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Displaying items by tag: Celebrating At Home

Friday, 01 September 2023 09:56

Celebrating At Home - 22th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Finding Real Life
(Matthew 16:21-27)

What a contrast there is between last Sunday’s Gospel, when Peter was proclaimed the ‘rock’ on which the church would be built, and this Sunday when Jesus rebukes him for being a different kind of rock - a ‘stumbling block’!

When Jesus starts to talk about his suffering, death and resurrection, it’s more than Peter can cope with - “This must not happen to you.” This is exactly what Jesus was afraid of when he bound the disciples to silence about his true identity in last Sunday’s Gospel. He was afraid that they would think of him as a warrior leading a victorious uprising against the Roman occupation of Israel - the popular image of the Messiah in Jesus’ day.

Last week, Jesus proclaimed Peter ‘blessed’ because of his God-given insight into who Jesus is. Now Peter is ‘Satan’ because it is not God-given insight, but human thinking, he now shows.

Can we cope with having a shepherd-king rather than a warrior-king as our God and Saviour?

Jesus then starts talking about the call of discipleship.

First of all, it has to be freely chosen. Discipleship is not something which can be forced on people.

Second, the disciple must learn to put God and others at the centre of his/her life. This is not some pious idea. People in true, loving relationships, especially parents, know exactly what it means to ‘take up your cross’ and follow Jesus by doing loving acts of service everyday - to put another’s needs ahead of your own.

Such people save their lives by living human life as Jesus taught and as God intended.

Those who set about trying to ‘save’ their lives through power, wealth and a comfortable life eventually lose the little life they have. Nothing can prevent the moment of death when all that is stripped away and becomes meaningless. That’s what the lines about gaining the whole world and ruining your life mean.

At the end of the day, the faithfulness of the disciple, shown in loving deeds, will be rewarded.

What Jesus says about discipleship is a very different way to live and seems totally opposite to the values of modern society where we think we are in control of our destiny; where life is about amassing wealth and living comfortably for ourselves rather than for others.

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Wednesday, 23 August 2023 11:55

Celebrating At Home - 21th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Who Do You Say I Am?
(Matthew 16:13-20)

At this point in St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus and his chosen ones have travelled and lived together for some time. He now invites them to explore what they understand about his identity. Even in his question there is explicit hint: Who do people say the Son of Man is?

The disciples tell Jesus what they have heard from others: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

Jesus then asks the disciples, “But, who do you say I am?” It is Peter who adds to the title ‘Son of Man’ by recognising Jesus as ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’.

Jesus names Peter as a happy man. This same Peter whose faith faltered when he was buffeted by the wind and waves in the Gospel two weeks ago has now shown his openness to God and recognises Jesus for who he is. But this is not the end of Peter’s story.

There are ups and downs in his response, as we will see next Sunday when this ‘rock’ of faith becomes a ‘stumbling block’ to God’s purpose.

In spite of that, Jesus names Peter as the ‘rock’ on which he will build the church. Peter has a new name and a new vocation. This church will have to battle hostile forces which seek to enslave people in sin. It will be a safe haven of freedom by being the living presence of God.

Peter’s job is to use the ‘keys of the kingdom’ to unlock and release the reign of God’s grace into the world. In this work, decisions have to be made for the whole community of the church. Here, Matthew’s words about ‘binding’ and ‘loosening’ have nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins. They are a kind of pledge that the sincere and honest decisions of faithful people have divine backing. It does not mean that these decisions are the best or most perfect ones.

Discernment and decision-making are part of the job of being disciples finding together the way of the Lord; of being the living presence of God in the world.

Finally, Jesus binds the disciples to silence about his true identity lest his Messiaship get confused with the people’s expectation of a messiah who will free them from Roman occupation.

Like last Sunday, Peter is a lot like us. We really want to believe, to become the presence of God, but we don’t always seem to be able to do it. We have great moments of faith and moments in which we are deeply in tune with the heart of God. Most of us also have moments when we fall back into narrow and harsh ways that cannot hold the power of God’s love. But the Gospel reassures us that, in spite of our weakness and the many ways in which we may be found wanting, God is still close to us and faith is a journey, not a destination.

In my thoughts, words and actions, who do I say Jesus is?

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A Kingdom for all
(Matthew 15:21-28)

Today’s Gospel marks a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. He sees himself as sent ‘only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’. That is, to those who were deemed sinners because they could not keep the Law of Moses, and were considered beyond the care and concern of God by religious authorities.

The story centres around a confrontation between Jesus and a pagan (Canaanite) woman.

Firstly, Jesus ignores her altogether. Then, because the woman is making such a racket, the disciples ask him to give her what she wants. Jesus refuses. The woman approaches him directly and asks for help. He refuses again, quoting an ancient popular racial slur against the Canaanites. His words are harsh and demeaning, but the woman persists, defeating Jesus with her quick thinking and twisting his own imagery in her favour.

He recognizes her faith and grants her wish.

St Matthew uses this story about Jesus and the woman to answer the question about who belongs in the Kingdom of God – who are the insiders and who are the outsiders?

In terms of the story, not only Israelites, but all who come with faith, are part of the Kingdom. The first reading from the Prophet Isaiah makes the same point: God’s house is a house for all the peoples.

Matthew’s early Christian community is struggling with accepting some non-Jews wanting to join them.

Just as Jesus (the ultimate insider) moves past his own prejudices, so the members of the Kingdom and the Church must move past theirs’ so that God’s house of prayer will be a place of justice and integrity for all the peoples; a house from which God’s salvation and healing flows.

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Living the Kingdom
(Matthew 14:22-33)

Trust is an essential element in the formation of faith. This section of St Matthew’s Gospel is about the Kingdom of God being seen in the Church when human needs are responded to with the life of God. Jesus is forming the faith of the disciples and helping them to understand that they can do great and unexpected things if they allow the grace of God to work in them.

For that to happen the disciples must have faith in Christ. They must learn to sense the presence of God within themselves just as Elijah learnt to recognise the presence of God in the gentle breeze in the first reading today. Jesus and Elijah remain in communion with God through moments of solitary prayer.

St Matthew uses the story of Jesus approaching the disciples across the water to illustrate the confidence and trust the disciple needs to have in Christ. The story also shows how fear can erode faith and shake confidence.

Sometimes we, too, feel like we are sinking beneath the waves. For the people in Matthew’s community this story was a call to faith, trust, courage and boldness in the midst of the hostile forces of the world. Peter’s actions in the story are a mixture of impulsive love and faith weakened by doubt. Peter and the others see clearly for the first time exactly who Jesus is.

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Transfigured in Christ
(Matthew 17:1-9)

In the Hebrew Scriptures high mountains were traditionally seen as holy places where one could encounter God. It was on the summit of Mt Sinai that Moses received the Law from God (Ex 19) and it was on Mt Horeb that Elijah encountered God in the gentle breeze (1Kings 19:9ff). So, it should come as no surprise that it is on a mountain that the disciples encounter the glorified divinity of Christ.

The transfigured Jesus is shown to the disciples together with Moses and Elijah who, in Jewish tradition, represent the Law and the Prophets. In Jesus, these two great traditions reach their proper fulfilment. Moses and Elijah are also the two figures in the Hebrew scriptures who have direct, personal encounters with God.

Perhaps that affirms that the disciples encounter God in and through their encounter with Christ.

Peter is delighted by this glimpse of the glorified Christ and wants to commemorate the experience by building three tents. But the voice of God interrupts Peter’s request. God seems to say, ‘Forget about building tents, Peter, the important thing is to listen to my beloved Son’.

Through our deep attention to the word of God spoken in Jesus we remain in contact with the heart of God, allowing God’s love to transform and transfigure us and to ‘burst forth’ in goodness.

Being transfigured is a revolution of mind and heart driven by God’s Spirit and enabled by our open heartedness to God’s Word. When we are ‘shot through’ with the presence of God, God can be seen in, and experienced through, us.

It takes faith and perseverance to dare to allow ourselves to be tempted by the passion, hope and vision of God rather than our own desires and wants. It takes great faith to trust in God’s word to us. But if we do, the living word of the Chosen One forms in us the heart of God.

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Close encounters with the Kingdom of God
(Matthew 13:44-52)

In the Gospel, Jesus compares the Kingdom to treasure hidden in a field, to a merchant on the lookout for fine pearls and to a fisherman’s dragnet which brings in a very mixed catch.

The point of the parables is the behaviour of the people in them.

In the first parable someone stumbles across the treasure by chance. Sometimes that can happen to us, too. We are happily living our lives when, by chance, something happens or we meet someone and our lives change for ever. On reflection we discern the presence of God in that encounter.
In the second parable the Kingdom is found after a long search. It is a reassurance that those who seek always find, and those who knock on the door will always have it opened.

The third parable introduces a note of reality: the Kingdom is a mixture of all kinds of things and some sorting out is needed.

In the first two parables the joy and delight of those who find (experience) the Kingdom is obvious. It is so strong that nothing is spared in order to posses the Kingdom.

The purpose of parables is not to provide answers to questions but to get us to think.

As we know, the Kingdom of God is not a ‘thing’ or a ‘place’. It is an experience or an encounter with the life of God.

In the life and ministry of Jesus many people experienced the Kingdom through their encounter with him which brought dignity, love, forgiveness, release from illness, disability, guilt, shame and even death. Jesus made present the reign of God’s grace for people in all kinds of need.

While we are sometimes overwhelmed by the experience of the presence of God within our hearts, more often we experience the reign of God’s grace through others. These people, like Jesus, somehow make present, make real the presence and action of God especially (but not only) in our moments of need.

Having experienced that, we too, want to possess, to find and hold onto, the Source which touched us so deeply and brought us hope, comfort and freedom.

The kingdom, as we are reminded in the third parable, is a mixed bag of good and rotten fish, saints and sinners. It is not the task of members of the kingdom to judge; the final sorting out belongs to God alone. In the meantime, patience and tolerance must guide the practice of those in the kingdom.

The people of the kingdom seek the things that are of real value in life. They are prepared to make great sacrifices in order to make them their own. They live their lives with virtue and wisdom and their lives are a blessing for others as they draw from their rich store of values and virtues, of wisdom and grace. They never stop seeking the things of real value, the riches of the kingdom and they never stop making God present for those around them.

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The patient gardener
(Matthew 13:24-30)

The section of St Matthew’s Gospel from which we are now reading concerns the Kingdom of God. Jesus uses this expression frequently in his teaching. The Kingdom is not heaven, it is the life and heart of God.

We live in the Kingdom when we live according to the mind and heart of God. The Kingdom, or reign of God, breaks into human reality when human beings live, breathe and act out of the life of God; when the heart of God becomes ours; when we allow God to speak and act in and through us.

Jesus frequently uses parables in his teaching - stories drawn from real life, designed to get his listeners to think, ask questions and make decisions.
Today’s parable is a story about wheat and darnel growing together in a field. Apparently darnel, a weed, looks so similar to wheat that it is almost impossible to tell the two apart until the ears appear at harvest time.

Only then can you really tell the difference between the two plants. Before that, there may be some signs to do with the direction in which the spikelets grow.

Perhaps that is what the servants see and report it to the owner.

They ask if the owner wants them to remove the darnel. The owner says to leave both plants to grow together until harvest when the difference in the plants will be obvious. That will be the time to do the weeding.

So, what does it all mean?

No doubt, there were people in Matthew’s community who thought that the Reign of God would come swiftly and with vehemence and immediately crush what was contrary to it. Others had grown anxious about the fact that the coming of the Kingdom seemed much delayed and wanted to get on with the job of weeding out the ‘evil ones’ according to their own judgement.

The parable, however, urges patience and to leave final judgement to God. What appears to be darnel may yet turn out to be wheat. Only time will tell.
The parable is also a reflection on the mixture of good and evil in the world. But it calls us to reflect, too, on the mix of good and evil we find in our own hearts.

What will we turn out to be?

The parable also raises the question: can darnel turn into wheat given God’s patience and mercy?

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Becoming rich soil
(Matthew 13:1-9)

The section of St Matthew’s Gospel from which we are now reading concerns the Kingdom of God. Jesus uses this expression frequently in his teaching. The Kingdom is not heaven, it is the life and heart of God. 

We live in the Kingdom when we live according to the mind and heart of God. The Kingdom, or reign of God, breaks into human reality when human beings live, breathe and act out of the life of God; when the heart of God becomes ours; when we allow God to speak and act in and through us.
This section about the Kingdom of God is the centrepiece of St Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew uses seven parables and explanations to unfold Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom.

Last week’s Gospel offered reassurance to those overburdened by religious law and often unable to fulfil it that they were not forsaken by God. Jesus says he is the one who will reveal what God is really like through gentleness and humility and by providing rest (not more burdens) for their souls.
This week we begin the series of parables about the Kingdom with the parable of the Sower. The Sower sows, the seed falls, sometimes the sower’s work succeeds, sometimes it does not. The different soils represent different human responses to hearing the word of God. Not everyone receives the message or responds well to the invitation.

The parable teaches us that God will try anything to get a harvest. The sign of success is the fruit-bearing of the recipients. That’s when God’s word sown in our hearts becomes our word, too.

Those who do respond to the invitation to life in the Kingdom yield the harvest of goodness and Godliness.

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Lifting the burden; lightening the load
(Matthew 11:25-30)

The Gospel today is a joyful, ecstatic outburst of feeling by Jesus.

Matthew’s community must have been deeply troubled by the fact that the ‘learned and clever’ religious leaders of their day did not accept the message of Jesus. Surely they, of all people, should have been able to recognise the truth. But in this passage, Matthew explains that it is not from a position of knowledge or power that one recognises who Jesus is. Rather, it is from an attitude of openness and simplicity, such as we often find in children.

Matthew also makes the point that Jesus does not approach us like a warlord, with threats of punishment, but in humility and gentleness.

The tone of the reading is set by Jesus’ warm and intimate address of ‘Abba’ (Father) which occurs five times in this short passage. This intimate relationship is characterised by God’s entrusting all of things to the Son, and the Son in turn revealing them to those who have faith. These, in turn, are drawn into intimate relationship with God.

The rules and laws of religious leaders in Jesus’ day often added to the burden experienced by those regarded as simple and sinful. Whereas Jesus always tried to lift burdens from people.

Jesus invitation in today’s Gospel is for everyone.

It could be an invitation for us to look at our lives and ask what burdens we impose on others. Do our concerns, anxieties, our need for power, wealth and status, exact a high price from others and ourselves?

Are we a burden or a blessing for each other? What can we do to make life easier for each other - to lift the burdens and share the load?

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True discipleship
(Matthew 10:37-42)

Today’s Gospel is the final in this section of Matthew’s Gospel about the spread of the Kingdom and the role of the disciples.

Matthew often uses events as a beginning point for Jesus’ sermons. The section we have been listening to began with the call of Matthew and was followed by the instructions given to the disciples before setting out on mission. We heard part of that last Sunday.

So far in this sermon we have heard Jesus teach that the truly virtuous are those who exercise mercy; disciples are to proclaim the Kingdom of God with works of compassion and mercy; they are not to let fear compromise the message, but are to trust always in God.

Today’s Gospel passage highlights both the cost and rewards of true discipleship. The disciples’ relationship with Jesus must be the centre of their lives and the context for all other relationships.

Hospitality and welcome are concrete expressions of discipleship because the disciple is one who witnesses to the compassion and mercy of God with open hearts and concrete good actions.

Even though the first paragraph of today’s Gospel sounds like an exclusive choice must be made between Jesus and family, the idea behind the text is more that: in our relationship with Jesus, all other relationships fall into their proper context.

Without being in right relationship with Jesus we can’t learn how to be in right relationship with others. It is our relationship with Jesus which brings depth and richness to all our other relationships. So, for example, our family relationships become more thanjust fulfilling a social custom. They become true relationships filled with love, mercy, forgiveness and respect.

The Pharisees and Scribes seldom made good disciples because they thought that religion was about doing religious things. They went to the synagogue, kept the Law, fasted, and so on, but their hearts were never changed by their religious observance. They were self-righteous, despised the poor and the ‘sinners’, and acted without justice or mercy.

The truth about our conversion to Jesus (our becoming Jesus) is not so much seen in easily identifiably ‘religious’ things but in concrete good actions and right relationships.

Our religious observance is meant to support and nourish our relationship with Jesus. It is not a substitute for it. That relationship has the power to change and transform us so that we can bear witness to Christ through lives of mercy, compassion, justice and integrity.

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