Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, year B - Br. Andrew

Homily preached by Br Andrew e.f.o. at Springwood on Sunday 23rd August 2015

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Just frivolity:

I shall share with you something my mate Fr Dave Smith of Holy Trinity Dulwich Hill mentioned in his sermon last week which might clarify things in the end.

He said “Now, in case you’re not familiar with the different understandings that exist between the different Christian denominations when it comes to the Eucharist, the best way of remembering the distinctions, I think, was that given to me by my old mate, Tony Campolo (the great Baptist evangelist) who put it this way:

• In the Catholic understanding, the bread mysteriously becomes the body of Jesus and the blood mysteriously becomes His blood

• In the Anglican understanding, the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine, but to the person who consumes them in faith they become the body and blood of Jesus.

• In the Baptist understanding, he points out, the bread remains bread, and the wine magically becomes grape juice!”

At any rate, if you’re a good Catholic, you may well make an immediate association between this dialogue and the Eucharist – a sacrament that had its origin, you’ll remember, in the ‘Last Supper’ between Jesus and His disciples”

In this the fifth and final interlude of John’s Gospel within this part of the Markan year I intend to state the Non-conformist-middle point of view concerning the understanding of Jesus discourse at Capernaum.

While most agree that the event of the Feeding of the 5000 itself was representative of the first Holy Communion that is where the agreement ends. Protestant Commentators and Theologians such as Matthew Henry and Calvin, agree that Jesus’ teaching in the Synagogue was not about the Sacrament or Ordinance of Holy Communion / Eucharist. Therefore the true meaning intended by his words “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.” John 6:56 are of a Spiritual nature and the instruction concerning His Body and Blood is to be understood figuratively.

Note there is no mention of wine.

Calvin commented that this discourse doesn’t relate to the Lord's Supper, but to the perpetual communication of the flesh of Christ, ["De la chair de Christ."] which we obtain apart from the use of the Lord's Supper. Communion alone does not grant us the Eternal life Jesus speaks of unless those that do so also follow His Words. It has been said by the theologians that they are saved who do not receive the Holy Communion and they are lost with it because it is not in the slavish keeping of the Holy Communion by which we are saved but in participating in this perpetual Communication of the flesh of Christ.

Matthew Poole writes, quote  “Feeding is to be meant believing in him; only here is a clearer discovery than was there in John 3:16-18, of the true object of that faith which justifies, namely a Christ crucified, for that is signified by the flesh and blood mentioned.”, end quote. While Albert Barnes draws our attention to the meaning ‘dining together’, had among the Jews, it was expressive of sharing in or partaking of the privileges of friendship.  The happiness of heaven and all spiritual blessings are often represented under this image, see Luke 14:15, “One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’”

Poole also comments on the terrible and awful notion that Jesus intended us to take his words literally and speaks disparagingly of the Council of Trent and goes on to comment that the situation demanded Jesus use the figure of eating and drinking because that was the subject of the  discourse; because the Jews were very proud of the fact that their fathers had eaten manna; and because, Jesus had said that he was the bread of life, it was natural and easy, especially in the language i.e. the specific words,  which he used, to carry out the illustration, and say that bread must be eaten in order to be of any use in supporting and saving men.

At the murmuring of his disciples  at such ‘hard sayings’ Jesus asks them “Does this cause you to stumble what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” John 6:62, a change of subject?

No, far from it, an illustration that points to the following year when Jesus would be crucified, dead and buried, rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. Meyer in his original language commentary uses these words “Will not this impending sight serve to offend you still more” for “Does this cause you to stumble” and says of it that he whom they believe to be mortal to Ascend into heaven is just as preposterous as literally and actually eating his flesh and drinking his blood. But for those future readers who have formed erroneous or heretical Eucharistic conceptions who are already aware that Jesus is God –They are to understand that their practices and understandings have gotten out of hand because the Son of Man has ascended in his flesh and is not here to be feasted upon.

The crux of this communication Jesus is making both to those in the Synagogue and to us is that Jesus intends all that he has taught them to be understood in the Spiritual context 6;63 “ It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.”

When we and John’s readers, contemplate the spirit we are drawn past the Ascension to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit is given but  John’s subjects remain ignorant indifferent or curious and eager to understand. When those who partake in the perpetual communicating of the flesh of Christ have received this Spirit they will be taught by the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father has sent in the name of Jesus, who will teach them all things and will remind them of everything Jesus had said to them. They will find a deeper meaning than the carnal one as they compare manna from heaven and the Ascension of the Son of Man and will know that Jesus did not intend that the Holy Communion or the Communicating of the Flesh of Christ to be carnal but spiritual.

Any mother will tell you of the amazing experience of ‘quickening’ when she begins to know  her child is truly alive and developing.

This quickening by the Spirit is what brings us to Spiritual birth and keeps us alive in Christ if we “obey his word we will never see death." John 8:51

And "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” John 14:23

Next verse

But this is conditional on a person being called to perpetual communication of the flesh of Christ (to faith) by the Father for we do not choose God but he chooses us. For faith in Christ is the gift of God, and coming to him, is due to efficacious grace, and is not the practice of man's power and free will. It is truly the will of the Father that all who see Jesus and believe in him may have eternal life; and he will raise them up on the last day. John 6:40

From the pulpit commentary - Christ does not give the hunger, but the bread. From the beginning he saw the existence of the appetite after the bread which he came to bequeath. John 6:40

St Peter gives us the climax “We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  After declaring there is nowhere else to go.

This Jesus in whom we believe is the very Son of God without whom we can live and so we feed upon Him in our hearts and by this we mean the continual communication between Him and His Body of all he is and has been to us while in the flesh and all he is now in Heaven.

And we keep his Holy ordinance as the New Covenant in His Blood because he asked us to but before hand or certainly at some time we need to harken to the voice of the Father and be led by him through sanctifying Grace into the eternal communication of love between  ourselves and Christ, of the communication of his flesh. United to His Body through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Be A Wise Loving Diner

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary, 

Time Year B: Be A Wise Loving Diner

 We live in a world that honours and values information. Yet our 1st reading from the 'First Testament' Proverbs (9:1-6) - speaks of 'wisdom'. I wonder what comes to your mind as you hear the words 'wisdom'. Wisdom is different from the idea of knowledge. Philosophers tell us there are two types of knowledge. Real knowledge refers to experience, and notional knowledge refers to head knowledge. When young children are told not to touch something because it is hot and it will burn them they have notional knowledge. However, if the child disobeys the parent and touches the hot object and experiences a burn then they now have real knowledge or wisdom. Wisdom is when notional knowledge becomes a lived reality. For the young person with burn they are experiencing 'the begetting of wisdom' - hopefully. Wisdom usually refers to a quest for deep knowledge that will bring happiness and contentment in the face of the mystery of life's hardships and complexity.

For the ancient Israelites, wisdom was taught by their sages. These sages gave practical knowledge about daily living applicable to each and all. That was how they and the Bible understood wisdom. Proverbs depicts wisdom as a very active independent female figure. She has built herself a house, she has prepared her table, she has brought forth her wine and invites her guests to a special banquet - a banquet of wisdom. "Come, eat of my bead and drink of my wine!" Wisdom serves practical life-giving knowledge to her guests - the foolish, the ignorant, men and women - and wants to teach them to discern what is the good and right way to live. Wisdom's nurturing banquet is for all people who seek to life

lives pleasing to God.

Last Sunday, in our gospel passage from John (6:41-51) Jesus was presented as the bread come down from heaven. He told his opponents - the complainers - that those drawn by God would be taught by God and then will come to Jesus. This Sunday the gospel discourse continues with a more Eucharistic interpretation. Jesus says he is 'the bread come down from heaven' and, "The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." Jesus openly and honestly declares that his flesh is food and his blood is drink for us. In his language "flesh and blood" represents the whole human being. Applied to Jesus the term has several meanings. It refers to his taking on flesh and blood in the Incarnation. It also stirs up images of the sacrificial animals slaughtered and eaten in the Temple. So, Jesus is both a sacrificial victim and our food and drink. Previously the reference to the bread from heaven had to do with believing in Jesus, the one sent by God. Now, in today's section from the 'Bread of Life' discourse, eternal life comes to us by our feeding on Jesus. Those who "feed on me will have life because of me." Feeding on Jesus already gives us a share in eternal life and a promise of fullness of life when we will be raised from the dead on the last day. Jesus shares eternal life with his Father and we who are drawn to Jesus by the Father, get to share in that life because we feed on the him, the bread of life.

 In the sixth chapter of John's gospel, the Eucharist and its effects are explained for us. From the two parts of the 'Bread of Life Discourse' we can say that Christ is present and gives himself to us in a twofold way: in the Word we hear at our celebration and in his presence in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Our church continues this twofold structure of Word and Sacrament in our worship. It is the basic structure of our Mass. Receiving the flesh and blood of Christ is not a magical rite. The discourse directs us to see the life Jesus gives us by both "believing" and "eating" with faith the sacrament. For the Christian who receives the Eucharist Jesus remains in us and we remain in him. The bread and wine don't last forever, but the life we receive in the life-
giving meal is eternal. John told us at the beginning of chapter six that he worked his 'sign' and gave his teaching at the time of Passover. This reminds us that Jesus is our Passover meal and when we eat and drink at the 'Table of the Lord' we are united with his life and death. We don't demand "signs" as his opponents did. We have a sign
enough for our faith in the broken bread and cup poured out for us. 

As we hear in our first reading, that 'wisdom' has spread a table of choice food and drink. We should know that Jesus (God-come-in-the flesh) is the 'wisdom' of God revealed for the healing of the world. It is Jesus 'holy wisdom' himself who call us to 'the holy table of plenty' to dine with him. Our presence at the celebration of the Eucharist is a sign that we have accepted his invitation. We come to Jesus, seeking a wisdom we don't have for ourselves, but need for our daily living. We seek how to be able to be like him in being 'bread broken' and 'wine poured out' for others. Walking the way of unconditional sacrificial love is not natural to us, so we need the power of Christ's wisdom that comes with the gift of himself from the 'table of life'. 

Our Eucharistic meal at the altar-table is not a meal for a few and it is not just about our salvation. It is meant to empower all Christians to go into the world with the life of Christ we have received. What we celebrate at 'the Lord' Table' we are to put into practice. We ask for the gift of wisdom to know how to do that in our specific life circumstances. The Eucharist unites us to Christ and so; through him, with him and in him, holy wisdom is given to us. We go from the table of life and love to feed the hungers of God's holy people.

The Bread of Life from a Tooth Ache

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Bread of Life from a Tooth Ache (Y-not question the Sunday Readings)

by Sandra @, Friday, July 31, 2015, 10:32 (4 days ago)

edited by Sandra, Friday, July 31, 2015, 10:47

Reading 1
EX 16:2-4, 12-15

Responsorial Psalm
PS 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54

Reading 2
EPH 4:17, 20-24

Alleluia
MT 4:4B
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone, but by every
word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel
JN 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

******************

In the Gospels we find a strong emphasis on food, mainly named as bread and wine. 2,000 years after these gospels were written, bread and wine is still a delightful way of sharing life together with friends and good conversation.

Last week we had the story of feeding the multitude with a few loaves and fishes. This week Yeshua speaks about BREAD FROM HEAVEN. Is he speaking of what we now know as Eucharistic bread? We are assured that if we share in the eating of this blessed bread and wine, we shall never thirst. Not a physical thirsting but a fullness of soul and mind and a peaceful heart. I believe there are many other ways of receiving Bread from Heaven and I shall explain with 2 personal stories.

This gospel so reminds me of a time in my life over 40 years ago when I spent a few years nursing at a Mission outpost in PNG. Our location was very isolated and food was scarce. We survived mostly on Sao biscuits and tins of Spam. Yet our hearts were warm and we just get on with what we were there to do.

After several months on the mission station my enthusiasm was waning. I longed for a hot shower, an inside toilet and a bed without cockroaches crawling in it. Then one day God fed with me that Bread of Life in the form of an old Papuan man. He arrived at our mission station in a tired and weary state. He was brought to me and he just pointed to a tooth in his mouth that I could tell was rotten with an abscess. Word spread quickly and soon a huge crowd gathered on the grass as the ladies were returning from their gardens and the men did nothing much anyway every day. I had no tools or experience in extracting teeth but fortunately our priest happened to be with us that day and he suggested he had pliers in his motor bike kit would they help? So we lit a primus and boiled the pliers in a billy- can. I gave the man a Pethidine injection and sat him on a chair on the grass. It took over ten minutes to slowly remove his diseased tooth and I prayed fervently it would not break into pieces. As I held up the pliers with the tooth, the crowd roared their approval. The man was so grateful he threw himself on the ground and put his arms around my legs saying words that I knew probably meant “thanks”. It was the most humbling experience of my life. I was only there through the courtesy of the Capuchin missionaries.

It was amazing this man found our mission. I learned he had walked for 3 nights to reach us. He walked through so much enemy territory he hid by day and walked by night. He had waited for a full moon to help his vision. He had no road maps. He just knew there was a Mission with a nurse in a certain direction. There are over 800 languages in PNG and this man managed to find us. He had no idea that he was The Bread of Life for me at that time. My waning inner spirit rose to the heights of humility and enthusiasm.

BREAD FROM HEAVEN is entirely unselfish. It has no length, breadth or depth. It is an all-consuming unconditional love. It is also a free gift that we can accept or reject. If we want to be happy amidst the crisis and trials of life that come to each one of us, we do well to accept that the Bread of Life comes to us in forms other than consecrated hosts as with my ‘tooth’ man. Let me tell another story to illustrate this.

30 years after my time in PNG I knew a woman who was not Catholic and followed no other faith tradition. Ann was the most intelligent woman I have ever met. Dux of her school came easily for her then University. She had a job that came with a very high salary and lurks and perks. She recorded every penny she spent right from her first day of work. Then came retirement with all her plans of travelling the world, going in a ship to the Antarctic, the world would be her oyster with a bottomless budget. Then she got sick. A diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer wrecked all her plans and she died a year later. She was very angry that my God had cheated her. Many people were praying for her recovery and when that did not happen she declared our God was not real or our prayers would have been answered. She left all her money to her younger brother in his 60’s and told her other brother she did not like him and left him nothing. I had never seen behavior like this and was shocked. She allowed many Christian women from my church and her Probus club take her to her numerous hospital appointments and chemo days. It never occurred to her to reimburse these older ladies for fuel costs or anything else. She felt we Christians need people like her as we only feel good when we are doing something for someone else. Well I was the one person at her bedside as she slipped away in a haze of Morphine that rendered her unconscious. It was a cold and lonely death in a hospital bed. She decided there is no god and heaven is a load of rubbish as there is nothing after death but a big black hole of nothingness. I have long wondered whether she found a loving God at the end of her life journey. The time and care given to her by so many people was in a way nurturing her with spiritual Bread of Life. She just did not ‘get it’. The generous ladies who did so much for her asked nothing in return for their time and inconvenience. 

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Yeshua himself is our Bread of Life. In so many ways Yeshua was a mentor of how we can live our lives. He cared about each and every person and we are called to do the same. That is not always easy! Some people are downright irritating (as with Ann) yet we are called to love them just the same. Love is not a partial offering but a total offering of who we are with an inner longing to love all of God’s creatures from both the Human and Animal species. Life is precious. We only have one chance so we need to give it our best. Yeshua promises to never leave us. We are fed, nourished and recharged by His own self. His spirit in the form of Eucharistic bread is given to us to keep our souls alive.

It is interesting to note the importance some people give to food. Eating is a huge part of some people’s lives. Look at the numerous television programs focused on cooking and eating. But I find it is heavenly bread that feeds our souls and minds and hearts. It is taking Yeshua into our own human heart and being that makes the difference. A person can be physically starving for human food, yet if their heart is filled to overflowing with divine love they barely notice the human hunger. Maybe we can each ask ourself: "Am I the Bread of Life" for the stranger?

Sandra --> Go to Catholica Ynot question the Sunday readings, for the responses to this Posting.

Mystery - Miracles or Magic!

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B: 

Mystery - Miracles or Magic! 

This week, we leave the Year B Gospel of Mark and read chapter 6 from the Gospel of John for the next five Sundays. Reading this passage all on its own (John 6:1-15), we could miss the major themes in the Gospel of John, and we might wonder why John places this story, which is told in all four Gospels, where it is. In this account there is compassion and communion, but there is so much more. While Jesus' heart is touched by the hunger of the "large crowd", John is teaching us about the power of God in Jesus, about who Jesus is. We learn about who Jesus is by what he does - as actions speak louder than words. The words Jesus said, connect to the actions Jesus did. We have the down-to-earth disciples, overwhelmed by the "large crowd", trying to work out the cost of feeding so many people. "It's Impossible!" they say, but all things are possible with God. This story is about the power of God in Jesus, and about Jesus' compassion for the large hungry crowd. God's power is "far more than all we can ask for or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20b). If the disciples had remembered the story of how the prophet Elisha (found in 2 Kings 4:42-46

- the first lectionary reading) fed a 100 people from "twenty barley loaves" then they might have had greater trust in Jesus - who is the very presence of God. If we can receive this faith story - Jesus' fourth 'sign' - with the eyes of faith, then we can grow in our ability to trust God in mist of the most seemingly difficult situations of life. 

The people who are with Jesus are a people longing and hungry for freedom from the Roman empire that oppresses them. This need leads them to project on to Jesus an easy short-sighted answer to their need. It's certainly understandable, and only human, that they would see Jesus as a miracle-worker and potential king. Even the desire for a king (never God's desire), however, is too small a dream and falls far short of God's dream for the people. Jesus wants to give us what we don't even realise we need; he knows what we need, deep down in our innermost, authentic human selves. Why do we ask for too little, when God can and would give us so much more? Can we see beyond our immediate wants and expectations? How else will we begin to see where God is leading us? 

How do you explain a miracle? The feeding of the five thousand recounts a great wonder that Jesus worked. Many have tried to explain this miracle in rational terms. The most common "rational" explanation of the feeding of the five thousand is that it was an act of generosity. They say the charismatic Jesus inspired many in the large crowd to share them with others there provisions. I strongly object to such a modern reading that misses the point that John is making about God at work in our midst, God's power to completely transform human expectations. However I believe, we're focusing on the wrong thing when we concentrate on explaining the miracle of multiplying the barley loaves and fish, when the more remarkable miracle is the hope that Jesus inspired in the masses who followed him. Jesus' powerful presence and deep compassion for their suffering and need might explain the ability of ordinary, insecure and fearful people to follow him to a deserted place. The scientific arrogant scepticism of our time seeks to provide rational explanations for everything and loses the capacity to wonder at the extraordinary within the ordinary of our everyday lives.

The definition of miracles that we are using here is not just the literal miracle of whether or not the person with a disease is healed. Rather it is about the more ordinary moments, when the power of God’s love and grace overwhelms our sensibilities. It is about see our faith communities becoming immersed in God’s healing love and goodness. A miracle may simply be that people believe that God’s grace has been unleashed. When we do something ordinary, God takes that ordinary act - like offering 5 barley loves and 2 dried fish - and creates something incredible. It seems that we limit the concept of miracle only to physical healing and discount the moral miracles of unity. We still have to be honest about the despair, brokenness and decline that is happening in our church situations but we can’t allow ourselves to believe the statistics that bring despair have the last word. We are called to be a people of hope, who declare by word and example that God is still about God transforming lives. This story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and our stories of change and transformation as individuals and communities have amazing miracle power if they are told and heard and believed. Our stories have to touch the heartstrings in order to inspire change. The God who spoke to Moses and the prophets - still speaks, the God who protected his people and fought their battles - is still at work, the God who feeds the poor who are hungry and thirsty - is still doing so. This is the reality in which we scripture-formed believers 'live and move and have our being'. Each time we do what we thought we could not do, each time a faith-community lives in loving faith unity despite differences, God has been at work. When we recognise God's presence - this is a miracle. Our gift of faith takes us beyond appearances.


What are our expectations for our own church community? What hope do we have in spite of perceived falling attendance? Do we worry about whether we are being true to the gospel, speaking courageously, and acting boldly on behalf of all those who suffer, or are we worried about whether our church will be able to pay its bills? This is a pressing question and we can be tempted to concentrate on survival and maintenance which can distract us from our true mission. We want our church to survive so that it can preach the gospel, minister to the suffering and speak a prophetic word in a world that has little compassion and caught up in self interest. As gospel inspired people, we are challenged to focus not just on the "reasonable," not just on "basic needs," but on "multiplying resources," so that we might experience "a revelation of amazing grace." The words grace, and amazing, belong in any discussion of miracles and wonders. Have you ever witnessed such sharing, such wonders, such grace? Generosity itself is a miracle to me, and it expresses a God given power to completely transform lives. And I don't mean the lives of those who receive as much as the lives of those who give.


 Speaking of those who give: the disciples of Jesus were overwhelmed by the need before them. They did not it seems feel a responsibility to meet the large crowds need, so Jesus raises their awareness. They try to assess the situation, measure their resources, and figure out a solution, but they are powerless in the face of so many hungry people. John draws a contrast between the power of God that was about to burst forth and the power that we think we have today: the power of knowledge. John observes that "knowledge as power," is the opposite to "love's knowledge" which can take what appears to be little and indeed multiply it. It is "loves knowledge" that enables an individual and a community to recognise the power and presence of God in a given situation. God responding to our prayers for the world's needs with the question, "What do you have?" Think of the abundance many of us enjoy, even in the midst of economically challenging times. I often feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of problems and the needs of the world. And yet, what would happen if we trusted in the power of God to multiply in amazing ways the resources we have, and what would happen if we saw this as a communal question? Perhaps our sense of community has been lost in an over-emphasis on the individual. This miracle shows us that there is always enough for all, with plenty left over, "twelve baskets." 

John's Gospel is the one that does not have an account of the Eucharistic meal in the upper room, so this story is John's equivalent of 'the last supper.'" What follows the sharing of loaves is important, because John, unlike the other Gospel writers, draws political meaning when the people start talking about Jesus as their new king. Jesus first performs a "sign," and then will discusses it with those who witness it and then uses it as a teaching moment with his followers as he interprets its meaning. That is John's approach to teaching us about the power of God, and about who this Jesus really is - not a magician but a visible expression of the living God - the same yesterday, today and forever. This story connects us with the celebration of the Eucharist. It reminds me that Jesus does not command his disciples to exclude the divorced and remarried, the pickpockets, the spies from the Temple, the merely curious, or the hangers-on, or those who don't know their catechism, or even those who are unsure about their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Jesus simply responds to human need, as he so often does, above all other considerations. How well does this mirror our celebration of Eucharist sacrament today? It seems that the church wants to protect Jesus-Eucharist from the defiled (sinners) and only let those who are worthy to be fed. The crowds came out from their homes, their towns, seeking something from Jesus. What are we as part of the "large crowd" seeking for today? C.S. Lewis, the 20th century English theologian reflects; "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." As we come with our hunger and thirst for love to the Eucharistic table, will we sense a miracle? Will we with faith based on "love knowledge" be able to see the "sign" Jesus works?

6th Sunday of Easter year B - Br Luke

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

I know ! – Br Andrew will be happy with me - I've written this homily down. 

Homily preached by Br Luke at Blaxland 10th May 2015

6th Sunday of Easter year B

Gospel John 15:9-17

Well I have a slight dilemma, which of John’s passages do I choose?

Both speak of love and of salvation.  In the second reading John links Jesus’s death, baptism and the Holy Spirit as a threefold witness for divine actions.  He goes further and says that God’s testimony regarding Jesus is this:  “Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life”.  He can’t make it any clearer than that!  But what does this mean to us?  Do we have the Son of God? Indeed is this a question we have ever asked ourselves? Or do we think that because we call ourselves Christian this is enough. We assume that we have life? It really looks like a black and white question doesn't it.

In the Gospel, John records Jesus as saying: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love”.  And then Jesus says “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you”.  Oh dear, - I suspect there are some in this world who would like to ask Jesus to rephrase that commandment.  Something along the lines of: um can we have a discussion about this Jesus? Do we really have to love one another?  I suspect he’d just silently look at us and then give us a ‘think about what you just said’ smile.

But we humans are an inventive lot, perhaps if we look hard enough, or explore the words in more detail, or interpret them differently we could find some little gap to squirm out of? Some nice loophole so that we can wander through and not concern ourselves with this instruction?  Yes, strike a chord with anyone?  After all loving one another is hard work.  Especially if the other person is - well you know - ‘not like us’.

But Jesus doesn’t let us off lightly, he tells us we are his friends if we do this.  Not his servants, not his slaves, his friends.  He tells us this because he loves us and not because he orders us to do it. We will voluntarily follow the commandment because of his love for us and our love for him.  After all, we are his friends – right? Sounds like an “O bugger” moment doesn’t it.  You know that point when you suddenly realise with absolute clarity that you’ve got no excuses, no wriggle room, you’re committed to a course of action.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go bear fruit, fruit that will last”.  Hmm remember last week’s gospel? It was about the vine.  We are the ‘grafted in’ branches and we bear fruit.  If we do not produce fruit then we get pruned out?  And here Jesus tells us, we are picked by him.  He calls us to go and work in the vineyard.  He is telling us so that we can “love one another”.  Sorry people there is no wriggle room here.  This is a divinely authored action.  Now of course the reality in our lives is that we do not follow this commandment.  Sadly we do not love one another.  If we did there would be violence, there’d be no war or conflicts, and we’d have universal peace and goodwill among the peoples of the world.

So do we just throw our hands up and say ‘it’s all too hard’.  Well no, that’s not what we do, because of we did, then as John told us earlier; “Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life”.  So our job, is to call out to the world, that love of neighbour, is not an illusion or a fanciful theory, but a real possibility.  One that we can achieve, if we stop and think. If we pause and realise that the other person is really no different from us.  Sure they may look different, they may speak a different language, they may have a different gender, or a different sexual orientation to us, but they are just like us.  They bleed if they are cut, they cry if they are sad or distressed and they laugh if they are happy – and perhaps more importantly they love, just as we do.

So my challenge for you this week, is to look for someone who is different from you and ask yourself – not them – yourself, can you see yourself in them. Can you envisage a time, when you could talk to them and perhaps even regard them as a friend, not someone to be shunned and marginalised, even harmed?  I caution you, it won’t be easy, but try anyway and then tell us about it at our Bible study on Friday.

Remember, Jesus loves us, he command us to love each other and when we do that, then we have life eternal.  Amen.

Fourth Sunday of Easter B - Br Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

   Homily preached by Br. Andrew at Blaxland on Sunday 26th April 2015:

Fourth Sunday of Easter B

Readings

First :  Acts. 4:5-12
Second: 1 John 3:16-24
Gospel:  John 10:11-18

"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture says the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:1 NIV)

Jesus begins by identifying himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. Straight away we can determine that there are bad shepherds who don't lay down their Iives’  for the flock in their charge; their names are mentioned in our first reading, they were Annas, the  High Priest Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the rest of the high priest's family. They knew no one's name nor even whether there were any other converts waiting anywhere for guidance.

Politics and history aside, Spiritually the Jewish church had been entrusted into the care of the  tribe of Levi and the House of Aaron since the time of Moses until the Messiah should come. Here now, clerics hired  by God were allowing the Flock of Israel to be fed to the wolves of Rome for the sake of Mammon, and for political security, had put aside any pretenses of looking or acting like shepherds. When the master himself returned they had him crucified and the small flock scattered. Note, Jesus says that he laid down his life and he took it up again.

 Daemons and men can do whatever they will to work out their wickedness but God's will over rides everything. This was a special love between the Father and son that Jesus could willingly lay down his life because it was his to give for us.
Having given and received his life Jesus returned to his disciples where he told them to stay in Jerusalem until power from on high should come upon them. And that Power will be the Holy Spirit whose coming we celebrate at Pentecost.

Our first reading is a prime example of how true disciples of Christ, shepherds in their own right behave with compassion toward those in their care. I find Peters words hilarious "If we are being held to account today for an act of kindness to a cripple" How many of us have been in trouble with church authorities for an act kindness?

For Peter and John it proved to be a prime opportunity to witness to the Sanhedrin and to try once again to Drill truth into concrete skulls it is in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit that this man walks. You rejected Him, you crucified him and he rose from the dead and it is through His Name that is the only way under heaven by which you can be saved. Did they care at all or just at another type of sheep rustling?

I am here in this Parish because of hireling’s clerics who even breed their own wolves to keep all the sacrilege and injustice in the family, so to speak. Many of us might say that the church of today, hasn’t moved far away, in principles from the Jewish church that money and power and status, fear and prejudice all serve to caste out the weakest sheep and the weakest shepherds.    Where is the light?
The light lives in the love of Jesus, and when we feel this love we see the light that the darkness cannot extinguish. In his Epistle John speaks of this love.   Love with a capital L is that Christ laid down his life for us and that we ought to do likewise. How scary is this, I wanted light and love not self-sacrifice.

John speaks here not of the ultimate self-sacrifice of Maximilian Kolbe but of the loving-kindness and concern for Christians and non-Christians alike. Fulfilling one another's needs and discovering that the Love of Christ makes all things possible!
John continues by reminding us to exercise our Christian conscience, whenever in doubt, and to remember the two great commandments.

It sounds a little simplistic and perhaps unreal when we overlay the Gospel and Epistles over the events of today's world but we need to remember that the Scriptures were given to us in a vacuum excluding the reality of the times, they are intended to be spiritual guidance to be adapted to every Era. Scripture is not complex but does have context, a little exploration of the world beyond the Scriptures helps us to find our own context.
Come to Bible Study.

Second Sunday in Easter B-Love and Mercy in the Mess.

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Second Sunday of Easter Year B: Love and Mercy in the Mess. 

As we approach the winter season 'down under', public health announcements on TV have asked that we wash our hands often to prevent us from getting winter colds and flu. Many catholic churches now have communion ministers use anti-bacterial liquid before distributing communion. Wouldn’t it be great if we could clean up the rest of our lives as easily? Why does life, relationships and sickness have to be so messy? I have watched many loved ones die in hospital with tubes and all sorts of medical devices and indignities brought on by a long illness. Maybe the messiness of our lives is not quite that bad right now, though it may have been at one time or another. Maybe our lives just have the usual daily stuff of: stress, rush, half-completed tasks, an overly-busy schedule, impatience and a short temper. We may have a difficult relationship with a adult child, a former friend or spouse. We wish we could break habits that we have struggled with for a long time or find the right medication for depression. How often have we wished that life could be as easy as using an anti-bacterial liquid that we could spray over our life and have the mess all cleaned up?
Our Jesus of suffering and the cross, gives us an image of the real non-anti-bacterial world. The real world of true love for Jesus was the mess of: blood, wounds, sweat, whip marks, crushed and pierced hands and feet. His story that we entered during Holy Week and was difficult to listen to because of the ugly mess portrayed by our human selfishness. On one level we are comforted by the reality that God has entered our human condition. Jesus was no stranger to pain, anxiety, failure and loneliness. He knew the betrayal of friends and the pain of shattered dreams. He bore visible and invisible wounds for us. Now that Jesus is resurrected, I for one do not want him to forget the pain and the messiness of our human condition. I don’t want an anti-bacterial, clean and sterilised cleaned-up Christ, as some paintings depict him after the resurrection. They make him look as if a divine, cosmetic surgeon has worked on him and gotten rid of the unsightly wounds of messy suffering. I do not want a Christ so far removed from this world’s experience, and the pain we cannot seen to do anything about. It is comforting to know that he is no stranger to the world's pain and that his wounds are a constant reminder and bond between him and us.
The wounds that Jesus showed to his disciples and especially Saint Thomas, remind us that he remembers what we go through and that he is with us when we have to carry our own crosses. St Thomas is invited by Jesus to touch his wounds. But in reality Jesus does the reverse. He reaches out to touch and heal our wounds and so give meaning to our pain. It is one thing to have been hurt and suffered pain - we all go through that. It is an incredible gift for us to have someone like Jesus who has lived and listened to our story to join us so as to assure us that no pain need be wasted, meaningless and without the possibility of giving new life to us. Pain, alienation and life’s failures can raise a lot of doubts in our minds; doubts about ourselves and about God. I am glad that St Thomas was there for us. He has gotten a bad reputation, but he voices what we sometimes are hesitant to say, “Where is Christ in all of my mess?” In today’s post-resurrection account (John 20:19-31)Jesus invites Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Today we invite the wounded Jesus to touch our wounds, the visible ones and those we keep covered up and keep hidden even from those who know us well.
Today the Acts (4:32-35) reading tells us, “with great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all.” We know where that “great power” came from because, at the beginning of Acts, the risen Jesus instructs his disciples to wait for the gift of the Spirit. “John baptised with water, but within a few days you will all be baptised with the Holy Spirit” (1:5). Then, as Jesus promised, on Pentecost, the Spirit came upon the assembled disciples (2:1ff). The Spirit gave those first Christians the power to witness. But the gift of the Spirit is not a gift like an extra hand or arm to help us out a bit. No, the Spirit came upon the disciples who had been wounded by their betrayals of Christ and then healed by him when he appeared to them after the resurrection. Certainly the memory of their failures remained, those wounds were still “visible” to them. What then gave them their ability to witness to the risen Christ Jesus? They had betrayed the Lord and his mission, but the risen Christ had shared with them his Spirit, and their scars and wounds were made new. Who would not want to proclaim the wonder of new creation healing, breathed upon us by the risen Christ? What love and mercy are in the mess!

Night Time Talk about Day Time Truth

Torah

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Lent 4B: Night Time Talk about Day Time Truth

We are half way through Lent, but our Scriptures are looking ahead to Good Friday, when Jesus the “Son of Man” will be “lifted up.” The phrase 'lifted up' comes from the Book of Numbers (21:4-9), when the Israelites grumbled against Moses in the desert they were punished by bites from poisonous snakes. To help them God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and place it on a pole and “lift it up.” Anyone bitten by a snake needed only to 'look' at it to be healed. That healing snake on a pole prefigured Jesus Christ and became a symbol of salvation. As Jesus says to Nicodemus in the gospel for this Sunday (John 3:14-21), “The Son Of Man must be 'lifted up', so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” John uses "looking” as a symbol for faith. So, to “look” on Jesus is to have faith in him and to “have eternal life” (eternal life is in - the present tense - for the believer it begins now).

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. Possibly, he wanted a quiet time with Jesus. Maybe because he did not want others to see him associate with Jesus or maybe he is a symbol of the world in darkness to the truth of who Jesus is. Nicodemus seems to have accepted the light offered to him because later in the gospel he will speak on behalf of Jesus and purchase spices for his burial. This great conversation is filled with faith and judgment. God is making a revelation to the whole world, that everyone, who “lives the truth” and “comes to the light,” will eternal life. The passage reflects the experience of the gospel writer’s community. Not everyone responded to God’s grace and accepted the offer God made in Jesus as “people preferred darkness to light.” John's time seems to be a lot like our own. This would have caused discouragement in the early Christian community, just as similar discouraging events cause pessimism and discouragement in the church today. However, Jesus is the light to the world and his life a revelation of God to all. We believers, are to be light bearers whose deeds bear witness to truth and God.

John has a tendency to use words and phrases that have double meanings. The term “lifted up” refers to his death on the cross. It also means his resurrection from the dead and his being raised to glory at God’s right hand. So, those who look to Jesus upon the cross are not only healed of sin, but receive the same eternal life that Jesus has now. John also provides us with the famous verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.” Believers repeat this phrase not as a slogan, but as a word of truth and assurance. When we have sinned, or realize our deeds have not reflected the light of God, this verse offers prayerful assurance for us. It is a prayer of confidence in God’s love and assurance that we can be forgiven, not through any merit of ours, but because we can look upon the One who was raised up on the cross and so we can come out of the darkness of sin to the light of Christ and his love.

Our daily headline news affirms, that many choose deeds of darkness, yet, God’s love without limits is there for an undeserving world. God does not just love the good people of the world, or the chosen over the rest. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is for all the world. If this is true then we cannot look upon anyone as unlovable, for they have been embraced by Christ as he stretched out his arms on the cross. Even those who openly reject him, or are preoccupied by their own ego plans, are still loved by God. Like the Israelites in the desert who turned their back on God and suffered correction. God still loved them and offered them healing if they 'looked' upon the serpent Moses raised up on the pole. 'Looking' implies seeing with the eyes of faith. So with faith we look at an image of Christ on the cross to see the way God sees and loves. We can see the unlovable and sinners with love. We can see hope in situations that others call hopeless. We can see Christ in the stranger and the neglected. We can see eternal life in our sacramental rituals: the pouring of water (Baptism), the breaking of bread and shared cup of wine (Eucharist), an anointing with oil (Sacrament of the Sick) and a word of forgiveness (Sacrament of Reconciliation). We can see because Christ was been lifted up on the cross. The cross continues to reveal God to us, as one who shares our joy, pain and our death. God has joined us in our lowest moments of life to raise us up to newness of life. Jesus, has been “lifted up” and NOW we look upon him for “eternal life” which has already begun for us.

2nd Sunday in Lent - Br. Luke

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br. Luke at Blaxland on Sunday 1st March 2015:

Second Sunday of Lent

Readings:

Genesis 17:1-7,15-16 ; psalms 22:24-32; Romans 4;13-25; Mark 8:31-38

There is so much to focus on in today’s readings.  But I’d like to begin in Genesis.  There is Abraham and Sarah in their old age, not having any children and there is God saying to them I will make you fruitful, you will… “I will make you multitudes of people from your descendants”

It’s not a surprise really that later in the scriptures we read that Sarah laughs. God says he will make many Nations from their descendants.  Menopause had well and truly come and gone for Sarah.  But there is God making this promise that from you will come a multitude of nations.  Oh my goodness, the power of God.

I am really partial to that story in Genesis, however I am going to be naughty and go straight to Romans.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is a very good one, it is full of Theology. Paul is writing very early Christian Theology. In all he says it is a Theology of Life, and he is teaching people how to live a Christian life. Remember he was a very very, We have to remember that Paul was a very Orthodox Jew, he was a Pharisee, highly experienced in the Jewish Law. He knew all about the scriptures, which is why we when read the scriptures they say he ‘opened the Scriptures and showed them. He could do that; he had an innate knowledge of the scriptures. So he draws the parallels and talks about Abraham and Sarah.

I want to talk about that passage from Mark because it is one of those passages where we may get a little bit alarmed if I can use that term. Now here is Peter, the premier disciple, the first disciple, the rock on which Jesus said he would build the church.  I have always had a very soft spot for Peter because Peter is always putting his foot in it, he is always doing probably what I would do. So I have a very soft spot for Peter.

But here he is where Jesus is saying the Son of Man is going to be crucified, Peter says ‘No! no; you’re the Messiah, that is not going to happen to you!’ What does Jesus do? He says get behind me Satan. He chastises Peter. He says to the Premier disciple, Get out of here! What you are saying is human. You are thinking as a person. You are not thinking about the Mission that I have been sent to do. The Mission is from God.

I have always loved the line from the film, The Blues Brothers. “I’m on a Mission from God”. And that’s what Jesus is on, a Mission from God. So Peter is distracting from that purpose, but he says no no no no; wait, you’re the Messiah – that can’t happen to you.

And then Jesus goes on and makes that very complicated and confusing statement “Those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it. (Mark 8:35) What, does that mean? And that equally complicated gospel passage “if any want to become my followers let them deny themselves take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

The cross is an instrument of torture, that’s how the Romans killed criminals, it wasn’t just Jesus.  Pilate was horrendous in terms of what he did. There were thousands of people of people he crucified. He was a particularly nasty bloke. Romans were a bloodthirsty people.  There was no forgiveness there.

So here is Jesus’s saying if you want to follow me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.  To do what- after all the cross is a nasty way to die. And those who lose their life will save it”.  This is very complicated.  What is he saying to them? What he is saying them to is if you want to be a follower of mine you are going to have to focus now on the things of the world, but on the things that are divine. He is making a distinction between our physical lives and our spiritual lives.  Those who lose their lives will save it you will be saved in the Resurrection, in the life Everlasting. Right!

Remember, Jesus talks about life eternal, so he is taking that passage and saying if you lose your life in this life, you will gain your life in the future.  Does this make sense?  It’s the same words but he’s using a different context.

Take up your Cross. What is a cross? I’ve said before, it is an instrument of torture – but it is also a burden or an affliction of some description and that’s the cross that we carry.  That’s a burden that we carry.

Now we are in Lent, and traditionally Lent is about giving up things.  It’s about penance. Preparing ourselves for Easter.  And what is the major event of Easter?  It’s is not the crucifixion.  The major message of Easter is not his death, it’s his Resurrection. That the message of Easter.  It is the defeat of death.  You lose your life, Jesus dies on the cross, but he rose again and you will save your life. See how the message flows through the Scriptures.

And when we stop and say, well, what is our cross? It can be as simple as having to do something you don’t want to do.  Going to work every day, especially in a job you don’t like doing.  Or for some individuals it’s a disability or an addiction, or their mental health.  It’s a cross they carry.

Our cross is something we carry every day. Jesus tells us what will it profit us if we gain the whole world, but lose our life. That being a Christian is a cross we will carry. He tells us that being Christian will be difficult.  We know that by following him when our physical lives end, we will be with God in eternity. That’s what he means when he says to them you will save your life.

And finally “Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38). So that’s the sting in tail isn’t it? If you are ashamed of me, if you don’t really want anyone to know that you profess to be Christian, then you’re being ashamed of me.  You know what’s going to happen.  When I come back, then I’m going to be ashamed of you.  Because you’re not being true to the message.  You’re not being true to what you are called to do.

And you hear me say this all the time: what’s the message of the Gospel?  The message of the gospel is love.  John right in the beginning of his gospel.  What did he write? “God so loved the world.”  “God is love.”  Jesus says when asked, “What is the greatest commandment?”  Love the Lord your God will all your heart; with all soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. As a second is like it, love your neighbour and yourself, on this hang all the law and the prophets. The first is very hard. Make no mistake about it.  And loving your neighbour as yourself? That is the biggest cross that Christians have.  If we stop and think about loving our neighbour, because there are times when we say to ourselves: “I really don’t like that person!”  Or we say to ourselves about the other person, “why don’t you just go away?”  The Christian message says no, we have to love the lot.

Amen.

Recorded and transcribed –  at Maroubra by br. Andrew