Fullerton T

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Well here we are at the last weekend of August and the youngsters are going back to school. Time is flying by for all of us both young and old as we move into the new school year. This year going back to school is very different with the COVID19 pandemic and all of the ongoing changes and concerns it has raised for all of us. From the Lockdown to the reopening from the abnormality of the last 5 months  to getting back to a sort of normal much has changed and a lot has remained the same. The question that I ask myself is how have I changed and how have we as a community changed these are not easy questions to answer. I get the sense that we are a more caring and sharing society as a result of this pandemic.

In our Gospel Reading this weekend we see Jesus starting to prepare his Apostles for the journey he must make to Jerusalem which ends up with Jesus on the Cross. In foretelling his sufferings and death, which took place some months later, Christ intended to prepare his disciples and other followers for  the severe crisis of faith that would hit them after the crucifixion. He also took the occasion to remind his disciples, and all the others of what their attitude to suffering and death should be. He told them, and us too, that we must be ever ready to accept sufferings in this life, and even an untimely death if that should be demanded of us, rather than deny our Christian faith. Peter is appalled at this prospect and tries to deflect Jesus from the path that lies ahead and yet it was peter who was crucified as well. After having declared Jesus to be the Christ, a title associated with victory and glory, Peter now denies that Jesus must suffer. Peter wants to banish suffering from the agenda; Jesus brings the subject to the forefront of the conversation. Jesus faced suffering which could only be conquered if it was accepted If the suffering was to pass, it had to be endured. He faced rejection which could be transformed only if he assented to it. He told them “For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it”. The way of the cross which Jesus followed in Jerusalem was one which passed through streets and markets, by houses and palaces, by windows and doors.

While it happened people went about their business not giving the procession to calvary a second thought. Suffering must run the course of the familiar as it does for us especially these days. As Christians we live in the assurance that our way of the cross does not go unnoticed. We are asked like Jesus to carry our crosses through streets and markets, by houses and palaces, by windows and open doors. Jesus notices what we are going through and he is our companion along the way he is our strength and our shield; his power is mighty in our weakness. If the cross we carry is the price to be paid for love, then carrying it is love in action. For Jesus, that was enough it is also enough for us to know that our sufferings large or small were nailed to the Cross on that first Good Friday through the love that God the Father had to send us his Son to be with us for all time.

20TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Well here we are at the middle of August, with just two weeks to go before the schools reopen after the long COVID 19 closure.  When you stop to think about it time just seems to be passing by as it doesn’t seem nearly 5 months since the lockdown began. We also spare a thought for all the teachers out there who will go back into the schools in the days ahead to prepare for the reopening of the schools.

Our Gospel reading for this Sunday is all about the  Canaanite woman whose daughter was being tormented by a devil, but when you read the story we realize it is really about  the great faith that she has and it was that faith in Jesus that cured her daughter even though she had to be persistent in dealing with the Lord. The woman in today’s Gospel story is not satisfied with just tears though.  Her daughter “is tormented by a demon.”   Parents among us know what that might feel like and how fiercely we would spring into action if a “cure” was before us for our own sick child.   She cries out and asks Jesus for help … and perseveres even when the disciples try to send her away and Jesus Himself rebuffs her!  Jesus relents because great is her faith.

In the same story we see much about ourselves and our own faith.  Over a number of years I have been involved with many people who have been praying for this or that or for or a member of their families and very often they have said to me that the prayers have not been heard let alone answered. I have always told them to hang in there to persist and not give up in the prayers because they are always heard and this has been the case with so many people throughout history. In the same way as the Canaanite woman  pestered Jesus  we should never give up though we mightn’t have our requests granted when WE want them they will be granted when we really need the things that we are praying for. A friend of mine is constantly praying for her son and thankfully her prayers are being answered but sometimes as happens in all families the road can be a bit rocky along the way but we have to keep on going. The message of today’s readings is all about FAITH life can be a bit of a pickle with good and bad things within it, but a life lived with faith will see all the various obstacles being removed. Would our faith be as persistent as the faith of the woman in this Sundays Gospel? Only you can answer that one and I hope that your faith is persistent like the Canaanite woman whose daughter Jesus Cured because faith moves mountains !!

19TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

This week we in Ireland and especially in Northern Ireland we said goodbye to John Hume who died at the beginning of the week. He was the man who took risks for peace when he began the Hume Adams dialogue in the 1980’s which in turn led to the IRA and their political wing Sein Fein leaving violence behind. This engagement eventually  led to the 1998 Good Friday agreement which gave us the imperfect peace that we have today that continues to be a work in progress. We thank god for John Hume and his life in which he was a man of peace who took risks that paid great dividends for all of us who live in Northern Ireland today as we live in a society that is more peaceful. We also pray for the people of Lebanon and Beirut in particular as they begin the recovery from the explosion at the docks.

The gospel reading this weekend is all about  Jesus  walking on water but if you look beyond the walking on water this story is really about trust in God. We have no problem identifying with Peter he is so like ourselves . He is confident one moment and then, when things get difficult and he has bitten off more than he can chew, he falls apart. By then it is too late and he needs help. Life is like that, we start at something like a new job, college, marriage, or a project to help others, but then it gets complex and beyond what we are capable of. We didn’t realize it was going to require so much time and effort! We are sinking, we are drowning. Not an uncommon experience in so many situations of life and in the way we deal with them. God doesn’t always give us an immediate cure or a fast solution when we bring ourselves in prayer for others as well as  the problems of the day to God. God, through Jesus, is not a distant God aloof from our problems. Jesus shows us that when he reaches out a hand to Peter and to us he is companion with us in the storms of life.  At times we may well be floundering, like Peter, but Jesus reaches out to help us, to rescue us. What better image of salvation could there be than Jesus reaching out to Peter to save him from drowning. What better analogy could there be of our own lives and relationship with Jesus. We live messy lives, we doubt and we lack faith but nevertheless we are still moving towards the Lord.

For us, too, there is a necessary lesson in this incident. It is that we must continue to trust in Christ and his loving Father, even when God seems to have deserted us. Most of the troubles and trials of our lives are caused by the injustice and lack of charity of our fellowmen. The remainder can be attributed to our own defects and sins or to some weakness in our mental and bodily make-up. But God foresees all these misfortunes, and can prevent them. Instead he lets them take their course, because they can and should be the means of educating us in our knowledge of life’s true meaning and they should draw us closer to him.

Christ foresaw the storm and the grave risk His Apostles would run when He sent them off across the lake. But that trial and the grave danger they ran was for their own good, because they learned to realise that Jesus was from God and they could always trust Him. Our trials and our earthly ailments are also foreseen by God and permitted by him so that they will draw us closer to Him and help us on the road to heaven.

When we find ourselves breaking into a cold sweat over the latest storm we find ourselves in we should remember when Christ comes, the storm becomes calm, the tumult becomes peace, and we pass the breaking point and we do not break this is what trust in Jesus really means it means that he will be with us through all the storms of life no matter how big they are.

18TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Well here we are at the beginning of August It will be no time until the new uniforms etc will have to be bought and the schools will reopen  hopefully at the beginning of September after the covid19 lockdown.

In our Gospel story for this Sunday we hear about the feeding of the five thousand. The gestures and words of Jesus in the Gospel bring to mind the Last Supper The Gospel writer is making clear references in this miracle story to the Eucharist. The people in this story are a crowd that realize Jesus had something to offer them in their “deserted places.” Jesus wasn’t just filling their stomachs. They were not the rich, the famous, the educated or the powerful; they were the afflicted and the marginalized people that Jesus went out of his way to seek out.  Life may have passed them by, but Jesus didn’t.  He took note of them, and they in turn saw in him a place to be nourished, a place where deep hungers and longings would be fulfilled. The physical bread of the miracle story was of temporary value. It could not satisfy deeper spiritual hungers, but it was a sign that Jesus can and that his heart is moved with pity for us.

In this version of the story, there is no boy to provide the loaves and fishes for this miracle. The people are weary looking for hope, for consolation after the death of John, looking for a leader to inspire them, and they  discovered Jesus.  The disciples have the food. Was it their own food for the trip? Is Jesus asking them to share out of their supplies? Is he asking them to risk it all, to take a chance at extravagant generosity? And they do—maybe this too is the miracle; the change in the disciples who now have learned that whatever they have, it will be more than enough in collaboration with Christ. They are learning to cast their lots with him, to risk what they have in his service. As we heard last week, the person who discovers the treasure in the field goes out and sells everything to buy the field and have the treasure.

The sign for us today  is that we too are the beloved of God and we will not be left hungry or alone for God is with us in the good, bad, happy and sad things that are part and parcel  of our daily life.

17TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

In this unusual time in our lives, it is difficult to hold on to, the familiar line from the Letter to the Romans that states “We know that all things work for good for those who love God.” We Christians believe this, way down deep. Who among us though would honestly ask God for the “understanding heart” as did Solomon as our one request, during this pandemic? But as we get back to the normality of our lives and daily living we need to have understanding heart’s and minds as so many things will change and are changing in our lives and the lives of our families friends and those around us. We have to understand that in the words from the liturgy  life as we know it has changed but it has not ended.

In this Sundays Gospel we hear the story of the treasure hidden in the field. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field or a pearl of great price. When its great value is recognized, one gladly does all that is necessary to obtain it. Jesus teaches us that the most important and the most urgent thing in life is to find out just what God wants of us, and to do it. This is what he means when he urges us to be as single-minded, as focused, and as dedicated, as someone who digs up a treasure in a field, re-buries it, and hurries off to buy that field, so that he can have that treasure all to himself. Jesus makes the same point about priorities when he urges us to be as single-minded, as focused, and as dedicated, as a collector of jewelry, who comes across the finest pearl in the world, and sells all personal possessions in order to acquire it.

To possess the Kingdom means that we should share our knowledge of the kingdom with others. To truly believe in Christ means leading other people to the same belief; for secret faith is no faith at all. We need to be like the householder, mentioned at the end of our Gospel reading for this Sunday, who brings out of his house things both new and old. We should be happy to bring out of the house that is our faith all kinds of treasures to share with our family friends and  neighbors.   But these treasures are not physical things like clocks and pearls but attitudes spiritual and otherwise that are virtues like love and justice and truth and hope and so on. What we bring out from our treasure store are the values of the Kingdom, the attitudes of Jesus and the knowledge of the one true God. God loves us just the way we are, but He refuses to leave us that way. He wants us to become just like Him. He wants us to pass on our treasure to other people so that they can discover the faith which is the pearl of great price the treasure hidden in the fields of our hearts.

16th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

This weekend we continue opening our local churches  for worship as we emerge from the COVID19 pandemic and continue to move forward into the new normal with all the changes it will bring .

This Sunday we hear the reading from Chapter 23 of St. Matthews gospel, the story is the parable of the seed and the weeds and the darnel in the field. In the parable of the wheat and weeds, Jesus recognized good’s co-existence with evil. He also held out the hope that the Kingdom would right all wrongs. I think that there is the potential in each of us to be either wheat or darnel that is good and bad. We often say ‘wouldn’t life be easier if everything were black and white’ as if there are ‘totally good people’ and ‘totally evil people’. Of course life is never that simple. If we are really honest nothing is ever that straightforward to be black and white. We need to ask ourselves Who are we called to be in a world where weeds and seeds grow side by side and we often find it hard to distinguish the difference between them.

As people of faith we have to constantly ask ourselves : Should we hide from the messiness and make religion a privatized personal relationship with God? Should we insulate ourselves – sharing with those we think are worthy of our love, deciding who is worthy? Where is God in all this concern, worry and judgment? If we pray about these three questions and our problems and those of others we will see god is there in the middle of everything and his hand will guide us and as a result we will be the seeds that flourish and not the weeds that die. Jesus used parables to challenge his audience to think and he uses the parables in our world of today to challenge all of us to make us think as well. In truth and charity we must speak to others and teach them about the great responsibility they have to choose either Life or Death to be weeds or seeds .All of us have the power to freely choose Him or to reject Him. May we see the seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven grow and flourish in our midst .

God will guide all of  us along the roads that lead to Salvation and he will help us to be the seeds that flourish in the rich soil of faith and be the examples to the people around us .

15th Sunday of ordinary Time

This weekend we arrive at the fifteenth Sunday of ordinary time. Lent and Easter are but a distant memory and we are now gearing up for the opening of our Churches for Sunday services and hopefully some holidays after the COVID19 lockdown.

This Sunday we hear the Gospel story of the sower who went out to sow the seed. For me the story  is really about the seed of faith with Jesus the sower and you and me as the soil on which the seed that is the word of God lands. The context of today’s parable provides some insight into its interpretation and application The parable is located between stories of confrontation and rejection. As the early church faced opposition and a seeming lack of success, the parable must have given encouragement to the first preachers and members of the early church a promise of fruit not yet visible to them. Jesus is speaking to a large crowd.

They may be listening to what he says, but some will follow him  and others will leave and go their own way. He is realistic as he seems to randomly cast his words out upon the crowd. What he says to them will not seem to bear fruit – not straight away. Often that wee seed of faith may take root many years after it has been planted and today we see many people returning to the faith or coming to the faith for the first time after someone or some event in their lives planted that first seed with others helping nourishing the seed and helping it to grow. What is striking about the parable is the amount of waste I’m sure those who are reading this who are recyclers will be horrified. The bulk of the details are about wasted effort and lost seed. Why wasn’t the sower more careful, after all farmers were poor and the seed was precious? Sometimes, we wonder if all our efforts and words are worth it when things are falling down around us. But if we stop for a moment and think about it anything done for God in faith is never lost.  

Very often things that are happening  our lives don’t seem to be the way we might want  them to be but when we look at the problems with eyes of faith we see that things around us are the way they are meant to be for the good of all. We also  get the strength to  deal with the problems that go on through. Nobody really knows what’s beneath the surface of the soil we cast the seed of the word of god upon. Who knows the potential of the good soil? Do good and poor soil both exist in the same person I think that it most probably does much in the same way that a person can do good or be bad. Is there something we might say that will land on the interior good soil in a person and bear the “hundredfold, or sixty or thirtyfold” Jesus promises? who knows only God knows. While the gospel parable begins with and spends time on hardships and failure it ends in surprise and abundance. What was the source of this abundance? We look to what Isaiah told us today in the reading about the fertile, life-giving nature of God’s Word.

Our God is a God of surprises and our faith is also filled with so many surprises as well. Despite any discouragement we might feel because our efforts in many things seem futile and draining, we put our trust in the one who speaks to us a living word who sows the seed. The message of Jesus may not always be welcome especially in our modern world were faith and religion are constantly under assault by those who oppose the Christian faith based outlook on life. That said we still have to sow the seed of faith by what we do and say and then we leave the rest up to God our efforts are never futile and we don’t always see the fruit of the seed that’s sown. Let us remember that tall oaks from little acorns grow and Our God is a God of surprises and our faith is also has many surprises as well especially during these days.

14TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Well here we are trying to get  into the holiday mood as the corona virus lockdown is easing. While many people will be taking the time to get away as things ease we spare a thought for all those who may not get away for a break this year .

One of the most wonderful things about the person of Jesus has been and continues to be, his special love for ordinary people ­ like us with all our faults and failings. This love is seen in a particular way within the two statements that he makes in this Sundays Gospel reading. The first is in his prayer to God: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’ The second is in his Invitation to all of us: ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.’  Why did he say this? The answer comes across very clearly so many times in the gospels, and may be summed up in just one word – COMPASSION. For example: – The plight and tears of the widow of Nain touches his heart to the core: ‘Don’t cry,’ he says to her, before bringing her son back to life.

 He is moved with compassion at the plight of a leper begging for help (Mk 4:41), for two blind men sitting at the side of a road and pleading for mercy (Mt 20:29-34), and for a crowd of people with nothing to eat (Mk 8:2). In each case he responds to their sufferings with the power, love, compassion and care of God. To be a Christian and to have the light of faith to guide our steps in the neo-pagan darkness of today’s world, is a gift, and a blessing from God, for which we can never thank Him enough.  So, in the here and now of our daily lives  the big question for each of us has to be whose side are we on? Are we  on the side of Jesus, that is the side of compassion, kindness, help, healing, and mercy? Or on the side of the scribes and Pharisees who are  amongst us even today  and they are – fierce, fault-finding, heartless, and critical, people without much compassion. Will we take our cue from their cruel, harsh, and insensitive judgments and actions? Or will we take our inspiration from what we see in Jesus, and from his touching  compassionate outreach to the poor and the broken when he said ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. This, then, is a clear invitation for us to slow down.

Let us resist the temptation to join the mad rush in this world’s rat race especially these days when we are coming out from the darkness of the COVID19 lockdown and getting back to a new sort of normal. There is more to life than speed.  As the saying goes, “The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”. This time of return to normal is also an invitation for us to move to a life of simplicity. Happiness does not consist in having more, but in being contented with what we have. Jesus invites us, “Come to me!” And He waits for us so let us take up our rest .Over these past four months of lockdown I have found many people taking up the opportunity to take the rest that Jesus talks about and many have found their true selves within the quietness despite the pandemic madness that is around. Let us remember the words of Jesus as we go back out into the world with all its problems and opportunities ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.’  

13TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Here we are at the end of June after 13 weeks of COVID 19 lockdown. if times were normal the schools would be closing for the summer holidays as it is the schools have been closed for the past few months with everyone wondering what things will be like when the schools reopen. This weekend we remember the family of Noah Donohue as we hear the sad news that a body has been recovered we pray that God may give his family  and friends strength at this sad time.

In our Gospel story for this Sunday we are reminded that  The priority of faith demanded radical consequences for early Christians. At that time extended closely-knit families formed the basis of society, a choice for a follower of Christ could mean a rejection of the family’s faith and values. Jesus reminded his followers that the Christian life involved many risks and one could not compromise or hide these risks away a believer could not placate his or her family if the cost threatened faith. The people of the day thought that No, faith could involve such an extreme choice.

Either the relationship with family took priority or the relationship with Jesus took the number one slot it seemed that both could not go together.  Even though they had only a very vague idea then of what he meant, when the time came, they remembered Jesus  words and gladly suffered imprisonment, hardships, and finally martyrdom for Christ.  This shows how the resurrection of Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on them, changed them from worldly weaklings into fearless heroes. They had become convinced that Christ was the Son of God their saviour who had come on earth to bring all men to heaven. Through time they came to realize how unimportant, the few years of the earthly life that we have were compared to the eternal life of bliss to follow.  Today, too, there are still those who are suffering a lingering martyrdom, worse than quick death on the scaffold, because they obey God rather than man. We can help them to persevere, by our prayers. We ourselves, who are free from any overt persecution, must show our gratitude to God for being allowed to practice our religion openly and without fear. As well as carrying out our own personal duties, we must remember the spiritual needs of our fellowmen. They, too, need to get to heaven and anything less will be eternal disaster for them.

We may not be able to preach, or teach them the truth of the Christian faith in the way our priests deacons and religious do but we can show them the way when we are seen to  live according to our Catholic faith.Over the next few weeks and months we will come out of the lockdown as we try to move into a more normal way of life. Many things will be changed and our ways of going around and doing things will be different but for all of this we  thank God that all of us  have come through it safely. As we thank God for bringing us safely to where we are we also remember all those who have died during the pandemic that their families will be consoled by their faith and the love of those around them. May we have the courage to be people of faith  as we go into the new future which the Covid19 pandemic has brought us.