gospel

23 FEBRUARY 2025: THE SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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En Gedi in the Desert of Zipth 2018, The Palestinian Authority.

[Jesus said], “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”   Luke 6:37-38.

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The remarkable story of David sparing the life of King Saul who was out to track David down in the desert of Ziph, is one of mercy, generosity and recognizing the holiness of Saul, the anointed of God. It was chosen as today’s first reading, I imagine, to present a real-life example of what Jesus is talking about: “love your enemies and do good to them….Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Having read today’s gospel (and I strongly recommend that you do), a reflection attributed to Cardinal Robert Walter McElroy, soon to become the Archbishop of Washington, DC, came to mind. The good cardinal was questioned about an openly gay man working in a local Catholic parish. He remarked: “If the Church eliminated all the employees who are not living out the teachings of the Church in its fullness, we would be employing only angels.” (Which reminded me of a story I heard of the plans of a house of study the Jesuits were proposing in the Maryland countryside years ago. The plans were sent to Rome for approval. The response from Rome said simply, “Suntne angeli?” (Are they angels?) There were no toilets in the plans! I guess they were anticipating the perfection mentioned by Cardinal McElroy).

In today’s gospel, I challenged myself as to how many of Jesus’ requirements I have regularly failed to implement. And the answer is… Well, I must do much better in future. It seems to  amount to a call for major soul spring cleaning! It’s another of those occasions when I have to employ an old bromide: that this is a “counsel of perfection”, meaning it is mightily worthy and demands our attention and effort, but in all frankness, it is unattainable. Which begs the question, “Is it?” Does Jesus ask the impossible of us? As far as I can make out, today’s gospel demands about 18 charitable actions on our part, no matter what evil and cruelty is being inflicted on us. Bearing in mind his own unthinkable suffering, where he begged God to forgive those who had tortured him, it is clear he meant every syllable of his demands of us. Today’s gospel sets out a set of very clear goals. Are we up to them? And before any one of us says, “But we are only human”, and perhaps tries to hold up today’s second reading as proof, then take care. The Christian teaching has ever been that Jesus was fully, totally human. He was tempted in the same ways we are, he suffered as we do, he enjoyed life as we do. He was fully human in every way – yet did not sin. So we have to be just as fully human!

In other words, we are all fully capable of living just as he did, a good, godly, satisfactory, happy life, yet standing up and defending, if necessary, our core beliefs – the truths with which we identify ourselves. As Thomas More says to his daughter Meg prior to his trial for treason in Man for All Seasons, “When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then – he needn’t hope to find himself again.” (Robert Bolt, 1960, Vintage Books, page 81). Our core beliefs, and the actions which spring from them, are what makes us children of God. Our actions reflect our core beliefs. We will be judged by them and, if worthy, “gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing”. And the one who said that waits for us to ask him for help so that this will, indeed, become true.

AZ Quotes, Mahatma Ghandi.

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

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SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2024: THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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 A Dose of God Today.

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Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages…  Mark 1:37-38.

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Look at the words and picture above, and I am sure you will agree with me that Jesus was no politician! Everyone looking for him? Yet he wanted to move on to other places where he was unknown. That is the opposite of political! Any audience is fair game for a politician, the larger the crowd, the better. Yet not for this man. We are still in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel here. It is thought to be the first written, that is to say the oldest, of the four gospels. Remember that this gospel begins with John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism, and scholars are unanimous that it concludes with the empty tomb, the further passages being added later. So we are with the gospel that recorded Jesus’ actions fairly shortly after his ascension. So perhaps we have the closest thing to an actual record of Jesus’ thoughts and actions, and here he is today avoiding the opportunity of addressing people who wanted more of him. Why? I suspect it is the same reason why, in last Sunday’s gospel, he silenced the devil in the possessed man screaming that he was “Holy One of God”. Which he was, but did not want that to be proclaimed until after he had shown what, in fact, the Messiah was as God wanted him to be. That is to say not the military figure conquering the Romans, but the Son of God showing us, in real time and as a real human being, how to live perfectly, how to behave perfectly and how to do that as a friend of God and with God’s support. That scenario, if you can call it that, had hardly begun. It’s a little bit like painters not wanting you to look at their unfinished work because likely as not, it will not be like the final product, which is in their mind’s eye but definitely not yet on the canvas.

So here we have the budding Messiah, already noteworthy enough to be attracting crowds, but intent on spreading his message and model in his own way on his own terms. Hence he wanted to move on “to the nearby villages” where he was unknown, and not respond to his disciples’ eagerness for him to bask in the crowd’s adulation. In other words, he wanted to plod, not bask! Which takes us somewhat to today’s first reading from the Book of Job, “months of misery”, “life a drudgery”, “troubled nights” and so on. In shunning the adulation of the crowd, doesn’t it seem that Jesus is choosing a much more humdrum life, moving from place to place, hoping for the best and, I’m sure, many times not finding it? And it culminates in that last night of agony in Gethsemane followed by the ultimate humiliation on the cross, “coming to an end without hope” as Job says today. Paul, writing to the Christians in Corinth, seems to echo all that, “I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible”. Oy vey! as our Jewish friends might say.

“When the Almighty was yet with me….” Blake, “Illustrations of the Book of Job” 1826, Wikipedia.

Yes, life can be tough. Hopes can be crushed. Friends might vanish. Careers may fail, and on and on. The thing is not to be overwhelmed by the world, which is just what the devil wants. For if we allow that to happen, then we deny both faith and hope in a God who loves us. But we see today Jesus deliberately choosing the tougher but safer path, because his mission was more likely to bear fruit that way. In treading that path, whatever it might be for each of us according to our vocation, the Lord is always close to us. Crushed we sometimes may be, but we are never alone. Jesus, in seeking out a solitary spot to pray as today’s gospel says, knew he was not alone; he was not talking to himself. He was with his greatest source of friendship, his source of strength and his ultimate source of hope. So where he went we might safely follow for God is with us everywhere and always.

Job’s Vision of  Christ, Blake 1826 (ibid.)

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

Please send your reactions to: RogerJohn@aol.com

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