V Sunday of Easter

REMAIN IN ME

Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8

Readings for the V Sunday of Easter

A few days ago, our gardener was trimming the plants. There was something noticeable about the trimmed parts on the ground. Within minutes these started wilting and soon died. 

Now one might say: “Duh! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that! Obviously, a branch/twig cannot live apart from the plant.” 

True! But seeing the wilted and dying twigs drilled home this truth.

Jesus uses this fact of nature as a metaphor for Christianity. In his farewell discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples: “I am the vine, you are the branches... without me you can do nothing.” The disciples knew about the importance of the vine: it was a cash crop. But beyond economy, the vine was a symbol of the nation; often in the Old Testament, Israel is pictured as a vine or vineyard of God. Jesus indicates that he is the new Israel; it is vital for his disciples to remain connected to him for them to have life and to bear fruit.

How does one remain connected to Jesus? 

In three ways: by gathering in his name; by listening to his word; by sharing his body and blood. That’s what we do every time we celebrate the Eucharist! The principal way of remaining in Jesus is through the Eucharist. Another way is through prayer – not a recitation of formula, not a listing of needs and wants – but an intimate relationship with God.

How do we know we remain in Jesus and he in us? 

“Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them” (second reading). His commandment is that we love one another… the way Barnabas loved the recently converted Paul (first reading). We know we remain in Jesus when we bear the fruit of love.

Remaining in Jesus also necessitates pruning! The Father prunes the vine so that it grows to its potential. He prunes everything that resists life/ drains our energy and prevents us from becoming who we are called to be.

The liturgy calls us to remain connected with Jesus the vine and to allow the Father the vine-grower to prune us that we may bear fruit. 

How will I remain in Jesus? What areas of my life are draining my energy and preventing me from being the real me?

IV Sunday of Easter

FROM OBLIGATION TO LOVING COMMITMENT

Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18

Readings for the IV Sunday of Easter

A missionary society wrote to David Livingstone and asked: “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send some men to join you.” Livingstone replied: “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

There is a big difference between those who seek the easy path and those who act out of love and commitment. That is the point Jesus makes in the gospel. He contrasts the attitudes of a good shepherd and a false one:

A real shepherd is born to his task; it is a vocation. He loves his sheep and they love him; he knows them and calls them by name; he thinks of them before he thinks of himself; he does not abandon them even, and perhaps especially, in the face of danger.

For hired hands, to whom Jesus likens the Pharisees, it is a “job”; they are in it solely for the pay; they care nothing for the sheep and so they run away in the face of danger. 

The bottom-line: One who works out of loving commitment thinks of the people one is serving. One who works out of a sense of obligation thinks chiefly about oneself and recompense.

Jesus was the good shepherd – when he had compassion on the crowds and satiated their hunger; when he reached out to the sick and the sinner, to the Samaritan woman, to the Canaanite woman, to the woman caught in adultery, to Zacchaeus, to Martha and Mary. As he moves towards the cross, Jesus holds up this model of the good shepherd.

Jesus, the good shepherd, invites us to be good shepherds. He challenges us to move from obligation to loving commitment, to be a faithful presence to people in need.

Who, in my life, needs “good shepherding”? How will I “be with” those in need?

May we be shepherds to one another, especially to those in need. May we move from obligation to loving commitment.

III Sunday of Easter

REPENT AND START AGAIN

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; 1 John 2:1-5a; Luke 24:35-48

Readings for the III Sunday of Easter

 

Frederick Charrington, the Charrington Brewery owner, was walking down a street. Suddenly the door of a pub flew open. A man staggered out with a woman clinging to him and pleading: “The children haven’t eaten in two days! I’ve not eaten in a week! Please come home! Or… just give me a few coins so I can buy…” Her pleas were cut off as the man struck her. 

As Charrington leaped forward to help her, he noticed a lighted sign on the pub: “Drink Charrington Ale.” He was stunned. He later wrote: “Here was the source of my wealth, and it was producing untold misery before my eyes. I pledged that not another penny of that money should come to me.”

Charrington spent the rest of his life striving to free people from alcoholism. He had the courage to repent and start again. 

This is thrust of today’s readings!

In the first reading, Peter moves from castigating the Jews for putting to death “the author of life” to calling them to conversion: “Repent, therefore, and be converted.” 

Peter uses a Jewish historical form: reviewing the past and moving through the present to the future. The aim is not to condemn but to draw his listeners to action, to a change of mind and heart.

Here, the medium is the message! Peter says: “You denied the Holy and Righteous One.” Peter, too, denied Jesus. But he repented and began again. It is never too late, no sin is too grave, for one to repent. Peter knows– as John writes in the second reading – that we have an advocate with the Father: Jesus, who is the expiation for our sins.

Repentance is Jesus’ message to his disciples. After giving them his peace, he commissions them to preach “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” He calls them to proclaim his death and resurrection but also that through his death and resurrection, God has forgiven, accepts, and loves all people everywhere.

As human beings, we sin, we produce misery for others, we put people to “death”. The Lord calls us to have the courage to repent and to begin again. He is ready to forgive us; and it is then we will experience his peace. Let me start again…

II Sunday of Easter

WHAT GOOD DID IT DO?

Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31

Readings for the II Sunday of Easter

One Sunday, a butcher decided to hear a noted preacher. When he returned, his wife questioned him about the service: “What hymns did they sing?” The butcher couldn’t remember. “What was his text?” He couldn’t remember! Exasperated, his wife asked: “What good did it do for you to go to church?”

The butcher was quiet for a moment. Then he said: “What good? I will tell you what good it did. You know the scales in the shop that weigh 900 grams to the kilo? Before we open for business tomorrow, I am going to correct those scales to weigh the correct 1000 grams to the kilo.”

Going to church did the butcher good. It transformed him. So it was with the disciples who encountered the risen Lord!

The gospel portrays Thomas’ radical transformation from one who doubted Jesus’ resurrection to the first one who courageously acknowledged Jesus as God!

The first reading describes the early Christian community. The disciples were transformed from people fearfully behind shut doors to people who testified to the resurrection with power; from people who fought for position and greatness to people who were of one heart and one soul… that’s the good that came from their encounter with the risen Lord (and the outpouring of the holy spirit).

It doesn’t matter if we cannot remember the hymns sung at the Eucharist or the readings (and the homily!). If our lives are radically transformed by our encounter with Jesus, that’s a load of “good”. 

May our encounter with the risen Lord transform you and me.

Easter Sunday

IT CHANGED EVERYTHING

Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8;  John 20:1-9

Readings for Easter Sunday

Origins: The Journey of Humankind showcases the major discoveries and events that have changed us. Each episode in the eight-part series features one factor that transformed human civilization: fire, medicine, money, communication, war, shelter, exploration, and transportation. The first episode Spark of Civilization avers that the discovery of fire led to countless more milestones. The ability to harness and control fire gave humans the power to create, transform, and destroy; transformed us from nomadic tribes to a species which can undertake space voyages. It changed everything.

The series does not feature one important event: Jesus’ Resurrection! The Resurrection changed everything!

If Jesus had stayed dead, nobody would have given his crucifixion any significance. There were several revolutionaries who ended up on Roman crosses; Jesus would have been yet another failed revolutionary. Jesus’ crucifixion has significance because he is risen. 

Further, all that was obscure about his life, teaching, works, identity became clear. Jesus told his disciples: “You do not understand now but later you will understand.” That “later” is after the Resurrection.

The Resurrection marks the launch of God’s kingdom on earth: he has defeated the powers of evil and oppression; an oppressed people are free to live a new life. 

It changes the physical world: death no longer has the last word. Since Christ has been raised, we can tell those looking into the casket of their loved ones that this is not the end of the story.

It changes the moral world: a wandering preacher, labelled a heretic and criminal, is the one through whom God speaks to us and through whom God makes all things new. 

It changed the disciples’ understanding of Jesus: they will affirm him as Lord and God. 

It changed their attitude and behaviour: timid and afraid earlier, they became bold and full of joy. In the words of Paul in the Second Reading, they became “a fresh batch of dough”: a small group of frightened people will multiply such that one out of every three people on the planet identify themselves as Christian. 

The Resurrection changed everything. Has it changed me, my life, my ethics, my perspective? If not, why not?

Palm Sunday

THAT’S NO WAY TO END UP

Mark 11:1-10

Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 14:1—15:47

Readings for Palm Sunday

Addressing a college audience, Gordon Liddy (a former FBI agent and White House staff) emphasized that only force, ruthless use of violence, and an iron will could earn the respect of friends and foes in this “real world”.

One of the faculty rose timidly and stammered: “But… in our country, most people… base their ethics on… the teachings of Jesus… and this-doesn’t-sound-like-the-teachings-of-Jesus.” 

Liddy glared a moment, took in a breath, and bellowed: “Yeah! And look what happened to Jesus!” He flailed his arms outward as if on the cross and said: “They crucified him.”

The audience was stunned. Briefly. Then there was a thunderous applause! Liddy had stated what they believed. He said: “Failure, persecution and pain, instead of success, appreciation and a good retirement—that’s no way to end up” (cf. A.J. Conyers, The Eclipse of Heaven).

The crowds in Jerusalem two millennia ago applauded Jesus and greeted him with palm branches because they expected a conquering hero. However, since Jesus’ power was not the power the world understands, since the Messiah was not a military hero but a suffering servant, their cheers quickly turned to jeers. 

Paul is clear in the Letter to the Philippians: though Jesus was the Son of God, he did not cling to his privileges but humbled himself and became obedient unto a shameful death on a cross. Abused and abandoned, he did not rebel, he did not use force but was the suffering servant. It was this crucified and broken Jesus who “truly… was the Son of God”, a fact the Roman centurion recognized and affirmed. Wasn’t the Roman a foe?!

Failure, persecution, and pain—that’s the way Jesus chose; that’s the force of God… which has won the respect, love, and faith of millions of people through the ages.

Which way will I choose: the way of Gordon Liddy—success, appreciation, and a good retirement, or the way of Jesus—the way of obedient suffering?

V Sunday of Lent

WORK FROM THE INSIDE

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33

Readings for the V Sunday of Lent

A little boy asked: “Why is it that when I open a marigold it dies, but if God does it, it’s so beautiful?” Before anyone could respond, he said: “I know! It’s because God always works from the inside.” 

The little boy was wise to God’s way of working! Whether it’s with nature or with people, God works from the inside as today’s readings indicate.

In the first reading, God announces the new covenant he intends making with his people. The earlier covenants had external elements: the sign of the covenant with Noah was a rainbow; the covenant of Sinai was inscribed on tablets. In this new covenant, God will put his “law within them and write it upon their hearts”. All will then “know” him. This “knowing” is not an external keeping of laws; it’s an inner relationship with God.

The Lord assures the Jews in Babylon, uprooted and in exile: “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” God is not restricted to their home territory or to an external structure; God is with them wherever they go. 

In the gospel, Jesus uses the analogy of the death of grain to produce fruit to emphasize that – beyond an inner relationship – the covenant involves a dying to oneself and a rising to eternal life. God always works from the inside!

Growing in relationship with God and becoming persons God calls us to become, begins with a dying to our immaturity, to our doubts and fears, to our prejudices, to our self-centred wants, to our plans and our will. 

This inner work takes time and patience. So often, like the little boy, we force growth, we force change in behaviour in ourselves and in others. Like his marigold, we die. But this dying is not like the dying of the grain! It does not produce fruit; it produces frustration. We need to work from the inside with patience. We need to allow God to work from the inside. 

Will I allow God to write his law upon my heart? Will I – like Jesus – fall into the ground and die to myself so that I can produce fruits of the kingdom? Am I willing to let the divine gardener nurture me with his never-ending love?

Let me allow God to work from the inside and “create a clean heart in me.”

IV Sunday of Lent

THE GREATEST GIFT

2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21

Readings for the IV Sunday of Lent

A man saw his five-year-old tearing expensive wrapping-paper and sticking it on an old box. He yelled at her for wasting paper.

The next morning, she gave him that box and said: “This is for you, Daddy.” The father was embarrassed by his earlier reaction.

He opened the box, found it empty, and yelled again: “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present there’s supposed to be something inside the package?” The little girl’s eyes became little pools. She said: “Daddy, there is something inside. I blew kisses into it; I filled it with my love.” 

The father was crushed. He hugged his little girl, and he asked her to forgive him for his anger. He kept that love-filled box by his bed for the rest of his life. Often, he’d open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and remember the love of the child who had put it there. 

In a very real sense, God our parent has given each of us a gift-box filled with the greatest gift of his unconditional love. 

The First Reading tells us that God manifested his love through his patient faithfulness towards his unfaithful people. He persistently sent his messengers to them and consistently went after them because he loved them.

The Second Reading and the Gospel remind us that God shows his love in the ultimate gift: the sending of his only Son. 

The text from John reads: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  This is the core of the Gospel: God took the initiative to love us; he sent his Son… for one reason: he loved us. It tells us of the width of God’s love: he loved the world. Not just the “chosen people”, not only those who loved him.

The greatest gift of all is for you and me. All you and I must do is to accept the gift.

Do I accept the gift of God’s love? Do I believe that God loves me so much that he sent his son to be my redeemer? How do I respond to his love?

When someone gives a gift, it is not polite to ask: “How much did it cost?”  In this case, the Bible tells us how much God’s gift cost. It cost God his only Son.

III Sunday of Lent

A LITTLE SLICE OF HEAVEN ON EARTH

Exodus 20:1-17 ; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25

Readings for the III Sunday of Lent

In Culture Shift, Wayne Cordeiro tells of a parishioner who worked six days a week and volunteered to be a receptionist at church on her day off. 

He asked her: “Why do you come here and do this?” She replied: “Being here is like a breath of fresh air.”

He asked: “Don’t you want to take a day off?” She said: “This is a day off. This is a little slice of heaven on earth.”

Cordeiro reflects: “She feels valued. This is the kind of love we want to show… which comes from learning to recognize evidence of God’s presence.”

The Ten Commandments were meant to put God’s people into a covenantal relationship with him and into a right relationship with one another… so that they became a sign of God’s presence and all experienced a “little slice of heaven on earth”. 

Gradually, these became 613 dos and don’ts which focused on externals and became a burden!

The Jerusalem temple was meant to be a sign of God’s presence, another “little slice of heaven”. 

At Jesus’ time, it had become “a marketplace”: moneychangers and animal sellers extorted pilgrims in the name of religion. Further, the “marketplace” was in the Court of the Gentiles, the only place where a Gentile could pray; but the noise from the animals and people precluded any prayer.

In cleansing the temple, Jesus wished to restore it as a sign of God’s presence. In his confrontation with the Jews, he indicated another sign (and reality) of God’s presence: his body!

We are God’s people and the Body of Christ.

Am I a sign of God’s presence? Do people experience a “little slice of heaven on earth” and “a breath of fresh air” around me?

What do I need to cleanse in myself to become a true “temple”?

II Sunday of Lent

NO HOLDING BACK

Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Romans 8:31b-34; Mark 9:2-10

Readings for the II Sunday of Lent

No Holding Back is the title of Michael Holding’s autobiography.

It conveys his attitude during his career: he gave his all in every match. It highlights his manner as a commentator: though gentle, he is a fearless and rational critic. It captures the tenor of the book: he does not shirk controversial issues—the slide of West Indian cricket, the dismal state of its admin, and ICC politics. 

Holding owes his achievements as a cricketer, a commentator, and a writer to “no holding back”! 

“No holding back” is the thrust of today’s Lenten liturgy. It is the reason for God blessing Abraham and for Jesus’ glorification.

God blessed Abraham abundantly because he did not hold anything back: he left his homeland, believed that God would give him an heir despite his and Sarah’s advanced years, and did not hold back the life of that heir.

At the Transfiguration, the voice from the cloud said: “This is my beloved Son…” This son is the one who gave up his natural family to reach out to the wider family of God’s children; who gave up his foster father’s business to go about his heavenly Father’s business; who did not hold back his life but gave everything on Calvary. Jesus’ glorification—foreshadowed at the transfiguration—happened after he sacrificed his all on the cross.

Paul, in Romans 8:32, writes that God did not hold back “his own son but handed him over for us all.”

What do I hold back from God? Will I imitate God, Jesus, and Abraham… and make “no holding back” the thrust of my life? How will I practise “no holding back” in the week ahead?

I Sunday of Lent

ALONE

Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15

Readings for the I Sunday of Lent

Many years ago, the explorer Richard Byrd spent a winter alone at the South Pole. Four and a half months in solitude. Why? 

Byrd answers that question in his book Alone. Despite his numerous achievements, he felt empty. He wanted to get away “remote from all but the simplest distractions, with no necessities but those imposed by the wind and night and cold.” 

Byrd emerged from his experience changed. He discovered that one can live more deeply and profoundly if one keeps life simple, without cluttering it with things.

Byrd is like many people who spent time alone, and came back changed: Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist… It’s not surprising, then, that Jesus spends time in solitude. 

The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness soon after his baptism! What happens to him in the wilderness? He matures. He listens to his inner voice; he deepens his awareness that he must rely on God and God alone; he becomes aware of his mission and its implications. Jesus returns ready to proclaim the Good News.

Our journey through life is like Jesus’ journey! We spend time preparing to launch into the world: think graduation day, religious profession or ordination day, wedding day. It’s a massive high. Almost immediately comes the testing time. Reality hits! We enter the desert, and not by choice! The mistake we make is we surround ourselves—with work, with people, with things. 

We need to learn from Jesus. He spent time in solitude. He did this often. Note that John does not have the account of the Temptation in his gospel; the temptation happens repeatedly throughout Jesus’ ministry. And each time Jesus overcame it by spending time alone.

But he is not alone! Mark ends his one-line version of the temptation thus: “He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.” Jesus is not alone in the desert! God is with him, angels care for him, and nature is with him.

It will be the same with us when we spend time alone. God is with us. After the wilderness moment, we will be able to continue our commitments.

Will I spend time alone? Will I give up my dependence on material things and rely on God? 

May you and I discover God’s providential care and the empathetic support of people during our desert moments, and support others during theirs.

VI Sunday of the Year

TOUCHED AND RESTORED TO COMMUNION

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Corinthians 10:31—11:1; Mark 1:40-45

Readings for the VI Sunday of the Year

Years ago, when the speaker of the US House of Representatives Sam Rayburn heard that he had terminal cancer, he shocked everyone by announcing that he was going back to his small town in Bonham, Texas. Everyone told him: “The finest facilities are in Washington, why go back to that little town?” Rayburn said: “Because in Bonham, they know if you’re sick and they care…”

All of us need community; all of us need the care and love that comes from community. And yet today, we face an increasing isolation from one another.

Today’s readings describe one reason for isolation (leprosy) and Jesus’ response.

The first reading gives us the signs of leprosy; an arbitrary spectrum of signs but it was a case of being safe rather than sorry. A person, declared leprous, had to announce his/her uncleanness and live in isolation.

In the gospel, a leper approaches Jesus with a heart-rending and faith-filled plea: “If you will, you can make me clean.” 

Jesus, filled with deep compassion, does something very significant: he touches the leper. He, thus, makes himself ritually unclean, but expresses solidarity with the man and affirms him as a human person. The man is immediately healed.

The physical healing alone does not solve the man’s problem. He has to be reintegrated into community through an official endorsement of his healing. So, Jesus sends him to the priest who will examine him and then pronounce him fit to re-enter society. For Jesus, lepers – and sinners – are not outcasts but persons to be loved and to be restored to community and communion.

Jesus’ compassion challenges us to touch the modern “leper”. Whom do I shun and ostracise? The Lord challenges me to touch and affirm them, and to restore them to communion with myself and in society.

And what about the leper who is me? I need not shun my own disabilities, hidden or otherwise. What are the unclean aspects of my life that need the touch of the Lord? 

We ask the Lord Jesus to touch us: “If you will, you can make me clean.” May you and I hear the words of Jesus: “I will. Be clean!” May we experience communion with ourselves and within our families and communities.

V Sunday of the Year

RESPONDING TO SUFFERING… THE JESUS WAY

Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39

Readings for the V Sunday of the Year

Leonard Sweet writes: “I visited an eight-year-old girl dying of cancer. Her body was disfigured by the disease and its treatment. She was in constant pain. I was overcome by her suffering: unjust, unfair, unreasonable” (cf. Postmodern Pilgrims).

We can identify with Sweet’s experience. Suffering—our own or of others—overwhelms us, and we often ask “why?” 

The Book of Job raises this question. Job is beset by immense suffering: he has lost his family and his possessions; he has terrible sores. What has Job done to deserve this fate? His friends think he has sinned. But he is righteous and innocent; he has not sinned.

Job never receives an answer to the “why” of his suffering. Perhaps, there is no answer to this question! 

But there is a response to suffering… the response of Jesus. 

When Jesus is confronted with suffering, he does not answer the question; he responds to the suffering person: he grasped Simon’s mother-in-law’s hand and helped her up; he “cured many who were sick”… In fact, the incarnation is God’s response to suffering: his comforting-caring presence amid our suffering world.

We are called to continue Jesus’ response. Often, the “why” is not an intellectual question; it is a cry for empathy. So, when confronted by suffering, we need to reach out:

- by grasping the suffering person by the hand;

- by allowing him/her to feel what his/she is feeling and express those feelings (like Job did!);

- by not giving false explanations or false hopes, or denying the reality/extent of the suffering;

- by helping them find moments of solitude;

- and above all, by an empathetic and silent presence.

Sweet continues: “Even more overpowering was the presence of her grandmother lying beside her embracing this inhuman suffering… she never spoke while I was there. She was holding and participating in suffering that she could not relieve, and somehow her silent presence was relieving it.”

I do not have an answer to why people suffer. I can seldom do anything to relieve their suffering. But I can respond to their suffering!

Will I give them my presence and help them up? Will I give them space to feel their feelings and to express them? Will I care for them?

IV Sunday of the Year

AUTHORITY FROM RELATIONSHIP

Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28

Readings for the IV Sunday of the Year

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a quarrel early in their marriage. Albert walked out and went to his room. Victoria followed him. She found the door locked and began pounding on it.

“Who’s there?” Albert asked. “The Queen of England,” was the reply. The door remained locked.

More pounding followed. There was only silence. Then a gentle tap. “Who’s there?” Albert inquired. Victoria replied: “Your wife, Albert.” Albert opened the door immediately.

What made Albert open the door was not the authority that came from the power and status of the Queen of England, but an authority that came from a personal relationship.

That is the kind of authority that Jesus had. 

After he called his disciples, Jesus continues his public ministry: he teaches at Capernaum and casts out an unclean spirit. The people are astonished because he taught and healed as one having personal authority unlike the scribes who derived their authority from their role/status. 

The crowd cannot identify the source of this authority. The unlikely voice of “a man with an unclean spirit” does: “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” At the end of Jesus’ ministry, another unlikely voice—the Roman centurion—will identify Jesus: “This man was the Son of God!”

Jesus derived his authority from his intimate and personal relationship with his father.

Jesus’ exercise of this authority, too, was different. He told his disciples that they ought not to flaunt their authority but to serve... as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.

He powerfully demonstrated this often: by his compassion in feeding the multitude, by reaching out to the marginalised, by washing his disciples’ feet at the last supper, by cooking breakfast for them on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. 

From where do I derive my authority: from my role/ status/ power or from my relationship with my God? How do I relate with others: from power or through relationship?

III Sunday of the Year

U-TURN TO GOD

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

Readings for the III Sunday of the Year

Wabush, a town in remote Canada, was completely isolated for some time. Then workers cut a road through the wilderness to reach it; Wabush had only one road leading into it, and thus, only one road leading out. If someone were to travel to Wabush, there is only one way he/she could leave: by turning around.

There comes a moment in our lives when we realise we are in a town called “sin”. As in Wabush, there is only one way out. We must turn around or “repent”. This is the thrust of today’s liturgy.

In the first reading, God sends Jonah to call the people of Nineveh to repentance. After Jonah reluctantly carries out this mission, the Ninevites repent.

In the gospel, Jesus begins his mission by announcing: “The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the gospel!”

What is the “gospel”? It is the news found upon Jonah’s lips: God is gracious and compassionate to all, even to those who do not—in our assessment—deserve his grace and compassion.

What is repentance? The Greek for repent, metanoiein, means “to change one’s mind.” The Hebrew shûbh means to turn around 180 degrees, to reorient oneself toward God. 

The call of the disciples that follows illustrates that “repent and believe in the gospel” does not mean merely to accept certain truths but to be attached to the person of Jesus, to follow him on his way—a way that challenges injustice and discrimination, that includes all, that leads to suffering and the cross.

For some, like the Ninevites, repentance is a radical turnaround from evil to accept God’s compassion. For others, like the disciples, it is a turnaround from their way of doing things to doing what God wants them to do.

For me, what would a U-turn to God involve? What are the “boats and nets” I need to abandon to follow the Lord?

II Sunday of the Year

HEEDING GOD’S CALL

1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 1:35-42

Readings for the II Sunday of the Year

One evening a professor was sorting mail. A magazine—delivered to him by mistake—fell open to an article titled: “The Needs of the Congo Mission.” He began reading it. These words gripped him: “The need is great here. We have no one to work in the northern province of Gabon in the Congo. It is my prayer that God will lay his hand on one—on whom the master’s eyes already rest—and that he or she will answer the call to help us.” The professor closed the magazine and wrote in his diary: “My search is over.” Albert Schweitzer gave himself to the Congo. 

Schweitzer got his life’s calling after he “happened” to read an article which was not even his! People get their call in unique ways… as today’s readings attest.

God called Samuel. John pointed out Jesus to two of his disciples and Jesus invited them to “come and see”. Andrew told Simon that they had found the Messiah. Samuel, Andrew, Simon. Three people. Three unique call stories.

There are, however, elements common to each call story: 

Listening: God calls each for a plan he has. We need to listen for his call which is sometimes direct and clear, often indirect and subtle. We do not know how he calls us. One thing is certain: he will surprise us!

Recognising: We need help to recognize the Lord’s voice. Eli helped Samuel recognize that the voice he heard was God’s; John indicated the way to his disciples.

Responding: We need to say: “Here I am…” 

Remaining: Samuel remained in the Lord’s temple; Andrew and the other disciple remained with Jesus two days. Discipleship is primarily remaining with the master.

God continues to call us to varied states in life, to varied ministries, for a unique mission in life. 

Can I hear God calling me? Will I listen to his call, seek help to recognize it, respond to it, and remain with him?

The Epiphany of the Lord

STEADFAST SEEKERS

Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12

Readings for the Epiphany of the Lord

On 04 July 1952, Florence Chadwick attempted to become the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. The water was numbing cold; there were sharks in the vicinity; the fog was so thick she couldn’t see the boats in her party. After 15 hours in the water, Chadwick asked to be taken out. Her trainer encouraged her to swim on; Chadwick managed another hour and then quit… just a mile from the shore.

Two months later Chadwick re-attempted the swim. A similar thick fog obscured the coastline. She steadfastly sought her goal and succeeded. Later she said she kept a mental image of the shoreline while she swam; she kept reminding herself that land was there.

The Magi, who journeyed from “the east” to Jerusalem to pay homage to the new-born king of the Jews, did something similar: they steadfastly sought their goal. 

They faced tremendous odds: a long and arduous journey, cold weather, and lack of shelter; they lost sight of their guiding star, and had to seek directions from a sinister Herod.

They kept reminding themselves that the new-born king was somewhere ahead; allowed themselves to be guided by the star; were humble enough to seek direction and help; had faith to recognize the king “when they saw the child with Mary his mother.” 

Then they “were overwhelmed with joy”. After their encounter with the new-born king, they were transformed: they “departed for their country by another way”.

Our life’s journey, too, is arduous. We face fearsome challenges and difficulties. We need to imitate the Magi in steadfastly seeking our goal: God! We need to keep a mental image of the times God has been with us and remind ourselves that he is with us. We need to allow ourselves to be guided by Christ’s light and seek direction from others. We need to have faith to recognize our king in the mundane and the ordinary; all too often we want to see him in the spectacular and the extraordinary. Our encounters with him ought to transform us and make us courageous to resist the “herods” of today.

Will I steadfastly seek the Lord despite the challenges I face? Will I allow myself to be transformed after my encounters with him?