Fifteenth Sunday - 2016 -The Good Samaritan

Fifteenth Sunday of the Year – 2016 So here is a question for you. Does God speak to you? Does God speak to you person-to-person? In today’s first reading we see that God spoke to Moses and gave him the Commandments to live by. Moses then tells everyone that these commandments are meant for all of us know, and learn, and live by. Then Moses goes on to say that learning and knowing the Commandments will not be difficult – why - because God is teaching them to us in our hearts. "For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you . . . . no, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out." Dt. 30:10  So do our hearts have ears with which to listen and learn? Well in a way, yes. The ears of the heart we call our conscience. When you look up the word “conscience” in the dictionary, it tells us that conscience is: that inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling us toward to right action. So the Commandment teaches us what is right or wrong. Our conscience tells us, personally, how well we are doing with that Commandment and its teaching. But over time, the Commandments became bogged down by a lot of add-ons, - interpretations and commentaries that various teachers of the law were adding to the commandments. In the gospel story of the Good Samaritan, one such teacher of the law wants to know what Jesus has to say about moral living and eternal life. He frames it in a question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answers by pointing to the Commandments – you will find the answer there Jesus tells him. Then Jesus asks him, “What have you learned from the law?” The lawyer answers: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus replies, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live. Now remember this is a lawyer talking to Jesus and their heads are full of “What if’s - an's - and but's …” questions, like “who is my neighbour?” Jesus answers with this beautiful parable – a man falls into the hands of robbers and is left on the road half dead … three men come upon him, a temple priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan … The priest and the Levite see him, and maybe in their conscience they feel sorry for him, but in their heads the rules forbid them dealing with blood which would make them ritually unclean and so unable to function in the temple as Priest and Levite. So they ignore their conscience and obey the rules, and leave him dying. But the Samaritan, who is not all tangled up with temple rules, is free to follow his conscience – he stops and rescues the wounded man. Jesus asks the lawyer, who fulfilled the command to be his neighbour? He answers, the one who showed mercy – to which Jesus replies, "go and do likewise". In St. Peter’s letter we read; “For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 1 Pt. 1:15 In this year of Mercy, Pope Francis is reminding the whole Church that we must have in us the same mind and heart that is in Christ. We must shape our consciences by observing and imitating that conscience we see at work In Jesus. Our calling is to be holy. God’s name is Mercy. The world we live in today is trying to reshape our conscience with a morality that excludes any mention of God. That is why our communion in the Church is so vitally important today. It is in the Church that Jesus is seen and heard; where the “Imitation of Christ” is priority number one – where we strive to shape our conscience to resemble that of Christ. Perhaps a good ending to these remarks is St. Paul’s words to the Church in Corinth. St. Paul writes; examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. (the sign of peace) May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Cor. 13:5&11 * * *

Prayer and the Other Chair

A suggestion I once heard to help us with the element of "presence" in our prayer was to place another chair with ours as we begin our time of prayer. We are not alone when we pray; "... And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age." Mtt. 28:20 Image if a friend comes into the room where you are sitting and you act as if he is far away. You take out some letters he wrote to you and you start reading them over again, wishing you could asks him about what he meant by this or that. Ask Him, he is sitting right there in front of you! Prayer is not a question of, 'is the Lord with you or not', rather it is how are you responding to his presence. So you might take up one of the gospels and read a section and then ask, "... Lord, what did you mean when you said ...?" Now you listen to his response, because he is right there with you. When two persons come together, each is responsible for their own conduct, their own response to the dynamics created by their being together. These dynamics include: a time and place to meet, a conducive setting, where to sit, greeting, agenda, speaking/listening - remembering all the while, that you control only do your part, they control theirs. Now you might question how this works when you neither see him nor hear his voice; where is there something tangible so I can know it's more than just my imagination at work? There is more to presence and communication than merely seeing and hearing. Consider this, you have a dear friend that you visit frequently and your friend is unable to see or hear. You enter his room, and even though he does not see you or hear you, he begins to speak your name. You touch his arm in confirmation and he touches your hand in reply. How did that person know it was you? Often, when I was called to the bedside of a seriously ill person in the hospital, who has been restless and agitated, and even though they are not perceptibly conscious, as soon as I entered the room with the sacraments, they would begin to be calm. Nurses often remarked how this has taken place.  There is more to communication than the optic and auditory nerves of the human body. True you could experience an apparition, as some saints have, but that would be extraordinary. The Lord starts us off in a much simpler way - with a gentle touch to our inner self.  So we have settled the question, "... is the Lord present..." - yes, he is always present when we seek him. Now we must learn how to  identify that gentle touch, the various  ways the Lord makes his presence known, how we are to hear his voice in a new way, beyond our ears. Some call this prayer experience the Prayer of Contemplation.  Suppose you decide to take up flying an airplane. There are two important and essential things you will need; an airplane and an instructor. For the Prayer of Contemplation these two essentials are, a Prayer-time, and the Lord's instruction. There are many helpful resources on how to pray, but in the end we must climb aboard with our instructor in the next seat and start flying. Praying On A Passage Of Scripture [... Link...] ***

Fourteenth Sunday Ordinary Time 2016

The gospel for this Sunday has Jesus speaking these words; "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." There are two other texts that contain a similar reference: Isaiah 14:12 - "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! Revelation 12:7 - The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. It may surprise us to realize that the call to Evangelization is a call to warfare, to a spiritual warfare, to be fought here and now in our daily lives. This may be hard to get our heads around given that we are being anesthetized by a growing secularism in our society that has lost all sense of the reality of the spiritual. 'Follow your dream, whatever makes you happy, that's all that matters. Truth is subjective', so it goes. It's like we are sitting in our rec-room sipping a coffee and munching a cookie, watching T.V. while in and out of our house stretcher bearers are bringing in the wounded on stretchers, as a fierce war rages on outside, and we take no notice, oblivious, continuing watching our program. The casualties I refer to are those who are loose their faith, their connection with the spiritual life, their connection with the communion they had with their spiritual home; loosing their union in the Spirit with the Father and Jesus - this especially true of the younger generation. They are being dragged down into a world without God. I recommend you read chapter 12: of the Book of Revelation; its imagery helping us to see what Jesus is seeing.   ... a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. The Church the Body of Christ.   ... She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. The Body of Jesus dying on the cross. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. Originally the seven hills of pagan Rome - now the cities of the world, contaminated by atheism, imposing a secular world view.  The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. Mary the first Church and Jesus her son now born into the world. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. (the days remaining until the Second coming) The ascension of Jesus and the Church dispersed to all the world; under the protection of divine providence, never to be destroyed. Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. And so the Church lives on in this ongoing struggle with the Deceiver and his cleaver lies. "Roaming the world, seeking souls to devour." (Prayer to St. Michael)  Are you in? St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and the other evil spirits who prowl about the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

Thirteenth Sunday Ordinary Time 2016

And to another Jesus said, "Follow me." But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." And another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home." To him Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."  Lk 9:57-62

At first reading, these words of Jesus may seem dismissive of the importance of love and mutual caring within the family; especially for us now in light of the recent Vatican Synod on the Family and the great importance the family is given. Some context here will help with an explanation. In Jesus time the Jewish burial customs where strict and place a serious obligation on family members, especially on the eldest son. When a person died they would be entomb that same day. This would be followed by a month of mourning. Then after one year, the bones of the deceased would be gathered up and placed in an ossuary (a small box) and reburied. After this second burial the son's obligations would be fulfilled and he would be free to carry on with his life. At this point there were two main viewpoints as to what all this meant. The Sadducees believed that death was the end of the story. There is nothing more, other than to recall with fawned memories those now gone. The Pharisees believed there was to be a "coming-back-to-life-again", a resurrection of sorts, back to this life, in this world. These old bones would take on new flesh and live again. No doubt Jesus is fully aware of the Fifth Commandment, "Honour your father and your mother." Jesus considers this obligation to honour the deceased to be fulfilled after the first burial, thus freeing one to come and follow him. Waiting for a whole year would directly conflict with the urgency to proclaim the gospel now. [ link to a commentary on this subject ] At the heart of the gospel is a new and profoundly different understanding of human existence - of who we are, why we are here now, and what is our destiny. There is a future. There is to be a "New Heaven and a New Earth", but they will be a wholly new creation and preparation for this new life begins now. Already now, through the Holy Spirit, this new and eternal life begins in us. Knowing this and understanding it will begin to reshape the way we live our lives now. Now we see through the eyes of Jesus. Now we shape our lives and model them on the vision we see through Jesus' eyes; not as the world sees, not as we used to see. To him Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." What vision of reality is shaping our world today? Clearly, one is a secular, atheistic world view that professes that "what you see is what you get". That's all there is, nothing more. The question put to us in today's gospel is, "what and who is shaping your mind and heart. Are you looking only on what has passed, or is your life full of great expectation of what God has in store for those who love and follow him? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In 1969, singer Peggy Lee won an award for her recording of a song entitled, "Is That All There Is?" The following is the link to the song and a link to the background of the song. "Is That All There Is?"- link and Song Background - link