Reflections on the Sunday Mass

SUNDAY 19TH APRIL 2026: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER.

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Supper at Emmaus or The Pilgrims at Emmaus, Rembrandt 1648, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”     Luke 24:32.

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Today’s gospel is one of the most famous events in Scripture. Do you remember the risen Jesus’ instruction to his followers? “And when they came together, he gave them this order: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised” (Acts of the Apostles 1:4). And yet here are two men, followers of the Lord, leaving Jerusalem, directly disobeying the Risen Lord’s clear order! One might ask why, as no explanation is given in Scripture, but one can hazard a guess: they were terrified that what had happened to Jesus would happen to them if they became known as his followers. But without one word of censure, the risen Jesus, unrecognizable to them for some reason, simply approached them, joined them as they walked along, and began to explain the moments in Holy Scripture which prophesied his death and resurrection – and generations of scripture scholars would give their eye teeth to have been on that walk with them! They were, of course, transfixed with what he had to say, as they remarked afterwards, so much so that they seem to have almost begged him to stay with them and dine with them. This he did, and just as he broke bread with them, he vanished from their sight (except, of course, he hadn’t: he was there in the consecrated bread he was breaking at that moment..). They, now filled with the strength and presence of God, returned immediately to Jerusalem and couldn’t wait to share their good news with the others. No longer scared, no longer mice, but men, but men who had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Their courage would not last long…

Today’s first reading is also evidence of the new, real, strength God gave them. This passage, from the book of Acts, occurred immediately after the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the terrified followers of Jesus, probably locked away in what became known as the Upper Room, or the Cenacle. None of them could bear the thought that what had happened to the Lord might well happen to them as his followers. And can you blame them? That initial excitement of seeing the Risen Lord did not readily translate into the bravery that would face death. Take one good look at the man in the Shroud of Turin to see the brutal treatment he endured, the marks of the nails, the scourging, the evidence of the crown of thorns, and on and on. This was punishment of the cruelest possible nature. It meant that the entire Christian church was locked away securely in that Upper Room, afraid to show themselves lest they too be crucified. If God’s Holy Spirit had not descended upon them, you would not be reading this, there would be no Christian presence in the world, humanity would have been left to its own fate (the Jewish people not being interested in propagating their belief in God). But God had other plans.

Today’s second reading from the First Letter of St. Peter echoes last week’s reflection on Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables. You will remember the incident with the saintly bishop who saved Jean Valjean from being thrown back into prison for stealing the bishop’s silverware. In saving him, the bishop declared he had ransomed Valjean’s soul for God, so that from now on he was of God. St. Peter says, “you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb”. We were all born to be children of God, not for some other debased ideal such as wealth or power or self-glorification. No: we are called to reflect God’s beauty and goodness in our lives, reflected in the glory of Jesus’ example of self-giving to the end. So today’s Scripture should produce in us what Jesus’ presence did to those two people running away to Emmaus: Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? Please God, that should be the exact same reaction today, 2000 years later, with us all, not running away to Emmaus, but to union with God in heaven!

Disputation of the Sacrament, Raphael 1510, Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City State.

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SUNDAY 15 MARCH 2026: THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – LAETARE SUNDAY.

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The Light of the World, William Holman Hunt c.1856, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.

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[Jesus said,] “We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”       John 9:4-5.

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The picture above is quite famous, representing Jesus literally as the light of the world (though there are three versions: this one in Manchester, and two others, one in Keble College, Oxford, and the third in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London). Jesus is knocking on a  (our?) door hoping for admission. But look at the condition of the door itself; overgrown with weeds, and  presumably difficult to open. In addition, there is no clear handle. We have a problem. We have to decide whether to open it – from the other side – and it will take quite an effort to achieve! Hence a perfect Lenten situation. And believe it – Jesus will knock! It might be that, on the inside of that door, could be our perfect life, wrapped comfortably up in ourselves, not open to the world, but warm and cozy inside. Who would want to open it at that ungodly hour? And will Jesus knock twice? And louder? But more important, will we hear it and respond? And taking the cue from the first reading, which says, “not as we see does God see, because humanity sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart” (adapting the language a little), so perhaps that door is the door to our heart. And perhaps today, in Lent, that might well be the state that our heart is in; not perhaps bad, but maybe closed to the world. And the second reading today states boldly that “you (which is to say all of us) are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth”. But a closed door with no window in it cannot even light up the pathway, let alone the neighborhood or the world…

Jesus performed a miracle in this gospel, empowering a man born blind to see for the first time. Remember that being the Son of God, Jesus possessed omnipotence, all power, which he never – ever – used for himself but only for others. Remember the insults he endured on the cross? “If you’re the Son of God, come down from that cross!” (Matthew 27:40, Mark 15:29-32, and Luke 23:35-39). Could he? Yes. Did he? No. His supreme power was for the exclusive benefit of others, never himself. And in today’s gospel he cured a blind man. It was surely the clearest sign that the Messiah had arrived – who could cure a man born blind?  Yet the powers- that-be did NOT want to know about it. As the gospel says today, “for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue” – shunned in other words. One wonders what it would have taken to convince the Jewish leaders; but I suspect what they really wanted was a military conquering warrior who would expel the Romans and re-establish the kingdom of David. And today’s first reading is none other than the revealing of King David to the prophet Samuel. The scene is a little, forgive me, comical. Jesse, to whom the prophet Samuel was sent by God, had seven sons. Six were each presented to the prophet, with God whispering “no” to Samuel as each appeared. Then Samual’s question, “do you have any more?”  Er, yes, and David was brought in, the One, the youngest, out in the field tending the sheep… (from which Jesus possibly received the image of the Good Shepherd, so strong in Christian scripture and even adopted by Jesus himself, John 10-18). “Yes” said God to Samuel “this is the one.” And the House of David was, as it were, born that moment. That is exactly what the Pharisees should have said that day about Jesus – He is the One! That would been in direct contrast to today’s gospel event. Instead of the instant recognition of the Messiah being present, responsible for an event unknown in history (sight restored to one born blind) there was instead hostility to Jesus in their midst. Instead there was a huge effort to disown his miraculous cure as it took place on the Sabbath... Hence he, Jesus, must be a sinner as no “work” might take place on that day; “we know that this man is a sinner” as they said. The “work” in this case was clearly rather strange, with Jesus making a sort of paste from earth and his spittle, and placing it on the man’s sightless eyes. But this was “work” in the opinion of the powers-that-be. And it was that attitude which was to lead him to the cross. So the contrast was between the unwavering belief shown by Samuel following God’s wishes by choosing David (which could have seen Samuel arguing with God as David was the youngest, the least experienced and fit more to be a shepherd than a king!) and the Pharisees who saw nothing in Jesus’ miraculous event unparalleled in history, and, instead, accusing the Lord of being a  sinner! As Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains”. They see, but did not believe or accept the evidence of their own eyes. They denied it, so their sin remained. Had they simply accepted the evidence of  the miracle, there would have been joy rather than denial, glorying God rather than condemning the Prince of Peace.

Pope Francis as The Good Shepherd!

 

And with that image let us remember that this Sunday’s old traditional name was – and is – Laetare Sunday, the name of which is taken from the entrance antiphon for today’s Mass: “Laetare, Jerusalem: et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia…” or, in English, “Be glad, Jerusalem: gather together all you that love her: rejoice and be glad…” (and I copied that from my Roman Missal for the 4th Sunday of Lent, which I bought in 1962, just as everything changed…). We are now in the middle of the Lenten season, and the church allows a little celebration as such, hence the more joyful rose vestments the priest is permitted to wear today: Gaudete cum laetitia!

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SUNDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2025: THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT.

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Pilgrim Traveler, Matthew 24, “Stay Awake!”

(Jesus said to his disciples) Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.     Matthew 24:42.

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The presence of the Advent wreath up at the altar today and the lighting of one candle of the four tells us immediately that Christmas is around the corner, and that we have four weeks or so to prepare for it. The tradition of the Advent wreath started with our Lutheran brothers and sisters in northern Germany in the first half of the 19th century. Pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern had the inspiration when working with poor children in Hamberg. He must have become so fed up by the children constantly asking “Is it Christmas yet?” (the 19th century version of “Are we there yet?”) that he created this:

Recollections, Advent and Johann Hinrich Wichern, November 2017.

Not quite what we see today. The original wreath, with a base in an old cartwheel, shows all the days of Advent leading up to Christmas, with white candles indicating the Sundays. Quite elaborate compared to the present-day version! It’s a sort of 3D version of the Advent calendar!

This Sunday begins a new church year and with it our hopes and prayers for a year of peace and justice, of happiness and rejoicing, of goodwill among all people. Isn’t that what Christmas is supposed to be? Isn’t that what the angels themselves sang to the shepherds in the fields abiding? But as ever, we mustn’t get too carried away, with today’s gospel telling us to stay awake in a season when excess and collapse are more likely to be found than quiet reflection and attention. But we do have this season of Advent when we can do exactly that! Now is the time when we can reflect on the wonder of this season, when the almighty majesty of the Eternal Godhead took frail flesh and was born not into fame and glory but into a stable sheltering ox and ass! What a wonder, what an example; what a lesson. That we commemorate such a humble event 2000 years later is itself a wonder. It was, I believe, the culmination of God’s plan for us the human race and with whom, Genesis tells, God was “very pleased”. How so?

The greatest gift we have is free will. Unlike the beasts of the field, locked into the basics of getting through the day, we have choices. For whatever reason, we might forgo having a meal for some reason greater than responding to hunger. We might go and climb Mount Everest simply because “it is there”. We can create artwork to strengthen the beauty around us. Animals seem to have no idea or ability to do such. Only we can. But (as always) this greatest gift began to be used for the wrong purpose. We can cause grief, hatred, evil simply because we can. That was why, I believe, God entered human life. Ancient Canaan, the land promised to Abraham by God, practiced child sacrifice at that time. Even worse, the Canaanites thought they were doing the right thing. If they needed something tremendous, such as relief from famine, or the threat of invasion, such big requests of the gods (Moloch in particular), demanded a big price (which reflects normal human experience). But in this case it was child sacrifice. And I believe it was this that caused our God to intervene in human history. Abram/Abraham heard a tiny voice, believed it to be holy and obeyed it (Genesis 12). In that way, God found a believer, sent him into the heartland of this abomination, and so began the history of God’s people, beginning with the elimination of that terrible practice  (which took a long time). For about 2000 years God slowly revealed the divine nature: God was found to be  loyal, powerful, forgiving, a listener, merciful, a lover of freedom and open to relationship. With that finally established, God’s Son arrived and displayed those identical qualities in his lifework. Being fully human, Jesus showed us how to be fully human, acting and behaving in the way God has always wanted us to behave. And everything Jesus did in his ministry we can too, given the gifts which God has provided for all of us, without exception. And Christmas marked the arrival of this man who showed us the true meaning of being human utterly and completely. We can all be like him, he using his gifts, we using ours. 

And so how about an Advent resolution? To be as truly and completely human as Jesus was. So we can never excuse ourselves with the plaintive “I was only human” to explain a fault. No – had I been truly human I would never have done/said/thought the thing I should not have. It is to betray our humanity if we excuse ourselves in that way. To be completely human is to get as close to the Lord as we can, the One who made us human, and to ask guidance or forgiveness when we have failed, that is, become less than human. In this way we will be in great shape when the Great Day arrives, when Pastor Wichern gave a sigh of relief, and we sing Adeste Fidelis!

St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Navan, County Meath, Republic of Ireland.

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4 JULY 2021: THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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Jesus Teaching in the Synagogue, St. Elizabeth Convent Catalog.

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When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.  Mark 6:2.

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Today’s gospel includes this deadly observation: “Is he [Jesus] not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.” Jesus was so familiar to them that they could not believe that he, being so lowly born, could aspire to such a height as preaching in the holiest building in town. In other words, they stereotyped him; he was a common man, so he could not be a good preacher (despite the evidence of their own ears and eyes). Sound familiar? Stereotyping is, I believe, responsible for an enormous amount of suffering in the world, all of it unnecessary. Denying the humanity of a person because of incidentals (or accidentals as philosophers might call them), such as skin color, accent, type of work, education level and so on, is to deny that person’s God-given humanity. It is wrong, evil and sinful. Jesus was to be stereotyped later as the messiah as desired by the Jews, he who would rid them of the despised Roman occupiers and restore the kingdom of David. He wasn’t, and as he had failed to live up to that stereotype, he was put to death. Stereotyping is remorselessly evil.

Also, this passage, and the similar one in Matthew 13:55, is where Jesus is identified with a specific family in Nazareth, with mother, father and relatives enumerated. But the phrase “son of Mary” might also be an insult, as men were always called sons of their fathers, in this case it should have been Jesus son of Joseph, Y’shua bar-Yosef. But on this occasion he was called Y’shua bar-Miriam, almost certainly meant to be demeaning.

Then there is the very interesting statement about Jesus’ brothers and sisters, found in passages from Mark and Matthew. We have been brought up to believe that Jesus was an only child, born of a virgin who remained such forever, and was never married. The tradition that Jesus was an only child is extremely old and the Catholic Church has very old teaching surrounding that. However, the term “brother” can be very wide. For example, in Shakespeare’s play “Henry V”, before the battle of Agincourt, which was a spectacular English victory over the French, the king, rousing his reluctant troops, concludes by saying:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Henry V, Act IV, Scene iii.

So what has all this to say to us today? I think it is this. Too many times in my life I have been reluctant to speak of God’s presence within us and around us. I fear being condemned, just as Jesus was perhaps in today’s scene in the Synagogue, because I am just a regular fellow, nothing special, and afraid to hear words such as “Who does he think he is talking to us like that?” So I have remained many times silent. Jesus, on the other hand, did not remain silent, even though such words hurt him, resulting in He was not able to perform any mighty deed there, as it says in today’s gospel. Spiteful words can hurt deeply, and it takes courage to speak out about certain things, such as God’s mercy and love, when there is a danger of provoking a response like that. But, on reflection, and not wanting to be condemned as a holy Joe, carefully chosen words might be wholly salutary, deeply beneficent to those hearing them. Ezekiel was emboldened to speak by God’s strength in the first reading, and Paul actually states that when I am weak, then I am strong, able to speak with the power of Christ dwelling in him, not relying on his own power. That same power dwells in us. We too should be God’s mouthpiece when we are called to bear witness, for when we are weak, then we are strong, possessing the strength of God!

preach

Jesus Christ preaching on a boat on the sea of Galilee, megapixl.com.

 

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Happy July 4th!

SUNDAY 23 MAY 2021: PENTECOST SUNDAY: THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; WHIT SUNDAY; THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH.

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PentecostPentecost, Mayno 1618, Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

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Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…   Acts of the Apostles, 2:3-4a.

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The Acts of the Apostles tells us that there were Jews in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost from all over the place, stating that there were “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene…” just to emphasize the point. They were not there to celebrate the Birthday of the Church which is not too surprising as at that moment the entire Christian Church was huddled in a small room somewhere in the city, fearing for their lives. Being the followers of the crucified criminal Jesus of Nazareth, they expected to have the same punishment meted out on them for claiming he was the Messiah. The gospel of St. John tells us that they were behind locked doors, and says it twice! They were definitely not pilgrims for the feast of Pentecost! Yes, it was originally a Jewish festival, and still is, except the Greek name for the feast has been changed to the Hebrew name, Shevuot, the Feast of Weeks. We Christians eventually took the name of Pentecost to ourselves! Pentecost sort of means weeks; the Greek word Pentēcostē, Πεντηκοστή, means fiftieth, or the 50th day, about seven weeks, after Passover. It was originally the Hebrew feast of the First Fruits of the Harvest, but evolved into the Feast of the Law, the giving of the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai. Tradition had it that 50 days after leaving Egypt, the Hebrew people arrived at Sinai. In a sense, the first fruits of their liberation was the acceptance of God’s Law, hence becoming the Chosen People. It became one of the three Jewish pilgrimage festivals, meaning those who could would journey to Jerusalem and worship in the Temple (the other festivals are Passover and Sukkot, the feast of shelters or tabernacles, shortly after Yom Kippur). And so Jerusalem was packed that day, as mentioned in today’s first reading. Then it happened.

What could possibly explain the total and complete transformation of a group of terrified people huddled in a locked room, into boisterous, loud, preaching and proselytizing missionaries for that same Jesus of Nazareth?

A loud bang, a strong wind (inside the locked room), something looking like flames of fire coming down on each of them huddled there, and they were all transformed. The locked door was ignored, smashed open, never to be locked again. The Christian message was unleashed on the world for the first time, and the church was born! Not only that, but these new missionaries could suddenly speak all those languages listed above, out of the blue. It was as if the curse of the Tower of Babel, the sinful pride of whose builders angered God so much that they suddenly could only speak in incomprehensible languages to each other (Genesis 11:1-9), was reversed! All who would listen could now hear the new teaching in their own language. The new teaching was universal! Whoever it was that had achieved all that, had God-like power of transformation and focus. The Church was born! 

Cenacle

The Cenacle, the “Upper Room” in Jerusalem. Traditionally, this is the site of the Last Supper and the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Well, it was the fulfillment of the promise Jesus had made before ascending to his Father in heaven, commemorated ten days ago. As told at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, he ordered them to “stay in Jerusalem (which at least two, fleeing to Emmaus, had disregarded) and await for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And what a difference that made! It was perhaps the greatest miracle in the Church ever, without which, it must be said, there would be no church. Those cowering people, terrified that a knock on the door would mean crucifixion, could never have carried Jesus’ message anywhere. It would have died with them. Instead, there they were, out amid the Pentecost pilgrims proclaiming the New Covenant, one which overshadows the Old Law or Covenant (the very focus of the Pentecost festival), which had been revealed by none other than the man crucified only 50 days earlier, the Messiah himself. That was what they were preaching fearlessly  to anyone who would listen. 

dove1

Symbols of the Holy Spirit of God, Loyola Press.

This day inaugurated the Age of the Holy Spirit. Centuries before, beginning with the still small voice of God talking to Abram/Abraham, recorded in the 12th chapter of the Book of Genesis, we slowly became aware of God the Father, as God gradually revealed His Divine Nature, through the centuries, to the Hebrews. The Father spoke through the prophets, but then at last sent His Son to speak to us directly, the Age of God the Son. Jesus interpreted all that we knew of God in such a way that we, too, could be the children of God by obeying his teachings and following his example. After his return to the Father in heaven, our present Age began, guided by the Holy Spirit of God, whose immense powers were vividly on display on this birthday of the Church. The last 2000 years have seen the Holy Spirit at work in the church, especially through the saints who have called us back to The Way (the first name given to the Christian Church) time and again. So today the first Christians received the powers of God’s Holy Spirit in the most dramatic and successful way possible, and began to spread the Word to the world. We are their successors. It is up to us to continue spreading that same Word in whatever ways are open to us. This can be directly through what we say and the way we say it, what we do and how we do it, and indirectly through our example of decent Christian living. And ultimately in the overall impression we give to those around us, who, we hope, will be attracted to that same source of strength, hope and happiness which give us our reason for living day in and day out. 

trinity-b-300x277

Symbol of The Holy Trinity, Lightstock.

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25 OCTOBER 2020: TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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Mother Teresa of Calcutta, CRS.

Thus says the LORD: “………You shall not do wrong to any widow or orphan.  If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.”  Exodus 22:21-22.

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Today’s gospel is another strong summons to the center of the Christian faith, to love God, neighbor and self, or, put another way, love and all else follows. Hence we rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, and help those who need help. It might seem Pollyanna-ish, but what is wrong with that? Nothing. It does not mean being annoyingly upbeat in a terrible situation, but it does mean that hope is never extinguished because you never give up on the goodness of God. Remember Jesus in his last breath committed his soul to his Father in hope. The English martyrs about to endure the most terrible of public executions forgave those who had brought them to that point, and expressed joy as they were going to God. I think even Pollyanna might have wavered in that situation! Hence real, true love conquers all. Today’s first reading from the Book of  Exodus puts some flesh to that demand. It reminds the Hebrews that they too were once aliens when they were in Egypt, hence they were ordered to treat aliens among them without any prejudice or dishonor, and also to take care of the weakest members of their community. That Hebrew injunction continued through the centuries to Jesus’ teaching and example, and right down to today. We today are to do exactly the same, and treat the alien and the weak in our midst with dignity and love. Nothing has changed! We are all God’s children whether we like it or not! 

Well, there is the teaching. We might accept it in our heart, but it requires that we act on it; after all, actions mean much more than just words. Look at Mother Teresa above. She depended on money sent to her from those who admired her work and wanted to help in any way they could. Her Missionaries of Charity continue her work, hoping and praying that their work will lessen the world’s suffering. Their joy is in seeing those in their charge grow, educated and strong, to become missionaries in their own way, fired by today’s divine exhortation to love. Jesus said that we will always have the poor among us (Matthew 26:11) so that work with the poor will never end; but that is all the reason why more should be done, not less. So whether it is in donating funds to help good causes, volunteering to help, praying for those who are suffering and those who are helping, every one of us can do something, hence fulfill the command to love. And the more each of us can do, the better. 

We are coming to the end of the church’s year, and lessons like today’s are reminders of the basics of our faith. This is what we are all called to do in one way or another. St. Paul sums it up nicely in 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Pretty clear, as ever, now all it needs is some positive action on our part. The needs are great, so off we go….

 

AZ Quotes.

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18 OCTOBER 2020: TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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Denarius (“Roman Coin“) of the Emperor Tiberius, 14-37AD. 

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[The Pharisees asked Jesus] “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”  Matthew 22:17.

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That might seem an innocent enough question. Taxation is and has been a vexatious reality since time immemorial. We do not like paying taxes! But we have to. So why did the Pharisees think it important to ask such an obvious question? Well, once again, it was a trick question. If Jesus answered either yes or no, he would be condemned either way. Consider this: Jewish tradition rigidly observed (and still does) the complete prohibition of images, springing from the first commandment, which includes “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”, which refers to the many pagan gods in the lands surrounding Israel at that time. On the coin which Jesus asked to see, called a Roman coin in today’s gospel, but called δηνάριο (dēnario) in the original Greek text, was a graven image, almost certainly of the Emperor Tiberius. Worse, it states “DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS” meaning he was the son of the divine (or god) Augustus. Augustus was the first emperor, and Tiberius had succeeded him. And Augustus, in the eyes of the pagan Romans was now a god! Imagine that in the context of monotheistic Israel! The lady on the reverse is thought to be Livia, Augustus’ wife (also a goddess), posing as Peace, with the inscription Pontifex Maximus, or Greatest Bridge-builder, a priestly title (and one which the Christian popes adopted for themselves centuries later!). So if Jesus answered yes, you must pay it, he would be condemned as supporting a repulsive pagan idol-worshiper. Then again, if he said no, then he would be condemned as a rebel against the Roman authorities and liable to arrest and worse. Jesus’ ingenious answer put them to shame, using that very same image to declare that the coin must belong to whoever that image represented. So give it back! (And an aside concerning the denarius: it had a very long life. In the United Kingdom until 1971, pennies were identified by the letter “d” for denarius, hence 1/6d would be one shilling and sixpence, but the monarch’s head on the coin did not designate him or her as a god….). 

So, in a sense, the very same pagan image on the coin assisted Jesus in confounding the malice thrown at him by the Pharisees. Today’s first reading seems to expand on that theme, talking of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia and conqueror of the Babylonians, that people who had destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, and exiled the Jewish leaders to Babylon. Cyrus was not Jewish; he might have been a Zoroastrian believer, a faith found in Persia for centuries until the Muslim conquest, and if so, he believed in one God. He released the Jews from exile in Babylon, and allowed them to return to Jerusalem. It seems he even helped in the rebuilding of the Temple. Hence the glowing language of the first reading today, “Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp…” So there seems to be room for exceptions to the Jewish condemnation of all things Gentile. They are not all bad! And this can apply to things Catholic also. In my youth, it seemed that all Protestants were doomed to hell fire forever, including my dear mother who was Anglican, but who had sworn on the Bible to bring her children up Catholic, which she did. So isn’t that an example of goodness from an unlikely, Protestant, source? Today things have thankfully changed radically, and cooperation is more the theme than condemnation. Note Jesus did not condemn the irreligious image on the coin shown him in today’s gospel, and instead used it to confound those who were seeking to bring him down. Thank you Tiberius, even though he knew nothing about it at all. So that could well be a lesson from today’s readings. We humans love stereotypes, meaning that we create profiles of people and things from the barest of facts. If you were to ask an exiled Jew in Babylon his or her opinion of the latest all-powerful king called Cyrus from the north who had just conquered the Babylonian empire, you almost certainly would have got a shrug and a “Cyrus Shmilus” with no hope of any change at all. Stereotypes are almost always wrong and can be dangerous and plain evil. Opinion and judgment should come from the facts, not invention. Good can come from the unknown; people condemned for their appearance stand scant chance of being understood even when the facts are known, so strong is the attraction of the stereotype. Today’s readings are a lesson in not trusting such fantasies, and letting the facts speak for themselves. 

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The Tribute Money, Rubens 1614, Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, California, USA.

Reflections on next Sunday’s Mass Readings will be posted on Wednesday.

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Roger

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11 OCTOBER 2020: TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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The Parable of the Great Supper, Cicely Mary Barker 1934, St. George’s Church, Waddon, UK.

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[The King said,] Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’  Matthew 22:9.

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This story, or parable, of Jesus contains many elements of Jewish history and hopes. For centuries they had awaited the invitation to the banquet, the celebration of the triumph of the Chosen People of God over the unbelievers. Now here was the Messiah, fulfilling the prophecies as stated in Scripture, yet those who believed were a fraction of the Hebrew population. The majority of them refused to believe that this peaceful, loving, gentle man was the promised Messiah of strength and conquest. They refused to “come to the banquet” inaugurating the reign of the Messiah, the binding of the people intimately with God through what was to become the Last Supper and today seen in the Mass. Unwilling to abandon the Messiah and his message, the King, whom we can read as God the Father, expanded the invitation from the Chosen People to the whole world, and, in the parable, prophesying that those unbelievers who had even killed his messengers would be cast down, and their city burned to the ground, which can be taken as a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus in response to a rebellion against Rome in AD 70. 

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Arch of Titus AD81, Spoil from the Sack of Jerusalem, Rome, Italy.

Hence everyone was now invited to the banquet, and in they came, “bad and good alike”. It seems that this expanded invitation still included the Hebrews, who would be considered the “good”, and the Gentiles, the “bad”. In other words, no-one was excluded, even then. Now consider. If any of us were to receive an invitation to a wedding feast or something similar, we would make an effort to be presetable, to put on our “Sunday Best” as it were. It would be necessary to appear presentable, otherwise it would constitute an insult to the host; we would have to make an effort to justify, as it were, our presence, and remember that another person’s Sunday Best might not be ours – the Lord will know the truth of the matter. On the other hand, to just wander in unprepared, lured by the promise of a free grand dinner, would be an insult, and that is how it was treated by the king when one such did enter. Worse, that malefactor, unable to offer any explanation, is bound hand and foot and “cast… into the darkness outside”. There is no such thing as a free meal! Remember that a wedding banquet is a beginning, not an ending. In a special sense, it is the wedding of each one of us to the Lord as our Savior, the one who will walk with us through life, giving guidance and strength, until the day we are called to the ultimate eternal banquet. Our wedding garment will be that which we have created through our life, attempting at all times to be Christ to the world, the vocation given us at our baptism. We were dressed up that that event, a prefiguring of the heavenly banquet we hope for when called from this world. Well, each Sunday Mass should be the source and sustenance of that life work as we edge towards that moment when the king welcomes us into the eternal feast. With trust in the Lord, obedience to his guidance and determination to fulfill it, we will be accepted, and enter into eternal happiness.

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Heaven.

Reflections on next Sunday’s Mass Readings will be posted on Wednesday.

Please forward this webpage to those you think would appreciate it. Thank you.

Roger

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4 OCTOBER 2020: TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

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Grape Harvest Season in Volnay, Central France, South China Morning Post, June 2018.

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“There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it…..” Matthew 21:33.

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There have been so many vineyard parables in the last few weeks that I began to think of other ways of dealing with this metaphor. The vineyard typically means the world, and we the workers in it. So how about this as an alternative: the vineyard represents each one of us. We are each lovingly created by God as we emerge into the world. Some of us have heavier burdens to bear than others (as seen in the photo above) but everyone is able to produce a good harvest (also seen above); after all, what is the point of creating a vineyard is there is no hope of it producing anything of profit? The people in the vineyard are our talents, again some of God’s children having more than others, but that’s the way of the world. God must intend it, our job is to figure out what God’s intention is! Clearly it is to grow grapes as best we can, the reward being success and the vineyard owner, God, being pleased and the reward being ultimate and eternal happiness. I can’t change that element in the parable! We are the ones in charge of those worker-talents. We decide what they should be doing, or, as in this parable, what they shouldn’t be doing. So in a sense, in this way of thinking, we are the tenants of ourselves, each the temporary boss. And it is there that the trouble begins. The owner eventually wants to see how his property (us, you, me) is progressing, which is not surprising seeing how he lovingly created it. Well the tenant (each of us), according to the parable, thinks otherwise, and is not prepared to acknowledge that the owner is the owner. I am the owner! And this even to the extent of killing the owner’s son in the vain hope that this would mean the ownership would now revert to me. Now all my skills, those gifts of God, will now work exclusively for me and no-one else. It is the triumph of self over God our creator. I become my own god! However, according to the parable, the owner is quite able to evict me, bag and baggage.

In other words, we are not our own property; we are created by God, in God’s own image, and must behave accordingly. Our gifts (and each one of us has them, some more, some less according to God’s will) are to be developed to the greater glory of God, not our own glory. In that lies the source or destruction of our own true happiness, or blessedness (the words have the same meaning). If we reject the fact that we are called to be servants of God, serving God and neighbor as we take legitimate care of ourselves, therein lying the source of all happiness, then we condemn ourselves to a life of selfishness, envy, covetousness and pain. Ultimately that leads to hell. Remember my vision of hell is an eternity of self-consciousness, left entirely to ourselves, with nothing and no-one else, exactly the life we chose to live here on earth. Forever: the “wretched death” of the parable. How much better it is to tend willingly to our gift of the vineyard, our own life here on earth, utilizing therein our gifts for the greater glory of God through the supreme command that we love God, neighbor and self. Then, at last, to be welcomed into God’s life and ultimate happiness forever. The choice is always with us, to obey – or disobey, the original sin.

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The Expulsion from Paradise, Michelangelo 1510, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City State.

Reflections on next Sunday’s Mass Readings will be posted on Wednesday.

Please forward this webpage to those you think would appreciate it. Thank you.

Please forward this webpage to those you think would appreciate it. Thank you.

Roger

© SundayMassReadings.com