Twenty-fourth Sunday - 2019

If you may have noticed people walking around scratching their heads lately it could be that they are church-going Catholics trying to figure out what on earth has Jesus been saying to us in the gospels these last few Sundays. Last Sunday Jesus said we cannot be his disciple unless we hate the members of our family. Two weeks ago, Jesus warned that many may not make it to heaven. Sunday before that Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” and today Jesus gives us three parables that do not make sense. If this goes on, we may have no hair left to scratch. Let’s look at these three parables Jesus is using to teach us. Now the Scribes and the Pharisees are scandalized at Jesus welcoming and eating with sinners. Pharisees would have nothing to do with these “breakers of the law of God.” So Jesus answers with these two parables. The first is about a shepherd and his sheep; “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?" Well this will leave them scratching their heads because no one would do that, risk leave their whole herd to predators and thieves over one sheep. “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’  Again, no one would do that, they would look absolutely foolish, having a neighbourhood rejoicing over a lost loonie. Jesus has fashioned these examples to be counter intuitive to the extreme to demonstrate that when it comes to sinners God does not think like we do. Just the opposite.  “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”. God wants all his created humanity to be at home with Him in heaven. That is why God sent his Son into the world to bring every last one home. Jesus illustrates this with the story of the Prodigal Son which ends today’s gospel reading. The question for us today is where do I stand on the lost? Let them go to hell if they want to, they deserve it. Or am I here today in tears over those I know who no longer have any interest in anything having to do with God?  In this parable of the Prodigal Son there are three main characters. Which one do I most resemble?

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Twenty-third Sunday - 2019

If ever there was someone who wanted to put you to the test about your Christian faith, today's gospel text would make a perfect weapon. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate their father and mother, spouse and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even their life itself, cannot be my disciple.” So your Jesus wants you to hate your family – it says so right here. Now if you reply by saying that Jesus didn’t really say that or mean that, you create a whole lot of trouble for yourself. Would that not be true of anything the gospels quote Jesus as saying? Perhaps a little parable might help us here. Suppose you belonged to a family of a non-Christian religion. Your father is a strong, devote believer and he strictly demands that you follow this same religion and all its beliefs and practices. One day you come and announce that you are going to become a Catholic; you believe that Jesus is the son of God and that the Catholic Church is the true way to follow Christ. Your father tells you that if you do this, he will disown you, strip you of your inheritance and nothing more to do with you. And so you leave. In other words it all or nothing. In today's society, the worst thing you can do is promote hate. Hate crimes are of the worst kind of evil. Here Jesus is using hyperbole; which is an exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally. Like when Jesus said “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.” Mk. 9:43 Jesus is not teaching hate, but he is teaching unconditional love. To be his disciple Jesus wants our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind with all our strength. The problem we face in the Church today is mediocrity – I like some of the things the Church teaches but certainly not everything. In Matthew’s account of this issue Jesus is warning that to follow Him unconditionally will have its challenges.  “A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Mtt. 10:36 Jesus wants our whole heart first and above all. Half-hearted faith will never last in today's world. It slowly drains away until it is all gone. The choice is now in our hands.

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Commentary on the Sunday Gospel for  the Twenty-third Sunday, 2019. Dr. Brant Pitre, a Research Professor of Theology  at the Augustine Institute. View on Catholic Productions - LINK

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Twenty-second Sunday - 2019

Commentary on the Sunday Gospel for the Twenty-second Sunday, 2019. Dr. Brant Pitre, a Research Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute. View on Catholic Productions - LINK

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Twenty-First Sunday - 2019

Will Only a Few Be Saved?

Today’s gospel explores a question that can be traced back to the Old Testament times, a question quite prominent in Jesus’ time, a question very much with us today – who and how many will be saved? The Pharisees taught that God was planning new creation but who will be included – some believed all Jewish people but only Jewish people will be saved; but some believe that even some Jewish people, those who lived in rebellious times i.e at the time of the flood, or the people in the wilderness who did not enter promised land, and others would not be included. It was therefore of great interest to know what Jesus thought. They ask, “Lord will only a few be saved?” Jesus gives his answer with a parable, those standing outside of the locked door. (Perhaps those trying to get into a wedding banquet, symbol of the great banquet of the Kingdom Heaven.) Imagine for a moment there is a big banquet downtown Hamilton honoring the outstanding citizens of Hamilton of past 20 years. Obviously, those who have lived outstanding lives are invited. At door everyone is asked to show their invitation; not having an invitation the Doorman says who are you, there is no record of your good work – “I don’t know who you are”. Sorry, no admittance. Or think of it this way, people at the gate of heaven saying, “I have my baptismal certificate”, or others, “I stood up in church and professed Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior. Again, the Door Keeper replies that’s not enough, this is banquet for those who have lived holy lives in God’s service you’re not on the list, what have you done? “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, (in church once in a while) and you taught in our streets (we listen to sermons about you.)’ But the Lord will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’ Jesus had much to say on this question. "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.' Matt 7:21 But when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.' (Wedding garments were often given as gifts to guests so all invited would not decline because their cloths were shabby.) Here  the wedding garment symbolizes Sanctifying Grace – unmerited gift given to all invited.) Mtt 22:11 The question, who will be saved, has been a long-pondered question in the Church and still is pondered today. Origen of Alexandria, a third-century Christian scholar, proposed a universal-ism answer – everyone is saved, even the Fallen Angels. This proposal was rejected by Church. St. Augustine and even St. Thomas Aquinas had a much more severe answer, saying the number will be much fewer. Church has not given definitive answer. In recent times the highly respected theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar argued that God’s will to save souls is universal but because we have been given freedom to choose some may refuse grace and heaven. Today we might do well to ask am I invited, which of the Spiritual and Corporal works will be listed to my credit. “Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.” Will I be one?

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