What is the Question? 

Gospel: Matthew 3:13-17:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.   John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?”  Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.

After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him.  And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son,^* with whom I am well pleased.”

Today’s Question: Are you steeped in Jesus? 

Esker Church, for Third Sunday of Advent, 'Gaudete !' Sunday, -'Rejoice !'

Soul Food for Hungry Adult Communities: Dec.15th 2013: 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year A.

Malachy 3:1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. (quoted in today’s Gospel, Matthew 11:2-11.

A Reflection:

A DISCOURAGED WORLD MEETS THE LIGHT!

Newgrange Dawn

The days are short and getting shorter, the nights are long and getting longer. At least for the moment. But come the end of this week and we will have reached the turn of the year, the longest night of the year, the shortest day of the year, on Saturday 21^st December. Our Irish ancestors, over 5000 years ago, watched for this, too, and the burial mound at Newgrange testifies to this,- they watched for the rising of the sun on this morning of December 21^st, when the light flooded into the darkest and deepest chamber. A bit like our hearts and our societies at times, when all there seems to be around us is darkness, weariness, discouragement, violence,  sadness. And then that day comes when there is the turning of the year, and light floods our hearts, our communities, right to our depths. ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness‘.

And in the face of that, how about this? The first Reading this third Sunday, this ‘Rejoice’ Sunday, speaks to all of us who have  ‘weary hands…trembling knees… faint hearts’. Isn’t this what the approaching celebration of the coming of the Christ into our world and into our lives, is all about? Hear the words deeply:

Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees, and say to all faint hearts ‘Courage! Do not be afraid. Look, your God is coming.’ ‘

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy, for those whom the Lord has ransomed shall return….everlasting joy shall be on their faces…sorrow and lament will be ended.”

“They shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.”

Our Lord,- yours and mine and all of ours- is on the way towards us, to flood the chambers of our hearts and communities with his glory, his presence, his own joy, his light. Our faces will be radiant when we gaze at the human child, the Son of the Most High, lying there for the world and for us in the feeding trough of the animals, and wrapped in the swaddling clothes of our welcome.

And then, in our blindnesses we will see, in our lameness we will begin to walk again, in our diseases we will be cleansed, our deafness will be taken away, and our deadness will waken up to a whole new aliveness, as we hear glad tidings of great joy announced to each of our hearts and communities.

‘Rejoice in the Lord, always! Again, I say, Rejoice! The Lord is near!’

Everlasting joy shall be on our faces!

Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.  seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com

To see ‘Soul Food for Young Adult Communities’ for this Sunday, click here.

CONSCIENCE MONEY, and FIRE IN THE BELLY:

'He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.'

A Question:  By any chance, do some of our societies have people whose behaviours are actually robbing fellow-citizens? Do we have people who gladly walk all over other people, and over the public, to get ahead at all costs? By any chance, do we have people who, by their demands, put their hands in the public purse and help themselves to gross salaries?

I think every society has its quota of such behaviours. We’re no different. We cannot point the finger.

Maybe today, at this time of new beginnings, and with the Gospel that is put before us, we could recall a very useful phrase which seems to have dropped out of use,- ‘Conscience Money’.  It used to refer to money that a person paid back, probably anonymously, because of tax or other obligation avoided, and it was done to ‘relieve’ one’s conscience. There’s an acute awareness of a past or present behaviour that is morally wrong, an ignoring of the common good of all, and then, following that awakening of awareness or conscience, the consequent decision to put matters to right until the conscience is now at peace. Of course, this decision can be avoided, and the acute awareness is allowed to fade. It will not go away, of course.

Some definitions from various dictionaries: Conscience Money…

- ‘is money paid usually anonymously to relieve the conscience by restoring what has been wrongfully acquired.

-  money paid because of feelings of guilt, especially about a payment that one has evaded: (an example of such usage: ‘the country regards aid as conscience money from the West’)

-payment made voluntarily to reduce guilt over dishonest dealings

-money paid, often anonymously, to relieve one’s conscience, as for an obligation previously evaded. [1840–50]

-Money paid in compensation or atonement, as for a dishonest or morally objectionable act.

It has to do with coming to our senses, and giving proof of our repentance.

Pope Francis in our time (in his recent Apostolic Exhortation ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ or ‘The Joy of the Gospel’) , and John the Baptizer in his time (heard in today’s Gospel to us), are voices in the wilderness, speaking to those who are willing to hear, calling for repentance from immoral or humanly wrong behaviours, from grasping money, from oppressing the poor by the structures that we accept, the practices we condone in society and as societies. We are all complicit in much that is morally wrong in society, by our silence or our fears, or our own comfort. ‘The hole is not in our end of the boat, so why worry?’

Now, change ‘Pharisees and Sadducees’ to our own names and societies and the structures of commerce, banking, politics, church,- and we then listen to these words to our own selves: ‘Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is to come? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit!’ ‘Even now the axe is laid to the trees, so that any tree that fails to produce good fruit will be cut down…’ Societies that do not care for all their members, for the common good,  for the little ones, the vulnerable, the weak, the elderly sick, the poor,- such societies, not matter how great or seemingly powerful, will fall by their own corruption and injustice. Justice means right relationships. If these right relationships are corrupted, the society will eventually crumble and fall. And that goes for the  church as well,- there is always the constant need to look and see and repent and change, – change hearts and change structures. Christ founded a church, a community of sinners, and that is ‘as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.’ We are a pilgrim people, holy in our deepest humanity, and yet broken in so many ways and relationships.

And as we continue to repent and show proof of repentance by our actions, Jesus (‘the one who comes after me’ said John) will baptise us with, and steep us in, the Holy Spirit and fire,- the fire of longing for justice, for peace, for reconciliation, for right relationships, – that was in his own heart. That is the work of the Spirit, that is the ‘fire’ that is put into our bellies for the sake of our suffering and injured sisters and brothers, near and far.

A promise given, to every community of disciples.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help us to hear the call to repent, to change our hearts, attitudes and structures, to be filled with your Spirit and the fire to be passionate about human beings, whoever and wherever they are. Teach us to listen prayerfully at this time of the approach of Christ, to your voice in our hearts, to our consciences calling to us now, as we look out at our world today.

And the new time, what will it look like? This is what is promised! This will happen!  We believe the promises made to us by the Lord!

The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon our communities:

a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

a spirit of counsel and of strength,

a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,

and (our) delight shall be the fear of the LORD.    (See Isaiah 11:1-10)

It will be like this, when we have repented and been washed clean and filled with the Spirit and the ‘fire’ of Jesus Christ:  (and this passage is not about Animal Welfare, but about human communities and societies! it’s the dream for us, or what ‘the kingdom of God’,  God’s kind of society, will be like! )

“Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

the calf and the young lion shall browse together,

with a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall be neighbours,

together their young shall rest;

the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,

and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,

as water covers the sea.”

Pope John XX111, who called the Vatican Council.

‘Give us once again all the miracles and gifts of Pentecost!- the prayer of John 23^rd when he called the Council all those years ago.

‘Give us once again all the miracles and gifts of Pentecost!’ is our prayer today.

Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

P.S. RED LETTER DAY! Find ‘Esker Redemptorists’ now on Facebook! A new day dawns!

P.S. 2: Click here for ‘Soul Food for Young Adult Communities’, for this 2nd Sunday of Advent 2013

Gospel: St. Matthew 22:36-44.  First Reading:  Isaiah 2:1-5: Psalm 122: Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14. Click here for this Sunday’s Mass Readings.

Advent- it's a gift of God to us! -to be opened up.

ADVENT IS A GIFT!

Jingle, bells! Jingle, bells!

Ever find yourself waking up in a strange place? ‘Where am I?  There’s an alarm ringing! Is it the burglar alarm? Or is it my alarm clock, my wake-up call? I take my bearings,- I remember now where I am, and what the alarm bell is about. It’s time to begin a new day.’

Or: I can ignore the alarm. Let it ring! It will stop in a couple of minutes. Then, I can go back to sleep.

Well, Advent is a wake-up call for us all, – a ‘Jingle, bell!’ time to look at where we are,  and to set our faces to begin a new day: time for us to look again at how we are doing.

Or: We can let Advent simply pass us by: ignore it; turn a deaf ear to it. It will stop ringing in a little while.

Then Christmas will come, we’ll give the presents, eat the dinner, and sleepwalk right through the whole season. We will have the experience, but will miss the meaning.

‘Wakey! Wakey!’ That’s what the call is, this Sunday. “Come, let us go up to…the LORD…that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!’  It’s time to wake up, and to come to the Lord, so that we may learn once more or for the first time, to ‘walk in his paths’,  to ‘walk in the light of the LORD.’

LIGHTS, LIGHTS, LIGHTS, everywhere, as we approach Bethlehem! There’s a star that’s calling us to the manger, and the manger itself is full of light, for us, for the world, – so that we may set aside our bitterness, our wars, our hatreds, our meanness, our darkness of heart towards each other,  and turn our hearts of war into hearts of peace, our hearts of destruction into hearts that bring life;-  or, as the prophet Isaiah puts it today for us ‘(The peoples) shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’

And again: ‘You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep…the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on…light…put on the Lord Jesus Christ.’ That’s Paul, today, talking to the Roman Christians and to us.

The word ‘Advent’ means the Approach, or the Coming: Advent is our call to prepare, reminding us that the dawn is near,  Christ is near- it’s time for us to wake up and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, time to get out of our ‘sleeping’  clothes, and clothe ourselves with Christ.

Christ will light up the heart of the world!- including ours!

The Dawn is coming. The sun of Bethlehem will light up the world. And, it’s good to hear our alarm bells ringing. Christ is trying to break into our world!

Pray  ‘Jingle, bells! Jingle, bells!’ Pray that we will all be woken up!  Wakey! Wakey!,- that’s the call to us, this First Sunday of Advent. The Lord is coming!

Fr. Seamus   seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com

Gospel:  LUKE 20:27-38  Click here for Sunday Readings for today:

‘Have you no home to go to?’

‘Have you no home to go to?‘ is a gentle way we have in Ireland of reminding someone that it’s getting a bit late and it may be time to make a move towards home.

The horizon changes this week, as we enter into November, – or  ‘Samhain’ as we call it in Irish,- a season of facing into Darkness and moving towards the shortest days of the year: a time associated in ancient times with the reality of death/darkness approaching. Not very popular thought, today, but a reality that we all dwell on at some time, because we know we cannot avoid it. Life is limited. There will be a halt to our gallop, at some moment. There will be a full-stop, some time. But our belief is that that particular full-stop is not the end of the story. A new paragraph, a new Chapter, so to speak, will begin.  At Christian funerals, we hear this frequently, during the Preface of the Mass:  ‘for your faithful, life is changed, not ended.’ 

The Question we all ask, at some time, is this:  Is death the end of it all?  Will our heavenly Father (Jesus’ name for God) just dispose of us like a used tissue, into the waste basket of nothingness? That doesn’t fit. How can one put ‘See what love the Father has lavished on us’ (First Letter of John Chapter 3:1) with just dumping us forever?

Here, we see Jesus, now arrived in Jerusalem after his long journey from Chapter 9 (‘he set his face towards Jerusalem’).  He meets different groups there, and some challenge him. One such is that group of religious leaders called the Sadducees, who had no belief in any resurrection from death. They try to catch Jesus out with a ‘What if…’ question that was designed to make Jesus look foolish. Read it for yourself.

Jesus answers them in two ways: first,  one of the purposes of marriage is for the continuation of the race, in this world. That won’t apply in the next life.

Secondly, he appeals to Moses (they believed in Moses, ok), where God speaks to Moses and God calls himself ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’,-  and these friends of God were all long dead! God is the God of those who died, long long ago, or recently. In other words, the dead are alive to God! There IS a life after death. ‘Now he is God, not of the dead but of the living; for to him all people are in fact alive.’ That’s how Jesus finishes.

Again, returning to those words at a Christian funeral, – ‘For your faithful people, life is changed, not ended. And when the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.’  We fold up our ‘tent’, because we all know that ‘we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come.’  We head for home!

In the meantime, life is for living, to the full,- ‘Live a life of love!’ says Paul. That’s livin’ ! – to the full.

If you can, take time to read the wonderful story of the seven brothers who were arrested with their mother. It’s from the Book of Maccabees, Chapter 7, verses 1,2 and 9-14. A great chapter to read. Each of the seven brothers died, rather than turn from their faith. The fourth one said, at the very end, to his executioners: ‘Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men’s hands, yet relying on God’s promise that we shall be raised up by him; whereas for you there can be no ressurecion, no new life.’  And there are so many modern Christians in our times who are still giving their lives to God, and being executed for their faithfulness to Jesus Christ. They put us to shame.

Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.    (seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com)

Click here to view ‘Soul Food yum for Young Adult Communities’ for this weekend.

As Jesus 'set his face for Jerusalem', he had to journey south along the border of hostile Samaria.

Gospel: Luke 17:11-19. Read it for yourself, in your Bible or Missal, or click here.

It’s not nice to have our Favourite Prejudices exposed. ‘Please, may I hold on to mine?’ Jesus won’t let me! Well, today we are being challenged both about our ingratitude, and about our prejudices. Neither is comfortable territory. We are journeying through borderland territory, here.

The Context of today’s story is the continuing journey of Jesus ‘towards Jerusalem’,- towards the ‘baptism’ that he longed to be accomplished, on the Cross, at the Tomb, and in the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. From almost the half-way mark (9:51) in St. Luke’s account of the life of Jesus, he is ‘turning his face towards Jerusalem.’  Notice these sayings of Luke:

Luke 9:51 ‘As the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem’.  ‘As they travelled…’ (9:57)   ‘In the course of their journey…’ (10:38)  ‘Through towns and villages he went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem.’ (13:22). ‘Now it happened that on the way to Jerusalem he was travelling along the border of Samaria and Galilee.’  (17:11) His journey wasn’t just geographical!

And this ‘…along the border of Samaria and Galilee’ (17:11) is the setting of today’s Gospel. A tense place to be, because of the hostility, the animosity between the Palestinian Jews and their Samaritan neighbours. Each group considered the other to be heretical, and despised the other.  Sounds familiar? Jesus didn’t recognize such borders;- for him, each person and each group was hugely important, and he despised nobody whatever. Still holds true, for him if not for us.

And maybe that was the real ‘leprosy’ that he encountered,- that despising of one another.

The ten lepers, outcasts, unclean, had to keep their distance from others. No mixing please! Keep away! And that’s how they had to live their lives each day,- kept out. But when they see Jesus passing by,- ‘on the way to Jerusalem’ and all that Jerusalem would do to him,-  they call out ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us!’ And Jesus did. He told them to go off and do what was usual when a person was cured of their skin disease,- ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests!’ In other words, you are already healed of your disease.

They were so excited at their healing that they went to their friends and families,- but forgot who had healed them. Except that one. He came running back to say a huge ‘Thank You Jesus!’ And who was he? A Samaritan, of all people,- one of the Despised. The real Outsider as far as the Jews were concerned, at that time.

When we see someone whom we despise or look down on, doing a really good deed, like saying such Thanks,  it upsets our prejudices. (Remember that other story also of ‘the Good Samaritan’?) People can be full of a goodness that we refuse to see or acknowledge. We prefer to hold on tight to our prejudices towards certain people. But Jesus challenges his hearer’s prejudices, then and now.

The man ‘turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan’.  And Jesus commented to his Jewish hearers ‘No one has come back to give praise to God except this foreigner.’

We have ‘borders’ in our hearts, for In and Out, Us and Them. Jesus doesn’t. Jesus praises the Them, to Us! And the Us to Them! And maybe it’s We who have that leprosy, that disease that’s more than skin-deep, the disease of despising or closing out, or giving the old shoulder, to certain other people and groups. And the disease of not being grateful.

‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us!’ 

And when he does, and heals our hearts, we turn back praising God at the top of our voices from the bottom of our (healed) hearts! And that’s livin’ !

‘Jesus!  Master!  Take pity on us!’ – our daily prayer when we bring our hearts and homes and communities and world to him.

And he will.

‘There are thirty layers to every story, and a Rabbi can only show you one layer.’ (A Jewish saying.)

‘Change the names, and the story is about yourself’ (Horace). Share it with a friend or two.

Fr. Seamus.  seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie

Gospel: Luke 14:1 and 7-14.  Reading 1: Ecclesiasticus 3:17-20, 28-29.  Reading 2: Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24. Click here for Mass Readings for today.

Of Ladder, Jockeys, and Bicycle Wheels.

Climbers...

An American TV commentator said, some years ago, in words like these: ‘the greatest tragedy is not when you have a dream to get to the top and fail to reach it, but rather when you get to the top, that you find your dream was empty.’ For those who climb ladders in life, and who seek to pass out others, there’s a little message that they have not noted, in the Scriptures: namely, that you are already away ahead of every one else, and every one else is away ahead of you!,- in other words, that we are all of us Number One in the eyes of our Maker. No need to climb! You are there, already.

Jesus was watching carefully all the jockeying that went on among the people at the banquet. And thirty or more years after that, in the Christian communities, we know from other texts that indeed there was inequality of treatment of people, at the Eucharistic Assembly. The poor were left at the back, the rich brought up to the front: some had nothing to eat, others had plenty that they would not share.

But with Jesus, and in our Christian communities today, ‘the poor, the lame, the crippled and the blind’ were and are VIP’S. And what was amazing to the world of that time was to see all this concoction of people, -Jewish disciples of Jesus, Samaritan disciples (usually hated by the Jews), Gentiles, ‘Pagan’s (meaning from the countryside!), social outcasts, sick people, widows, orphans, crippled people, young and old, slaves and their masters or mistresses together,-  all of them sitting down together at the one table, slaves and free, men and women, Gentiles and Jews,- all gathered around and for the One Lord Jesus, to be energised by the fire in him for people.

A faith-community that's going places...

Bicycle Wheels?-  it could be an image of a Christian community, both in worship and in our daily living, where the Centre is Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, where each is connected to that Centre, and together we go out to the edges, with strength from the Centre and support for one another.  ‘We are all one person in Christ,- no more Gentiles nor Jews, slave or free, male or female,- all one person in Christ.’ (St. Paul). We come into the Centre for strength, we go out from that Centre with energy to the edges and the margins of society, to serve and live what we have received.

In our parishes and communities, we are each Number One: the lowly are raised up, the mighty brought down to size, until every one is ‘a first-born’ child of God, loved as if the Only One.

The Gospel today is not about social graces and behaviours,- it’s about how humans live together, how Christian communities show to the world the dignity of each and the unity of all.

There are no ‘ladders’ in our communities. Just wheels,- people, radiating out from and with Christ to the world.

Are we Climbers?  Jockeys? Or Radiating Family?

Fr. Seamus

For a poem/reflection on today’s Gospel, entitled  ’Jockeys’,  click here  (from www.emptifulvessels.com, poem/reflections by Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.)

seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com

P.S. Could you find a way to discuss this with even one other friend, and see what God’s word today is saying to you, where you are and as you are. That’s being ‘community’ already! And ‘where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them’ says Jesus to us.

Gospel: Luke 13:22-30.  First Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21. Find these in your Sunday Missal or in your Bible, or click here for Mass Readings. 

Isaiah 66:18-21.  ‘I am coming to gather every nation and every language. They will come to witness my glory. I will send some to the nations… to the distant coasts and islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations.’

Luke 13:22-30: ‘Through towns and villages he went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem…’Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them: ‘try to enter through the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.’

You may find yourselves standing outside, knocking on the door, saying ‘Lord, open to us.’  But he will answer ‘I don’t know where you come from.’

‘We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets.’ “I don’t know where you come from!’ …‘You yourselves (will be) thrown out. And people from east, west, north, south will come and sit down at the feast in the kingdom of God.’

Reflection:

We all love to keep some people out,- ‘they don’t belong’, ‘they shouldn’t be here’, ‘they’re not part of us!’, and so on. We like to think of ourselves as the insiders, and of course we usually think that we have it made. In other words, we close ranks, and think that we are the Only Ones, and the Best.

Our Jewish brothers and sisters did it (see the Gospel, today). Catholics do it, also, and our Muslim brothers and sisters,- we each tend to think that ‘we have arrived’, that we are ‘saved’, that we will be getting into heaven (whatever that means), and that those others probably won’t.

Jesus was having none of that, today! He tells us that heaven (again, whatever that will mean) will be a huge surprise for us. We will be amazed to see certain people by the right hand of God, – but our surprise won’t be anything like that of others us might see US there! Let’s see what today’s Gospel event and parable tells us.

Can I tell you this?- I love Liquorice All Sorts! In fact, I love all sorts of all sorts! But first,

The kingdom of God is made up of all sorts!

about today’s Readings:

‘I don’t know where you come from’,- said Jesus twice, back to back. ‘I don’t know where you come from’. Is the Master saying to them (meaning us) ‘Where you are coming from and where I am coming from are two very different places!’

Or, to quote an old saying ‘We might live in the same square,  but we don’t move in the same circle!’.  Is the Master saying :we’re not even on the same wavelength,- I don’t find you among my ‘Friends’, because you never confirmed me as your friend. You pressed ‘Decline request.’ . You kept deleting me as your friend! So, I don’t know where you are coming from, right now, at this moment.

Jesus continues: But there are a lot of other people who are on board with me, they are on the same path or road as me, – they are of one heart and mind with me. They know where I am coming from and I know where they are coming from. And you will be amazed when you see them,- young, longhaired, with tattoos and rings: or from other lands and far-away

...of every race, creed, gender orientation

places, various different colours and nationalities and even creeds. Their ears might not have heard of me, but their hearts are just like mine, just like our heavenly Father’s.  I know where they are coming from. But you, you are staying outside, you aren’t really a follower or fan at all. You seem to think that merely being a born Catholic (or Jew, or Muslim, or whatever) is quite enough to entitle you (en-Title you) to get inside the kingdom of God. This ‘kingdom’ is a gift, an invitation to everyone, but for the moment you decline. I would love lots and lots of people to come in, but it’s a decision that only you can make, -will you open your heart and life to this gift I offer you? Will you confirm me as your ‘friend’, and confirm my teachings ( a ‘narrow door’ into a great treasure awaiting you)- all you need to do is ‘come to me’ and open your door to me as I would love to open my door to you.

‘I don’t know where you come from’- can you hear me inviting you? Will you ‘enter the

For Alice, and for us, getting through the 'door' to Wonderland means getting right down on our knees.

narrow door’ of welcoming me, deciding for me, -and then you will find yourself at a great banquet with All Sorts, from North, South, East and West.

You see, as I said, I love ‘All Sorts’,- including Liquorice All Sorts- and All Sorts of people! Including you. Are you ready to love me, to welcome me? I’m still waiting, with longing. My invitation is to people everywhere in the world. Including you. When will you press ‘Confirm’, instead of ‘Decline request’? Look at my Face, first. Later, look at my Book!

Do you yet know where I come from?

Jesus.

(Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.  seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com)

SOUL FOOD for Hungry Adult Communities: August 18th 2013: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

20^TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME: AUGUST 18 2013

‘Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus’:

First Reading (Hebrews 12:1-3)  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”

(See Rob Heffernan from Cork winning a world gold medal in the 50k walk, in Moscow, on Wednesday of this past week.  http://corkrunning.blogspot.ie/ )

It’s easy to lose heart. It’s easy to give up. My late Father often used the phrase ‘the virtue of Stick-at-it-ness’,- of perseverance in the face of obstacles. Winston Churchill put it another way, ‘Never give up, never ever give up’. Today’s first reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews (no one knows the author), contains this passage, above, so that we ‘may not grow weary.’

This little reflection that follows might help you, – or else skip down to the comments about the Gospel of today.

Reflection:  Running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus: The race is to be run “while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.” The text reads literally “looking away to Jesus.” This means looking away from everyone and everything else and concentrating on Jesus. We who run the race look to him for guidance and aid. He is called by two titles – the leader and perfecter of faith.

The text chosen comes from a section of Hebrews entitled A Call to Continue in Faith

Olympic runners

(Hebrews 12:1-17). Today’s text is the first three verses of this section and can be entitled Look to Jesus. The author points to the fact that we are surrounded by a “cloud of witnesses.” The image is taken from the athletics track. They are the spectators at the race in which we are running. But they are a special group of spectators. They are the ones who have finished the race and whose faith is confirmed and they now surround us to encourage us as we run the race. The author encourages us who are about to run to “rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us.” In the original Greek the phrase is to rid ourselves of al that surrounds, besets and distracts. In short, the athlete sheds all that gets in the way of running the race to victory. The Greek word translated as “perseverance” (hypmonē) has the nuance of endurance in the face of hostility. The race is to be run “while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.” The text reads literally “looking away to Jesus.” This means looking away from everyone and everything else and concentrating on Jesus. We who run the race look to him for guidance and aid. He is called by two titles – the leader and perfecter of faith. He is such because he himself persevered and endured the shame of the cross. Because of this he is now at God’s right hand. In this way, Jesus is presented, not as a model of martyrdom, but of perseverance. For this reason the author encourages to reflect seriously on Jesus’ experience. He endured (persevered in the face of) sinners’ opposition (hostility) over a long time. The Greek word used for “opposition” or “hostility” (antilógia) means verbal opposition and abuse. The author’s encouragement lies in Jesus’ identification with those who suffer such hostility now.  So the reason we “look away to Jesus” is so that we do not grow weary or faint. Runners without endurance do not finish the race. They grow faint and weary and collapse.

GOSPEL READING: LUKE 12:49-53.

‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already.There is a baptism I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!’ (Jerusalem Bible).

Another translation has it this way: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and, oh, that my task were completed! There is a terrible baptism ahead of me, and how I am pent up until it is accomplished!’ (The Living Bible).

Do we want to ‘catch the fire’ of Jesus in our hearts and homes and communities? Do we want to be with him when he is steeped and immersed in what he is doing for the world? Do we want to walk his road with him? Are we ready and willing to have ‘a baptism of fire’ in walking with him?

About ‘Fire’: the nature of Jesus’ message is to purify and to cause people to distinguish dross from the genuine product.’ This is a flashback to Luke 3:16, where John the Baptist says of Jesus: ‘He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’  ’Kindle in us the fire of your love’ is an ancient Christian prayer.

About ‘Baptism’: the image here is of Jesus facing a great difficulty, and  being almost overwhelmed by catastrophe. Jesus sets his face for Jerusalem and for opposition and to complete his exodus, on the Cross and beyond the grave. Jesus is facing his own ‘baptism of fire’. He invites us to have courage also, when we are immersed in difficulties.

The second part of today’s (difficult!) Gospel, about division and having to make choices about Jesus, is also a flashback to the words of Simeon when the Child was presented in the Temple: ‘Look, he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined

Ready to take the plunge?

to be a sign that is opposed…so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.’ Jesus asks for decisions about him. Even within families, people will have different positions about him.  Jesus tests us to the core. He purifies the dross in us, and lays bare what goes on inside us,- for our own sake. Even gold has to be purified by fire! And so do we.

Fr. Seamus

seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie

(You are invited to share in reading this reflection with at least one other person, remembering ‘Where two or more of you are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of you.’ )

Luke 12:32-48. Find it in your own Bible or missal.

‘Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom… give alms…provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven… for where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.’

‘Gird your loins and light your lamps…. , awaiting your master’s return’…ready when he comes…vigilant…’

It’s easy for the disciples of Jesus in any age to loose the energy, the drive. It’s easy to take the foot off the gas. It’s easy to take the eye off the ball, and lose the dream, forget what we are about. Every person, of whatever age, has work to do for Jesus, for the kingdom of God, the dream of God for the world. No hangers on, no spectators, no slackers… there’s work to be done! That’s the hard message. Read it firstly as a message for the early Christian communities, – and then read it for ourselves, in our situations, parishes, communities, families. ‘Gird up your loins and light your lamps.‘ Today.

Holidays are a time to relax. We shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously, at any time. Yet, how do we take this Sunday’s Gospel reading into our hearts? After the hard saying of last week’s Gospel  ’You fool!’ to the rich man, this is a collection of sayings about vigilance. They would later become very real in the young church, thirty and more years later. It’s for disciples, all of us, not to lose heart or lose the Spirit in us from Baptism, in our time.

This scribe’s brain seems to be on holidays, like the rest of him. So, maybe we could take a reflection from a brain much better, that of Blessed John Henry Newman. It’s about being response-able, and ready, and willing for action,- being on the ball, being Somebody, for Christ.

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN:

“Year passes after year silently; Christ’s coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as he comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven! O, My brethren, pray him to give you the heart to seek him in sincerity. Pray him to make you earnest. You have one work only: to bear your cross after him. Resolve in his strength to do so. Resolve to be no longer beguiled by ‘shadows of religion’, by words, or by disputings, or by notions or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world’s promises or threats.  Pray him to give you what Scripture calls ‘an honest and good heart’ or’ a perfect heart’, and without waiting , begin at once to obey him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none- any profession which is disjoined from obedience is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek his face; obedience is the only way of seeking him. All your duties are obediences. If you are to believe the truths he has revealed, to regulate yourselves by his precepts, to be frequent in his ordinances, to adhere to his Church and people, why is it, except because he has bid you? And to do what he bids is to obey him, and to obey him is to approach him. Every act of obedience is an approach,- an approach to him who is not far off though he seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides him from us. The day will come when he will rend that veil, and show himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for him, will he recompense us. If we have forgotten him, he will not know us; but ‘blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find watching. He shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.’ May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it but is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain and the world to come is everlasting.”

From the Parochial & Plain Sermons of John Henry Newman.