, and it is the only goal for all living, is to achieve perfect union with him.  We do that, above all, by loving as he loved, by loving unconditionally and continuing to love where no love, and even hate, is returned.

For this we need the creative power of the Father, the compassion of the Son, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  They are all available to anyone who opens their heart to receive.

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*Although God has been referred to here in male terms, we need to remind ourselves that the three persons of the Trinity are sexually inclusive of both male and female.

We need also to remember that, although Jesus as the incarnate Son is male, our Creed professes that the Second Person of the Trinity became primarily a human being (et homo factus est).  The word ‘homo’, although grammatically masculine, refers to any human being: man, woman or child.

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Commentary on Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30 Read Sunday of Week 33 of Ordinary Time (Year A) »

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Commentary on Wisdom 6:12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13  Read Sunday of Week 32 of Ordinary Time (Year A) »

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Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-6

Today and tomorrow we read a powerful call to unity in the Church. It is in two parts, and in today’s reading Paul speaks of the sources of unity, i.e. the elements in our Christian life which we have in common. Tomorrow he will speak rather of the variety that exists in the community.

Today, there is a general plea for unity in the church. Christians have been:

• fashioned through the Spirit into a single harmonious religious community (one body, also see Eph 4:12),
• belonging to a single Lord (in contrast to the many gods of the pagan world),
• and by one way of salvation through faith,
• brought out especially by the significance of baptism (see also Rom 6:1-11).

But Christian unity is more than adherence to a common belief. It is manifested in the exalted Christ’s gifts to individuals to serve so as to make the community more Christlike (Eph 4:11-16). This teaching on Christ as the source of the gifts is introduced in verse 8 by a citation of Psalm 68:18, which depicts Yahweh triumphantly leading Israel to salvation in Jerusalem.

According to the New American Bible

In Paul’s letter, it is understood that Christ, ascending above all the heavens, the head of the church, through his redemptive death, resurrection, and ascension, has become the source of the church’s spiritual gifts. The “descent” of Christ (Eph 4:9-10) refers more probably to the incarnation (see Phil 2:6-8) than to Christ’s presence after his death in the world of the dead. (edited)

Chapter 4 of Ephesians begins and ends with exhortations to love and forgive one another, which is part, of course, of the overall theme of unity in the Letter. In fact, the chapter lists three different threats to disunity in the community:

1. arguments between Christians (vv 1-3);
2. diversity of service in the church (vv 7-11); and
3. unorthodox teaching (vv 14-15).

Each of these threats can be dealt with by all being united together in Christ. We will see the first of these calls to unity in today’s reading.

So far Paul has taught that God brought Jew and Gentile into a new relationship to each other in the Church, and that he called on the church to give witness to his wisdom. Paul now shows how God made provision for those in the church to live and work together in unity, and to grow together into maturity.

Real unity can only be said to exist when there is a harmonious relationship between a variety of elements. It is not the same as uniformity; the last thing Paul wanted was to have a church of identical clones. The distinction between unity and uniformity is crucial in the life of the Church today.

Paul, speaking from his place of captivity (though it may not have been much more than house arrest), appeals to the Church to remain faithful to its original calling, that is, the call to be a follower of Christ. Implying that there are some divisions among them, he asks them to be more accepting and understanding of each other:

…with all humility and gentleness, with patience…

They can do this by:

…bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…

That peace is the sign of the Spirit at work among them. And it is a truly inner peace and not just an external absence of conflict.

He then lists the gifts they all share in common. There are seven ‘unities’ listed, reflecting the Trinity, but in reverse order to normal:

• Spirit, Christ, Father
• Church, Spirit, hope
• Lord, faith in Christ, baptism
• One God

There is:

• one Body: that is, the Body of the Church with Christ as its unifying Head;
• one Spirit: the Spirit of the Father and the Son, given to them in baptism;
• one shared hope: a confident assurance that they will be called together one day to enjoy a glorious future of happiness without end, face to face with God;
• one Lord: Jesus Christ;
• one faith: faith in Jesus Christ and his Gospel;
• one baptism: referring most probably not just to a ‘baptism in the Spirit’, but to the external sacramental celebration by which one was publicly marked as a member of the community;
• one God: the Father of each one without exception, “who is above all and through all and in all”.

With such bonds linking the members together, both Jews and Gentiles, there can be no place for disunity and conflict. The links are both with the Persons of the Trinity and with the members of the community—all sharing in the one Divine Life.

Let us too remind ourselves that, today, we too as Christians have all these in common. Let us pray that we may grow more deeply aware of these common elements and they may help to bring us all closer together in a common faith, hope and love.

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Commentary on 1 Samuel 24:3-21

A truly majestic passage with much to say to us in these violent times.

Saul has been continuously trying to put an end to David’s life for he is jealous of David and sees him as a threat to his throne, especially as Saul knows that, because of his own behaviour, he has lost God’s support of him as king.

As our reading opens we find Saul with no less than 3,000 men trying to hunt down David. In some rocky terrain, Saul slips into a cave in order to “cover his feet”, a euphemism for “to relieve himself”. Little does he know that deeper inside the cave is David hiding with his men.

Seeing Saul’s very vulnerable position, David’s men urge him to kill Saul. After all God had promised that he would deliver David’s enemy into his hands. “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘I will deliver your enemy into your grasp; do with him as you see fit’.” Here was the clear opportunity.

Actually, there is no previous record of the divine revelation here alluded to by David’s men. Perhaps it was their own interpretation of the anointing of David to replace Saul, or of assurances given to David that he would survive Saul’s vendetta against him and ultimately become king. It could also refer not to a verbal communication from the Lord but to the providential nature of the incident itself, which David’s men understood as a revelation from God that David should not ignore.

However, David refused to kill Saul. Instead he stealthily just cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak. How he did this without Saul’s being aware is not clear, unless, after relieving himself, Saul had lain down to sleep. But, almost immediately, David regretted what he had done. For the garment was, as it were, the man himself and even to touch it was to lay hands on the person. (We remember in the New Testament how people just touched the clothes of Jesus or of his disciples to be healed.)

For all his wickedness, Saul was still the anointed king of Israel. Nor would David allow his men to attack Saul. Saul’s royal office carried divine sanction by virtue of his anointing, David will not seize the kingship from Saul but leave its disposition to the Lord to whom it belongs.

Only after Saul had left the cave did David reveal himself. He called out to the king and bowed low in reverence to his king. Why should Saul think that David wished him harm when, just now, David had him totally at his mercy and refrained from doing anything? “I will not raise a hand against my lord because he is the Lord’s anointed and a father to me.” Not only is Saul his king but also his father-in-law.

He lets Saul know how close to death he had been. The evidence was in David’s hands; the piece of the cloak that he had cut off. David offered this as proof that he had no designs on Saul and there was no need for Saul to regard David as his enemy. In the end, it would be the Lord who would judge between them.

Saul, for all his faults, generously acknowledges the enormous dignity of David in behaving the way he did. Asks Saul: “If a man meets his enemy, does he send him away unharmed?” In the culture of Israel in those days, the answer was definitely, No! And, in many situations in our own day, it is still No! There many in our society who would not be able to understand the attitude of David.

For now, Saul feels great remorse for his wicked intentions against David but it will not be long before he reverts to his former murderous plots. He realises that a person of such extraordinary dignity as David must surely replace him as king. He only begs David that he not do harm to his family and wipe out his family name. Jonathan will be killed in battle but David will take another son, who is physically handicapped, into the royal palace.

If David had killed Saul, he would have lowered himself to the same level as the king. David here can be seen as a patron for all those – and they are clearly a minority – who believe passionately in non-violent means for dealing all problems, most of all problems which involve violence. This scene really shows the greatness of the man. It is a perfect example of the power (not the weakness) of turning the other cheek.

Among the non-violent heroes of our own time have been Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King but there are many others. They would understand very well what David did. Let us try to understand too.