Sunday Reflections

Moses, Michelangelo, 1515

San Pietro in Vinculo, Rome [Web Gallery of Art]

(First Reading, Exodus 17:8-13)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 18:1-18 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Old Woman Praying, Rembrandt, 1629-30

Residenzgalerie, Salzburg, Austria [Web Gallery of Art]

Last Sunday’s story about the ten lepers healed by Jesus and only of whom came back to thank him, a Samaritan, a ‘foreigner’, told us the importance of gratitude to God for everything, especially for the gift of life itself and the gift of faith.

Today’s First Reading and Gospel – the two are always linked by a common theme – stress the importance of prayer as an expression of faith. Prayer is the expression of being in a living relationship with God, an expression of a living faith. 

But the gift of faith can be lost by an individual, by a whole community, by a whole section of the world. In the early centuries of Christianity North Africa had a vibrant Church and produced great bishops and theologians such as St Augustine of Hippo, which is in Algeria. Today there is only a handful of Christians in that country, nearly all either missionaries or workers from other countries.

St Augustine Washing the Feet of Christ, Bernardo Strozzi, 1629

Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti, Genoa, Italy [Web Gallery of Art]

A hundred years ago European countries such as Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland were sending Catholic missionaries all over the world. These countries now to a large extent have rejected the Christian faith. In both Belgium and the Netherlands not only is abortion legal but so is euthanasia. Recently a minor, a 17-year-old boy, was euthanised in Belgium.

My own Irish ancestors received the grace of faith through St Patrick and other missionaries in the fifth century and sent missionaries such as St Columban, the patron saint of Columban missionaries, to rekindle the faith in mainland Europe where it was being rejected.

The founders of the European Economic Union, the EEC, that developed later into the European Union, the EU, had a vision for a Europe at peace that came from their strong Catholic faith. They had experienced the destruction brought about by Nazism and Fascism before and during World War II. Their political vision came from their Catholic Christian faith. They weren’t working ‘for the Church’ but living out as politicians the Gospel of Jesus Christ that they had received through the Church, living out a faith nourished by the Church, especially through the Mass and the sacraments.

That Christian vision of Jean Monnet (France), Konrad Adenauer (Germany), Alcide de Gasperi (Italy) and Robert Schuman (Luxembourg/Germany/France) has been largely lost. Schuman, described by Adenauer as ‘a saint in a business suit’, had a great devotion to St Columban. Both he and de Gasperi have been proposed for beatification.

Yet so many ‘Catholic’ politicians and voters in the Western world proclaim themselves, for example, as being ‘personally opposed to abortion’ but then vote otherwise. Their values are not rooted in their Christian faith. Christian voters in the USA are now faced with a huge moral dilemma when it comes to voting for the country’s next president a few weeks from now.

Massacre of the Innocents (detail), Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565-57

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna [Web Gallery of Art]

How many of us take to heart the words of Pope Francis in his encyclical on ‘On Care for Our Common Home’, Laudato Si’ No 117: Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature and the environmental impact of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself. When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble, for ‘instead of carrying out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature’?

Prayer essentially leads us into desiring to do God’s will and, with his grace, actually doing it, so that we can say with St Paul, But we have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16). The first part of the Opening Prayer of today’s Mass reads: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours . . .

To the extent that, with God’s grace, we have the mind of Christ, to that extent we are persons of faith. May the Son of Man find each of us to be such now and at the hour of our death!

+++

When the Son of Man comes, will he find life in Aleppo?’

The story of Abu Wad, ‘Father of the flowers’, and his 13-year-old son Ibrahim is both heartbreaking and hope-filled. May we continue to pray for peace in Syria, especially in Aleppo.

Holy Mass and Canonization of the Blesseds James Berthieu, Pedro Calungsod, John Baptist Piamarta, Carmen Sallés y Barangueras, Marianne Cope, Kateri Tekakwitha, Anna Schäffer
Saint Peter’s Square, 21 October 2012 – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Antiphona ad introitum  

Entrance Antiphon Cf Ps 16 [17]: 6, 8

Ego clamavi, quoniam exaudisti me Deus;

To you I call; for you will surely heed me, O God;

inclina auerem tuam, et exaudi verba mea.

turn your ear to me; hear my words.

Custodi me, Domine, ut pupillam oculi;

Guard me as the apple of your eye;

sub umbria alarum tuarum protege me.

in the shadow of your wings protect me.

Peasant Girls with Brushwood, Jean-François Millet, c.1852 

The Hermitage, St Petersburg [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 17:11-19  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.  Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Responsorial Psalm, New American Bible Lectionary

Philippines, USA

I’ve told this story before but the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 at Holy Family Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in was approached by a woman asking for some help. I made some excuse as I entered.

Entrance to Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City

When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step (in photo above), her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside here and resting her head on her mother’s shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet’s painting, they were heavily burdened – but with tiredness and hunger.

My business didn’t detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen and said, ‘Salamat sa Ginoo – Thanks to the Lord!’

Peasant Girl Bringing Basket, Adolf Fényes, 1904

Private Collection [Web Gallery of Art]

The radiance of this girl’s smile compared to the look of dejection she had earlier was like the contrast between the colors of the painting by Adolf Fényes and that of Jean-François Millet above. What struck me profoundly was that she wasn’t thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.

Elisha Refusing Gifts from Naaman, Pieter de Grebber, c.1630

Private Collection [Web Gallery of Art]

In the First Reading, which on Sundays and solemnities is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman’s gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then he (Naaman) returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing!’ He urged him to accept, but he refused (2 Kings 5: 15-16, NRSVCE). 

 
Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber’s painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn’t he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.

And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In the verses preceding those read today we read: Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” (2 Kings 5:1-5 RSVCE).

 
The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.

I had never met the girl and her mother before nor have I seen them since. The girl would now be around 39 or 40. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family.

Entrance Antiphon   Antiphona ad introitum Psalm 129[13]:3-4

Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquties, Lord, who could stand?

Quia apud te propitiatio est, Deus Israel.

But with you is found forgiveness, O God of Israel.

Ps. ibid., 1-2 De proftindis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine, exaudi vocem meam. 

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Glory to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquties, Lord, who could stand?

Quia apud te propitiatio est, Deus Israel.

But with you is found forgiveness, O God of Israel.

The shorter form, in bold, is used in the Ordinary Form of the Mass while the longer is used in the Extraordinary Form, though it may also be used in the Ordinary Form.

Boy ploughing with water buffalo, Laos (Luke 17:7) [Wikipedia]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 17:5-10  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

The Mulberry Tree, Van Gogh, 1889 [Wikipedia]

Responsorial Psalm (NAB Lectionary, Philippines, USA)

In the summer of 1964, after my third year in the seminary, I spent a couple of weeks working in the Morning Star Hostel in Dublin. It was within walking distance of my home. I had been in the Legion of Mary for most of my five years in secondary school and used to rejoin my praesidium during summer vacations. In the summer of 1963 I spent a week on Peregrinatio pro Christo in a parish in Liverpool and in 1965 did the same in a parish in Paisley, Scotland. My last experience of Peregrinatio was in Pewsey, Wiltshire, in the southwest of England in 1966.

Morning Star Hostel has had a small number of what are called ‘indoor brothers’ taking care of the men who stay there. These are laymen, Legionaries who devote themselves full-time to this work. I remember two from 1963, Tom Doyle and Sid Quinn. The webpage about the Morning Star gives a short biography of Tom, along with a photo. It describes him in these terms: Tom Doyle was the manager of the hostel for about 50 years and he is regarded as an unknown saint by most if not all the people who knew him.

Tom Doyle (1905 – 1992)

I didn’t get to know Tom or Sid well, certainly not their inner lives. Sid knew my father as they had grown up in the same area, where I also grew up. Most of the people in our neighbourhood were what were called ‘working class’. But I saw the utter dedication of Tom and Sid, or ‘Brother Tom’ and ‘Brother Sid’ as they were know within the hostel. During Legion meetings and Legion work members address and refer to each other as ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’ but not outside of that.

As Pope Francis might put it, Tom and Sid well knew ‘the smell of their sheep’. That might be the smell of alcohol, the smell of unwashed bodies. Sometimes for Tom it might be the smell of his own blood: Rows and scuffles and fist fights were regular occurrences and poor Tom had the responsibility of calming every storm. No doubt Tom who was small in stature was on the receiving end of some of those blows and it is well known that near the end of his life one of the residents very badly beat him up so that he had to spend time in hospital but when he came out he made himself the best friend of that resident! 

When I read the words We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done! in today’s gospel I immediately thought of Tom Doyle and Sid Quinn. The words of Jesus seem to be in contrast with what he says elsewhere, especially in St John’s Gospel, where he calls us friends, where he asks Peter, Do you love me? Feed my lambs.

Assisi, 4 October 2013, Feast of St Francis of Assisi

There are countless individuals around the world who gladly say, We have done only what we ought to have done! They may be adult children taking care of aged parents.

Dimayuga Family, 2009

They may be parents such as Miggy and Gee-Gee, my former assistant editor at Misyon, taking care of their son Mikko, born with multiple disabilities,with the help of their daughter Mica. Mikko went straight to God in 2014 and his parents brought his remains home from Atlanta, Georgia, where they live to be buried here in Bacolod City where Gee-Gee is from.

They may be those helping homeless people, refugees, drug addicts, alcoholics, those without work cope with their situation, attending to their urgent, basic needs and offering them hope.

They may be those taking care of the young persons with disabilities whom Pope Francis visited in Assisi three years ago on, the feast of St Francis. In the video above the Holy Father reminds us very strikingly, On the altar we worship the Flesh of Jesus. In the sick we see the wounds of Jesus. We find Jesus hidden in the Eucharist. Jesus can be found through your wounds. He needs to be listened to. We need to say: These wounds cannot be ignored.

Tom Doyle chose to worship the Flesh of Jesus every morning at Mass at 6, very early in Ireland, especially in winter. In the homeless men who came to Morning Star Hostel he was able to see the wounds of Jesus. He would have nodded in agreement with Pope Francis speaking directly to the young people with disabilities: Jesus can be found through your wounds. He understood that Jesus needs to be listened to in the men he served each day.

Despite having to go to hospital when already an old man because he was beaten up by a resident of Morning Star Hostel, Tom would have understood what Pope Francis said, These wounds cannot be ignored. Though conscious of his own physical wounds Tom was even more conscious of the inner wounds of the man who had attacked him as he showed when he came out of hospital and made himself the best friend of that resident! 

Thank God for the countless, largely anonymous, Tom Doyles throughout the world who, if asked about their unselfish commitment to others in need would answer, We have only done what was our duty. They are living examples of the words of St Francis, which Pope Francis repeated when answering the questions of young people in Assisi three years ago, Always preach the gospel. And if necessary use words. [Video below].

Pope Francis then asked the young people – and he is putting the same question to each of us in the name of Jesus – Can you preach the Gospel without words? Yes! Leading by example. First by example, then with words.

Pope Francis answers young people in Assisi, 2013

Parable of Dives and Lazarus, Unknown Master, c.1420

Musée Cluny, Paris [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 16:19-31  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

Jesus said to the disciples: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.  The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 

“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house—  for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’  He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Lazarus lives today in Aleppo, Syria

Last Monday an aid convoy to Aleppo was bombed.

Missionaries of Charity [Wikipedia]

An Indian Missionary of Charity who was based in Hong Kong for some years told me of something that happened there shortly before Christmas 2009. Yang was what Sister called a ‘street-sleeper’, ie, someone living on the streets. Strictly speaking he wasn’t, as he had a little place where he lived with his mother. Both were Buddhists. Yang was in poor health and couldn’t get a job. He mixed mostly with those who were ‘street-sleepers’.

He first came across the Missionaries of Charity when they were distributing lunch-boxes to very poor people in the street. He began to come to their place regularly for a meal and made a point of coming to the annual Advent celebration when gifts would be distributed and a meal provided. Yang’s mother often wondered where he got his regular meals. ‘From Sister’ was his answer to her queries but she didn’t know who ‘Sister’ was.

Yang didn’t attend the Advent celebration in 2009 because he was in hospital but he asked his mother to go in his place. When she arrived the celebration was over but the Sisters had kept one meal in case someone would arrive late. So they gave it to her.

A day or two later, around 19 0r 20 December, Yang died. Some time after that his mother came to the Sisters to express her profound gratitude to them for their kindness and hospitality to her son and to herself.

Yang and his mother experienced the personal love of Jesus for them through the Missionaries of Charity who took care of the many Lazaruses outside their door. And Sister told me that food never ran out. It was constantly supplied by hotels and restaurants.

Syrian refugees and migrants, Slovenia, 2015 [Wikipedia]

Jesus gives a name to Lazarus but not to the rich man, though ‘Dives’, the Latin for ‘rich’, is often used as a name for him, such as in the ballad below. It is difficult to give a name to each person in a refugee camp where there may be tens of thousands, a sight we are all too familiar with. Yet people are extraordinarily generous when a calamity occurs, whether caused by nature or by man. And there are many who leave the comfort of their own home and homeland to take care of those in such places who have nothing.

Lazarus also lives today in Dublin, Ireland

Each person in a refugee camp has a name, a family, a history, hopes, God-given talents, an invitation to live with God for ever in heaven. And even in the relatively affluent West many are in need because of the economic situation. The Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin, for example, which initially helped individuals really down on their luck, as we say in Ireland, is now helping families that in the past didn’t experience hardship. 

There is much to be done to bring the Gospel to change the lives of the many Lazaruses throughout the world – working for peace, working for justice at the level of legislation and so on. God calls some to serve Lazarus in this way. But while the slow work of peace-building and the rest goes on, Lazarus is outside our door each day in need of sustenance to help him survive till the following day.

‘Dives’ is the Latin word for ‘rich’. Though Jesus gave a name only to the beggar in the parable, Lazarus, ‘Dives’ is often used as a name for the rich man. Above is an old English ballad based on the parable. Some of you may recognize the melody as the same one used for the Irish song The Star of the County Down. I found the lyrics of the song here but adjusted them in places. Ballads have variations. ‘Divès’ becomes ‘Diverus’ at times.

As it fell out upon a day,

Rich Divès made a feast,

And he invited all his friends,

And gentry of the best.

 

Then Lazarus laid him down and down

And down at Divès’ door:

‘Some meat, some drink, brother, Diverus,

To bestow upon the poor.’

 

‘Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus,

Lie begging at my door;

No meat, no drink will I give to you,

Nor bestow upon the poor.’

 

Then Divès sent to his merry men,

To whip poor Lazarus away;

They had no power to strike one stroke,

But flung their whips away.

 

Then Lazarus laid him down and down

Even down at Divès’ gate:

‘Some meat, some drink, brother, Diverus,

For Jesus Christ’s sake.”

 

“Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus,

Lies begging at my gate;

No meat, no drink will I give to you,

For Jesus Christ’s sake.’

 

Then Divès sent his hungry dogs,

To bite him as he lay;

They had no power to bite at all.

They licked his sores away.

 

As it fell out all on a day,

Poor Lazarus sickened and died;

There came an angel out of heaven,

His soul therein to guide.

 

‘Rise up! rise up! brother Lazarus,

And go along with me;

For you’ve a place prepared in heaven,

To sit on an angel’s knee.’

 

As it fell out all on a day,

Rich Divès sickened and died;

There came two serpents out of hell,

His soul therein to guide.

 

‘Rise up! rise up! brother Diverus,

And go with us and see;

A dismal place prepared in hell

From which thou canst not flee.’

 

Then Divès looked up with his eyes

And saw poor Lazarus blest;

‘Give me one drink, brother Lazarus,

To quench my flaming thirst.

 

‘O, was I now but alive again

In the space of one half hour!

O, then my peace would be secure

The devil should have no power.’

 

Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer, c.1685

Mauritshuis, The Hague [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 16:1-13 (or 10-13)  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

[Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’  Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.]

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Responsorial Psalm (NAB Lectionary, Philippines, USA)

Woman Sewing, Van Gogh, Oct-Nov 1881, Etten

Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands [Web Gallery of Art]

Three years ago while on vacation in Ireland I dropped by the house of Brian, a childhood friend in Dublin. Over coffee we chatted about many things, ranging from the current situation of the Church in Ireland to the days when we were growing up.

In the course of our conversation the small Jewish community in Dublin came up. It has never quite reached 4,000 in Ireland and the majority of the now fewer than 2,000 live in Dublin. I told Brian that my father, who spent all his working life as a carpenter on building/construction sites, most of those years as a highly respected general foreman, had built a house for a wealthy Jewish couple in the late 1950s. 

Our house was the one on the right, 44 Finn St, Dublin

Shortly after the house was finished a very expensive car stopped outside our house, in a street of terraced houses, exactly like those in the photo above, where nobody had a telephone and very few had cars. The driver knocked on our door and turned out to be the owner of the new house my father had built. He came to invite our family to dinner the following week in his new home. My father had helped build many new homes over the 54 years of his working life but this was the only occasion when he had been thanked in such a way.

We enjoyed the gracious hospitality of the family and it was the only time I ever visited a Jewish home in Ireland.

Brian then told me a story about his father Jimmy, whom I had known well, a house painter and decorator. He had painted and decorated the houses of many Jewish families in Dublin over the years. This was mainly due to an incident the first time he was asked to work in a Jewish home. While scraping the old paint from the stairs he found a diamond ring stuck in a corner. He immediately brought it to the owner and said ‘I found this on the stairs’. ‘I know’, said the owner, ‘I put it there!’ 

The word spread through the Jewish community that Jimmy was trustworthy. Over the years he had many Jewish clients. 

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.

Jewish Museum, Dublin [Wikipedia]

When I told the story of Jimmy and the diamond ring to my sister-in-law Gladys she told me that her engagement ring had been stolen while she and my brother Paddy were having renovations done to their home a few years ago.

I remember too how upset my father was when he was renovating a Georgian house in Dublin. He discovered that the knocker on the front door had disappeared and it could only have been one of his workmates who took it. He was unable to trace the knocker or find out who the thief was.

Whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.

Georgian doors, Dublin [Wikipedia]

When I wrote these reflections three years ago the major story in the Philippines was the ‘pork barrel scam‘. PHP10 billion – roughly US$200,000,000 or €200,000,000 – of taxes paid by the people had disappeared. Some senators and members of Congress were alleged to have been beneficiaries of this along with others.

Today’s gospel speaks to situations like this. Corruption on such a vast scale begins in the classroom when a child learns that though cheating isn’t right the main thing is not to be caught. The man who stole my sister-in-law’s engagement ring and my father’s workmate who walked away with the valuable knocker from the front door of the Georgian house were earning salaries. What values were they passing on to their families?

One thing that both my parents instilled in me was that I must not keep anything that isn’t mine. When I was a toddler I came home from a park up the road from where we lived at the time with a leather football. This was in the mid-1940s, around the time World War II ended when such things would have been very scarce and expensive. They asked around the neighbourhood and it was only when nobody claimed the ball that our family kept it.

Honesty and trustworthiness at such basic levels are  a foundation for justice. I’ve known of individuals ‘working for justice’ who weren’t paying their own workers a proper wage. I’ve known many others such as my father, such as Jimmy, who didn’t talk much about justice. They simply behaved in a just and honest manner and treated others with respect.

God invites every single one of us to share for ever in the riches of eternal life. Eternal life begins in the here and now. We make our choices in the here and now.

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Antiphona ad Communionem / Communion Antiphon (John 10:14)

Ego sum pastor bonus, dicit Dóminus;

et cognósco oves meas, et cognóscunt me meae.

I am the Good shepherd, says the Lord;

I know my sheep, and mine know me.

Engagement and wedding rings [Wikipedia]

I mentioned two diamond rings above. I couldn’t find a painting with a diamond ring but Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is a work of such extraordinary beauty that I used it instead.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt, c.1669

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 15:1-32 (or 1-10)  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

[Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;  for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’  Then the father  said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”]

The Return of the Prodigal Son (detail)

This week I’m going to borrow from others. Fr Paul Andrews SJ is a regular contributor to The Sacred Heart Messenger, a monthly publication of the Irish Jesuits. The general title of his column is One Page Wisdom and the specific title of his column in the September 2016 issue is Messy Families. I’m quoting it in full.

We know about families. We have all survived them, more or less. You remember the Gospel parable about the father of the prodigal son – and here Jesus is talking about God. the boy made a fool of him by squandering the family fortune and reputation. His older son was so envious of the kid brother that he would not attend the homecoming party. 

God knows about troubled families. They are nothing out of the ordinary. In that lovely parable, the father enjoys the being of his son even when he is in every way a thorn in the father’s heart. Scanning the horizon from his window he sees a forlorn, debauched figure slouching towards home, and runs out to meet him, speechless with joy. 

The Return of the Prodigal Son (detail)

We may dream of an ideal family with lively, intelligent, obedient children – who line up with their parents for Church on Sunday, pass their exams, compete in community sports, and visit their granny. 

Move away from such rosy pictures. There is no such thing as perfect parents, or perfect children. God is not the presenter of prizes at a high-powered graduation, but the one who helps us clean up the mess or live with it, and then approach the future as a friend, without a wardrobe (closet) of excuses.

The Return of the Prodigal Son (detail)

Rembrandt’s painting is in The Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia [Web Gallery of Art]

Fr Andrews writes: His older son was so envious of the kid brother that he would not attend the homecoming party. I would disagree with him on that. Part of the genius of this parable is that it’s open-ended. We don’t know if the older son reflected on the matter and decided to join the celebration. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. But the story that Jesus told invites each of us to ask ourselves a number of questions. Which of the two sons am I more like? If there’s more of the older brother in me do I rejoice when my younger brother comes home? Do I thank God for his daily blessings? If there’s more of the younger brother in me do I trust in God’s mercy and decide to come home?

Christ on the Cross, Rembrandt, 1631

Collégial Saint Vincent, Le Mas d’Agenais, France [Web Gallery of Art]

My other ‘guest’ this week is the late Swiss theologian Fr Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905 – 1988). Here is part of his reflection on the Sunday readings from his book Light of the Word, published by Ignatius Press, San Francisco, USA.

In the third parable the father does not wait at home for the lost son, rather, he hurries to meet him and throws his arms around his neck. God’s search for the lost does not mean that he does not know where the lost one is. Instead, it tells us that he searches to find which paths will be effective, which paths will permit the sinner to find his way back. This is God’s ‘exertion’, which expresses itself in the culminating risk of giving his Son for the lost world. If the Son descends into the most profound abandonment of sin, to the point of losing the Father, then this is God exerting himself to the uttermost in his search for the lost. ‘when we were still sinners, God had mercy on us through the sacrifice of his Son’ (Romans 5:8).

Descent from the Cross, Rembrandt, 1634

The Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia [Web Gallery of Art]

St Mother Teresa of Kolkata [Wikipedia]

Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded. She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that ‘the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable’. She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity; she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime – the crimes! – of poverty they created. For Mother Teresa, mercy was the ‘salt’ which gave flavour to her work, it was the ‘light’ which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering. [Pope Francis, homily at canonisation of St Mother Teresa of Kolkata, 4 September 2016].

Misa Criolla, Kyrie

Señor ten piedad de nosotros. Lord, have mercy on us.

Cristo ten piedad de nosotros. Christ, have mercy on us.

Señor ten piedad de nosotros. Lord, have mercy on us.

A setting in Spanish of the Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy) from Misa Criolla by Argentinian composer Ariel Ramírez (1921 – 2010).

St Paul in Prison, Rembrandt, 1627

Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 14:14:25-33  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them,  “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?  If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Manuscript of St Paul’s Letter to Philemon, c.1285

Private Collection [Web Gallery of Art]

Second Reading, Philemon 9-10, 12-17

I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment.

I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.

Ingemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson, 1959 [Wikipedia]

Three times between 1959 and 1961, my last two years in secondary school, Ingemar Johansson, a Swede, and Floyd Patterson, an American, fought for the Undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Johansson won the first while Patterson won the succeeding fights. Those were the days when the Heavyweight Boxing Championship was followed worldwide. I remember a few times getting up at around 3am to listen to a fight on a shortwave station from the USA, lots of static and sleepiness making it difficult to listen.

What I remember clearly about the fights between these two men, who became great friends later, was that my classmates and I were rooting for Patterson, even though he was a Black American and we were White Europeans, just like Johansson. The reason was that Floyd Patterson was a Catholic. Johansson, we presumed, was a Lutheran.

Those were pre-ecumenical days but nevertheless, without reflecting on it and with perhaps more tribalism than theology involved, we were expressing something of our deepest identity, being Catholics. That identity was more important to us that any identity from where we lived or from the colour of our skin.

Portuguese and Brazilian pilgrims

World Youth Day 2016, Kraków, Poland [Wikipedia]

St Paul’s Letter to Philemon is essentially about our deepest identity. Onesimus was a slave of Philemon – this relationship was not at all of the same brutality as that between African-American slaves and their White ‘owners’ – and for whatever reason had run away. He met St Paul, who was in prison at the time and who took care of him and led him to the Christian faith and baptism.

St Paul appeals to Philemon in very moving terms: I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment.

Chinese and Polish pilgrims WYD 2016 [Wikipedia]

He speaks as a father of Onesimus, whose name means ‘useful’. Indeed, St Paul was this young man’s ‘father in the faith’ as Abraham is referred to in the Roman Canon (First Eucharistic Prayer). And as an old man who is a prisoner he is appealing for the young man’s freedom.

But more than that, I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you . . . no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Paul is spelling out the implications of baptism – through that Sacrament we become brothers and sisters of each other as brothers and sisters of Jesus. This is shown explicitly, for example, in meetings of the Legion of Mary at all levels where members are addressed as ‘Brother’ or ‘Sister’. At praesidium (branch) meetings of soldiers, for example, one may be ‘General’ outside, one ‘Sergeant’, another ‘Private’. But during Legion activities they address each other as ‘Brother’.

From different countries and continents

WYD 2016 [Wikipedia]

One of my culture shocks when I came to the Philippines in 1971 was that so many families had what I saw to be servants. In some these were younger relatives who were given board and lodging in exchange for work so that they could go to school. This was a way of enabling others within the extended family to get on in life. But wealthier families had, and still have, employed workers, a driver, perhaps, a cook and some housemaids. Some of these employees stay with a family for life and truly become part of the household. The majority don’t.

I have a suspicion that some who employ a household staff would never miss Sunday Mass but, perhaps, don’t give time to their workers to go to Mass or to church. I occasionally mention in homilies that the Sunday Mass obligation includes enabling our workers to go also though, of course, we cannot force them to do so. And, along with that is our domestic workers’ right to a proper wage and to proper time off.

St Paul, who speaks of the young man as my own heart, is asking of Philemon that he forgive Onesimus for any wrongdoing, that he make him a free man, no longer a slave, and above all that he accept him as a brother in Christ.

Can there be any more intimate expression of our deepest identity than to describe another Christian as my own heart?

Daryl, 2nd from the left beside Fr Eamon Sheridan, is a Filipino-Irish parishioner in St Joseph’s, Balcurris, Dublin, which has been a Columban parish for many years. The parish, which is not a prosperous one, raised the funds to send Daryl to WYD 2016 as one of the delegates of the Archdiocese of Dublin. Fr Sheridan has worked in Taiwan, in Hong Kong as a member of the General Council and will soon be moving to Myanmar (Burma). [Photo: FB of Fr Sheridan]

Mother Teresa with Columban Fr Michael Mohally

From 4 September: St Teresa of Kolkata

Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion at Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod City

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 14:1, 7-14  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Responsorial Psalm (NAB Lectionary, Philippines, USA)

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed . . . 

Last Sunday I experienced this after Mass at Holy Family Home for Girls (HFH) here in Bacolod City. Kathy wished to share her birthday joy – the day itself was actually the day before – with the girls at Holy Family Home along with her family and co-workers. Most of the more than 30 girls in Holy Family Home have had traumatic experiences in their lives and the majority are from poor families.

Kathy and her husband Hernan have been celebrating their birthdays with the girls at HFH and the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family who run it for some years now. There are other families who have been doing the same, some in HFH, some in orphanages or homes for the aged in Bacolod City.

And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you . . .

Kathy, whose father died suddenly when she was only three months old, spoke briefly at the end of the programme after the catered lunch but asked Hernan to take over. (The programme included a magician, some games and dances by the girls.) He told us how blessed his whole family was simply by the joy they saw in the faces of the girls. That has been my own experience since I became involved with HFH nearly 14 years ago. That involvement has been one of the greatest blessings of my life, an ongoing one and all the greater because it was something I had never expected when I returned to the Philippines in 2002 after a two-year stint in Britain that was supposed to be a four-year one.

Most of these girls have had experiences that no child or young person should ever have. But in HFH they get the best of truly caring professional help that enables them to feel the healing power of God’s love. Much of that healing comes form their interaction with each other and from their shared responsibilities. For example, each cubicle for personal hygiene is used by three girls, who also have to maintain it. And something that touched me when I first began to go to HFH and given the ‘grand tour’ was to learn that each new girl, whether still a child or already an adolescent, is given a cuddly toy which she keeps on her bed. There are two large dormitories, again maintained by the girls. And they make their bed first thing in the morning, have an early breakfast, gather for prayers and then go off to the local elementary and high schools, both within walking distance.

Columban Fr Michael Sinnott visits HFH

The girls had been praying their hearts out for Fr Sinnott, then 79, after he was kidnapped in October 2009. He came to visit them later. This was their reaction when I told them of his release:

Hernan reminded us in his ‘few words’ of Jesus and children: Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs (Matthew 19:14).

The First Reading and the Gospel remind me of a line in the Handbook of the Legion of Mary: Always will the legionary bear in mind that he is visiting not as a superior to an inferior, not as one equal to another, but as an inferior to his superior, as the servant to the Lord. This is the opposite of what I have heard many well-meaning people say: We must go down to the level of the poor (or whoever). Jesus identifies himself with the ‘outsider’, with the ‘other’, whoever the ‘other’ may be. And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25:40). 

Children’s Games, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559-60

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna [Web Gallery of Art]

‘Alleluia’ by Ronald Raz

Hail Mary the Queen Children’s Choir

Quezon City, Philippines

Crowning during a Syro-Malabar Catholic wedding [Wikipedia]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 13:22-30  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’  But he will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.  Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.  Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Responsorial Psalm (NAB Lectionary, Philippines, USA)

Three years ago when I was at home in Dublin a friend of mine from the Philippines, Marifel, who was a parishioner of mine in Tangub City, Mindanao, when she was a child and now works as a receptionist for a community of Dominican Sisters near Dublin, invited me for a meal in a hotel. When the waitress came along I asked her if she was from Poland or Lithuania or ‘one of those countries. ‘One of those countries’, she replied with a smile, ‘Latvia.’ She took our orders but the food was brought by an Indian waiter. Later on an Irish waiter looked after us.

St Andrew’s Church, Westland Row, Dublin [Wikipedia]

A week later I found myself in St Andrew’s Church, Westland Row, beside one of Dublin’s main railway stations. While I was praying there a grandfather and his grandson aged about three came in. The grandfather was wearing bright summer clothes – unlike grandparents when I was young who seemed to be always dressed in dark clothes – and genuflected before kneeling in the pew. After a while the little boy asked him some questions. His grandfather pointed at the altar and also at some of the Stations of the Cross as he explained things to the youngster. They then left.

St Brigid’s Church, Blanchardstown, Archdiocese of Dublin

On one Sunday a month in St Brigid’s Church, Blanchardstown, in the Archdiocese of Dublin and the parish I go home to when I visit Ireland, has Mass for the Syro-Malabar Catholic community in Dublin. Many of these are nurses from Kerala, India, working in Irish hospitals. St Brigid’s Parish also has a Filipino choir that sings at one of the Masses on the last Sunday of the month, except during the summer.

Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God, Jesus tells us in the Gospel this Sunday. Thirty years ago churches in Ireland were still full at Sunday Masses, with young and old, and almost everyone Irish. Today there are fewer priests,  fewer Sunday Masses and fewer people attending them, most of them old. A large proportion of Sunday congregations are from places such as India, Nigeria, Poland, the Philippines. Mass servers – and there aren’t too many of these anymore – are likely to be either immigrants or the Irish-born children of immigrants.

The above are snapshots of contemporary Ireland, as different from the Ireland of my childhood as are the mobile phones that everyone has from the box cameras that a few had and the telephones  that even fewer had in my time. 

But we had something precious that has been largely lost – our Catholic faith. There are various reasons for the rejection of the Church by many and the outright rejection of the Christian faith by some. But this can remind us that our faith is pure gift from God, a gift that can be shared and that was generously shared, even to the point of giving up life itself, by the countless missionaries who went overseas, or it can be lost, not only by individuals bu by whole communities.

The gift of faith can be lost by taking it for granted, by apathy, by not taking it seriously, by not passing it on. Jesus in the Gospel is telling his fellow Jews – and we must never forget that he is and will be for all eternity a Jew, just like Mary – that many of them are in danger of losing the precious gift of the faith, the faith they inherited from Abraham, our father in faith (Eucharistic Prayer I – Roman Canon) Isaac and Jacob, and that others will accept that same gift with gratitude.

Antonio Luis Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila [Wikipedia]

In 2003, at a gathering of priests in Antipolo City, near Manila, sponsored by Worldwide Marriage Encounter, then Bishop Luis Antonio G. Tagle, now Cardinal-Archbishop of Manila, spoke about a then recent survey on the values of young Filipinos. What he projected could happen within twenty years in terms of the loss of the Catholic faith in the Philippines was what had been happening in Ireland over the previous twenty years.

I was heartened by the sight of the grandfather passing on our Catholic Christian faith to his young grandson by his example and his readiness to answer the boy’s questions. I am heartened by the living faith of so many immigrants to Ireland.

My hope is that the Catholic faith will continues to be passed on in Ireland and elsewhere by grandfathers – and grandmothers and parents – like the one I saw in St Andrew’s Church. My hope is that the Catholic faith will be renewed in Ireland and elsewhere by the example and fervour of immigrants from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, by people from east and west, from north and south and that together we will all will eat in the kingdom of God, not only in heaven but here and now as brothers and sisters working together to build a world where the values  of the Gospel prevail, a world where everyone will have heard the Gospel of Jesus proclaimed to them, especially by the lives we lead. 

My hope is that the nurses from Kerala, who trace their Catholic faith back to St Thomas the Apostle, the waiters, caregivers and nurses from the Philippines, whose faith embodies a tender love of Mary the Mother of God as our Mother, will help the Irish to re-discover the greatness of the gift that their ancestors received more than 1,500 years ago from a great missionary who first arrived in Ireland at the age of 16 as a kidnapped slave, St Patrick.

My fear is that there will not be enough grandfathers – and grandmothers and parents – who will know and value the gift of faith enough to pass it on and that the youngsters, children of immigrants to Ireland and elsewhere in the Western world, will succumb to the values of their contemporaries and reject the most precious gift that God has given us – our Catholic Christian faith, an invitation to share in the love of God for all eternity.

Though the video was made for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord it invites us to reflect on our faith, received through baptism, as pure gift from God, something we should do constantly.

Collect

O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Marriage at Cana, Marten de Vos, 1596-97

Musée du Louvre, Paris [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 12:49-53  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus said to his disciples: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son
    and son against father,
mother against daughter
    and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
    and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Blessed Paul VI [Wikipedia]

About 40 years ago when I had some programs on DXDD, a radio station in Ozamiz City, Mindanao, started by a Columban priest, Fr Charles Nolan, and now owned by the Archdiocese of Ozamiz, two friends of mine brought in a boy of about three whom they had found wandering at night. I appealed on the air for his family to come and bring him home. There was no response. My program was the last for the night and I was wondering what we’d do with the boy. The janitor and his wife, whom I’ll call Carlos and Teresa, happened to be there and said, ‘We’ll take him home. What’s one more mouth to feed?’ They had a small house and a large family.

The boy’s mother, who worked in a night club, was found a day or two later and Carlos and Teresa reunited them.

On 25 July 1968 Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, which begins with these words:   

The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.

The fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant changes have provoked new questions. The Church cannot ignore these questions, for they concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human beings.

Officiating at the wedding of friends in 2007

[M & J now have five children, God bless them]

The encyclical, which upholds the Church’s traditional teaching on family planning, immediately caused dissension within the Church, much of it quite bitter. It still provokes strong feelings and has been dismissed by many, maybe even by a majority of Catholics, especially in the West.

While no one threw Pope Paul into a well, as happened to the Prophet Jeremiah (First Reading), many did so metaphorically. Jeremiah had preached a message the authorities and the people didn’t want to hear. The message wasn’t his own but from God. He had told the people that those who stayed in Jerusalem would be slaughtered by the Babylonians, while those who fled, while losing their possessions, wouldn’t lose their lives. All of this came about because leaders and people had ignored God’s Covenant with them.

The role of the prophet can be summed up in the title of a book by Fr Bruce Vawter CM that we used in Scripture studies in he seminary: The Conscience of Israel.

Forty years after Humanae Vitae Pope Benedict spoke of the division that it had caused: The Document very soon became a sign of contradiction. Drafted to treat a difficult situation, it constitutes a significant show of courage in reasserting the continuity of the Church’s doctrine and tradition. This text, all too often misunderstood and misinterpreted, also sparked much discussion because it was published at the beginning of profound contestations that marked the lives of entire generations. Forty years after its publication this teaching not only expresses its unchanged truth but also reveals the farsightedness with which the problem is treated.

The Church has always seen marriage as the proper and only context for the most intimate relations between a man and a woman. And every human society has seen marriage in the context of the continuation of the human race, more specifically of the particular clan/tribe/nation and most specifically of the two families united through a wedding. And it’s hardly an accident that in St John’s Gospel the first sign or miracle of Jesus was the changing of the water into wine in Cana so that the marriage festivities could continue.

Pope Paul was reiterating in Humanae Vitae what the Church had always taught and what the Second Vatican Council teaches in Gaudium et Spes, Nos 47-52. No 51 includes this passage that speaks of the relationship between husband and wife in a way that calls them to the highest idealism: For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life in a manner which is worthy of man. Therefore from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes. The sexual characteristics of man and the human faculty of reproduction wonderfully exceed the dispositions of lower forms of life. Hence the acts themselves which are proper to conjugal love and which are exercised in accord with genuine human dignity must be honored with great reverence.

Advice of Pope Francis to married couples

Down the years since Vatican II individuals who have rejected the Church’s teaching have sometimes been described as ‘prophets’. Many, no doubt, honestly thought that they were right and the Church’s leaders wrong.

But we see the results of the most intimate act between a man and a woman being removed from its proper context or when a responsible openness to new life is lacking. There is now an imbalance in many countries in the developed world where the proportion of younger people is getting smaller and smaller, where the one-child family is becoming more and more common, sometimes by coercion, as in China, sometimes by the choice that couples make. Many more than before now have no brothers or sisters, no uncles or aunts.

We see in many countries the increase in abortion, despite the availability of contraceptives.

Gaudium et Spes says, Hence the acts themselves which are proper to conjugal love and which are exercised in accord with genuine human dignity must be honored with great reverence. We see the very opposite in today’s world where the acts that the Council speaks of are seen as a form of ‘recreation’, not even within the context of some kind of commitment, and where the openness to cooperating with God in the creation of new life is thwarted.

We see the utterly bizarre notion of ‘marriage’ between two persons of the same sex being passed into law in many jurisdictions as a ‘right’ and the perhaps even more bizarre reality that so many think this is right and proper.

Pope Paul was reviled and dismissed by many for Humanae Vitae. The experience of married couples who have generously planned their families in a way that respects nature has not, by and large, been taken seriously.

The DXDD janitor, Carlos, and his wife Teresa had an openness to accepting new life, even if temporarily, that reflected a generosity of heart. They had no idea how long they might have to look after their new charge.

Vatican II and Pope Paul were both addressing that generosity that we are capable of, even when great sacrifice may be demanded. Pope Paul must have been aware of the great division that his encyclical would cause. Pope Benedict speaks of its publication as a significant show of courage in reasserting the continuity of the Church’s doctrine and tradition.

Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhoration Amoris Laetitia, published earlier this year, reiterates the teaching of Humanae Vitae:

Blessed Paul VI, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, further developed the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family. In a particular way, with the Encyclical Humanae Vitae he brought out the intrinsic bond between conjugal love and the generation of life: ‘Married love requires of husband and wife the full awareness of their obligations in the matter of responsible parenthood, which today, rightly enough, is much insisted upon, but which at the same time must be rightly understood… The exercise of responsible parenthood requires that husband and wife, keeping a right order of priorities, recognize their own duties towards God, themselves, their families and human society’ (No 68). In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, Paul VI highlighted the relationship between the family and the Church”.

Nearly fifty years after Humanae Vitae perhaps we should recognise as true prophets Blessed Paul VI who taught clearly and lovingly and the many married couples who, down the years, have faithfully lived the teaching of the Church that Jesus founded on the rock of Peter.

Wedding rings of M & J

Ego sum panis vivus, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1535 – 1594)

Cappella Victoria, Jakarta, Indonesia.

 A choir that mostly specializes in 16th-century sacred polyphony, especially the works of Palestrina and Victoria. A choir in line with the spirit of diaspora; has developed to include 33 singers from 14 parishes throughout the Jakarta Archdiocese (from its blog).

Communion Antiphon (John 6:51-52)

I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord. 

Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever.

Antiphona ad Communionem (Johannes 6:51-52)

Ego sum panis vivus, qui de caelo descendi, dicit Dominus: 

si quis manducaverit ex hoc pane, vivet in aeternum.