Fullerton T

19TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

At the beginning of this week we had the centenary of the start of the First World War which was called the war to end all wars. As we know all too well the great war of 1914 did not  stop the world going to war many times after it ended in 1918. We only have to look at the modern world that we live in  to see so many places at war and Syria, Israel and Gaza, and the Ukraine all come to mind this weekend. We pray for those who have died or are being persecuted and we pray for peace.

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 and faith 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  as well as  the problems of the day to God.  God, through Jesus, is not a distant Father 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. In the days ahead when we flounder and start to sink Jesus will be  there for us, reaching out with his saving hand ready to raise us up.

18TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Well here we are at the beginning of August its seems no time since the schools closed for the long summer break at the end of June and yet here we are halfway through the holidays!! It will be no time until the new uniforms etc will have to be bought and the schools will reopen at the beginning of September and the summer holidays for 2014 will be a distant but hopefully a  good memory.

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. Notice how he handled the food with reverence, the same reverence he felt for the crowd whom he knew were the beloved of God. 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 and bad and happy and sad things that are part and parcel  of our daily life.

17TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Well here we are at the last weekend of July and the summer holidays are now at the half way stage for our local children. I’m sure there are many parents out there wondering when will the long holidays end but that said it will be no time until the beginning of the new school term in September. Despite all of our own worries and preoccupations we see the ongoing war with the Israelis and the Palestinians and the war between Russia and Ukraine. Not forgetting the ongoing Syrian conflict. Whilst many people will debate the rights and the wrongs of what is going on we have to remember that we have to constantly pray for peace. last Sunday 20th July, Pope Francis called on all the faithful to pray for Christians fleeing the Iraqi city of Mosul, and to “persevere in prayer for those situations of tension and conflict that continue in different parts of the world, especially in the Middle East and in the Ukraine” The only way that anything positive will happen in all of this will be when the opposing sides of the conflicts sit down face to face and talk. Our experience of the past 20 years in Northern Ireland certainly bears this out. We have an imperfect peace process but after a long time we have seen opposing sides talking with a view of trying to sort the problems out and it continues to be a work in progress.

This week we also stop to pray for all those who perished in the downing of the plane over Ukraine. We pray  in a special way for the families of those who died from so many different countries that they may find peace of heart and mind and that their loved ones will rest in peace.

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. The kingdom of heaven is also like a net that collects all sorts of fish. Just as the useless fish are eventually thrown away, at the end of the age the wicked will be rejected. To possess the Kingdom means to share our knowledge of it with others. To truly believe in Christ means leading other people to the same knowledge; 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 life all kinds of treasures to share with our neighbours.

But these treasures are not physical things like clocks and pearls but attitudes spiritual and otherwise that is 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 become treasure for 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 hear the reading  from the first section from Chapter 23 of St. Matthews gospel, the story is the parable of the darnel in the field the seed and the weeds.  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.

Looking back over the  notable events of the Twentieth Century we are reminded  that evil takes root even in the greatest good. National powers have fought two World Wars and several regional conflicts to protect the innocent. Yet, the death and destruction those struggles have produced staggers the imagination. Fighting evil seems, in a perverse way, to promote evil. It is difficult to listen to the daily stories about Syria, Israel and Gaza these days where so many innocent people are losing their lives. We are tempted to become very angry with one side or the other, or to turn away in despair. Seeing others argue and struggle can tire our hearts  and minds so that we might become cynical or unkind to those around us but if we are true to ourfaith we shouldn’t hurt the people around us even though we might be tired and want to be cynical.

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.  We are called to be the body of Christ the Church which is a church of Saints and sinners a Church of Seeds and Weeds a church in which very little is black and white but that is the life we live as faith filled people of God. As people of faith  we have to constantly ask ourselves  3 questions :  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.

Jesus used parables to challenge his audience to think and he uses the parables in our world of today to  challenge you and me and make us think as well. The images and symbols in the stories allowed for various interpretations, depending upon the audience and their circumstances. Interpreting symbolic stories in this way is called allegory. To help relieve anxiety among his persecuted followers, Jesus told this parable as an allegory of good and evil. Obviously, Jesus recognized good and evil lived together in his time as we recognize the same today. But, when Jesus made that co-existence part of God’s Kingdom, he must have shocked his own followers. How could God allow such evil in the world? Shouldn’t God act to save his people? Why did he delay? These are questions that were asked in the time of Jesus and we still ask ourselves even in these days of rational so called clear minded thinking.

In authentic 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 to be good or bad.God ‘s perfect love for us shows itself in the gift of our free will. We have the power to freely choose Him or to reject Him. Choose the Lord and His law that you may have life and live it to the full. Earlier I mentioned briefly the two world wars, in the next few weeks we remember the beginning of the First World War 100 years ago, it was known as the war to end all wars even though it was one of many and these days we think of the ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world. May we redouble of efforts to promote and pray for peace in our world, our hearts and in our minds.

May we see the seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven grow and flourish in our midst. Let us notice too that which is not fruitful or good.  But with and in all Let us bring everything and everyone to God, in prayer and reflective action – trusting that God who is good will care for us and for all he  has created.  Our calling then  is to participate as best we can in building up a world where God is King! God will decide on its membership, not us and he will guide us along the roads that lead to Salvation and he will help us to be the seeds that flourish.

15th Sunday of ordinary Time

THE SOWER IN THE FIELD

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 July holidays. 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 as it is today some will follow him  and others will leave it all behind and go their own way.

He is realistic as he seems to randomly cast his words out upon the crowd. What he says 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  in 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 and in faith. 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 on God’s behalf 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. 

Corpus Christi

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ also known as Corpus Christi.In many places throughout the world the Feast of Corpus Christi would have been celebrated last Thursday but we in Ireland and many other places in the world  celebrate this feast on the weekend after Trinity Sunday.  When we see the Eucharistic Bread, we believe that it is Jesus who is there before us:  such is our faith in the Eucharist.  We are thus in the presence of the Resurrected One, He who has conquered death and who is now in Heaven, in the Glory of the Father!  The Church teaches that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324) This means that, because Christ is really, truly and substantially present in the Eucharist, we recognize that all the graces we enjoy as Catholic Christians come from this great Sacrament, and all we aspire to, the fullness of the life of God, is contained in this Sacrament.

Gathered at the Eucharist we bring ourselves and our prayers to God. We each have our own needs. People we know may be sick. we know people who need work but cant find it. The person who has been in our lives for so long has died.We bring these prayers for our needs and the needs of others to church because they raise our hopes in the power and love of God. We have those hopes because God is with us and continues to be with us in good and bad times through the sacramental life of the Church and through the Eucharist in particular.

Our relationship with God has produced fruitfulness, satisfied our longings, and brings us peace of mind and spirit. Because of God’s faithfulness, we give thanks, offer sacrifice, and once again present our needs. Sadly, in our modern world we are witnessing the institutionalization of moral decay. The legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage have dire consequences for the family, the core component of any society. In order to survive with faith intact and to live the truths of faith, Christian men and women today must fight against the idolatries of career, money, materialism, in short, “having it all.” Of all the things we “have” do we place first that which alone will last? So many people have chased after fame, only to have it elude their grasp. Others have given all in search of wealth only to find they had purchased many things but were dissatisfied without the “pearl of great price”. Some have burned themselves out pursuing pleasure divorced from authentic love and then fallen into the dark despair that emptiness and loneliness bring.And some have triumphed over the world by giving body and soul for the one thing necessary: the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we celebrate the greatest gift our Lord has left us: His Body and Blood in the Eucharist or in Latin, “Corpus Christi” By following in our Lord’s footsteps, Christians over the centuries have sacrificed greatly, in a labor of love, for their faith, their Christian way of life and their families. Then as now, it begins with each individual humbly asking God to show the way and to provide the strength needed to follow in His footsteps. This strength comes from the Eucharist the Bread of Life which is the body of Christ.

5th SUNDAY OF LENT

LAZARUS COMES OUT OF THE TOMB

Well here we are at the 5^th Sunday of lent as we look towards Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Just a couple of weeks left. And, as the drama intensifies in the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees, so too, our personal struggle to overcome the weak spots in our spiritual armor should also “heat up.” There’s so little time remaining before our well-deserved Easter joy! As usual time has just flown in it seems to me that it has been no time since we celebrated the feast of Christmas  and  that was three months ago!!  Time waits for no one is certainly a saying that is so true. I hope that Lent hasn’t served to mire us in guilt and shortcomings. Instead the Sundays of Lent give us the opportunity to look at where we have been, where we are and where we need to go  as we listen to the Word of God. If we were listening we would have heard what we hear again today through the prophet Ezekiel. God intends to “open your graves and have you rise from them.” And again, as John puts it: Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.” And we see this especially in the Gospel which is a pointer to the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. It seems a bit strange to have this gospel on the Fifth Sunday of Lent . It seems to be clearly about the resurrection and yet we are still plodding through Lent and have to get through Good Friday before we get to Easter and the joy that is there waiting for us.

Beneath the layers of theology in today’s Gospel reading, John tells us that Jesus had some very good friends.  Some people followed Jesus for what he could do for them. But Martha, Mary and Lazarus seem the type of people that “sit around the table with a glass of good wine and share the day and daily ins and outs of life” kind of friends. The kind of friends whose faces “light up” with arms open wide when you meet them. The kind of friends who will witness your execution and stay with you when others run away. They are the friends you are one in spirit and mind with.

This sort of friendship brings life and joy, to individuals and to communities. It seems to be another good image of Church – Jesus surrounded by people who love him and each other, working together to bring life to others. Martha and Mary both say the same thing when they meet Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” When Jesus tells Martha, “Your brother will rise,” she professes faith that he will rise, “in the resurrection on the last day,” Then she professes her faith in Christ as “the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” But neither Martha nor Mary express faith that Jesus will resuscitate their dead brother. In fact, when Jesus orders the stone removed Martha says, “Lord, by now there will be a stench, he has been dead for four days.”

Jesus doesn’t work some miracle to remove the stone from Lazarus’ tomb? He asks others to do it for him. When that barrier is removed, Jesus calls Lazarus forth to life. The gripping drama of the rising of Lazarus points towards Jesus as the Lord of Life and prepares us for the celebration of our  coming out of the tomb and sharing in His Life at Easter. 

But this Gospel is about more than this friendship. It is also a call and a command for all of us  to stop and consider if we are in a tomb, and if so, it asks us to hear the voice of the Lord calling us to shore up our courage and to come out of the tomb. The Gospel calls us to walk to the Lord and then to walk with the Lord as he shows us the way.As we go forward on our journey to Calvary, we should not fear the power of evil that so clearly fuels the plotting of the Pharisees. All evil in this world will have a short life. We need fear only our own weakness and vulnerability, our own false selves. From the deadness of our sinfulness and fears, we need to open our ears and our hearts to hear Jesus calling us to come into a new life.

How loving and compassionate is our God in the person of Jesus! He wept over Lazarus, wept over Jerusalem, he weeps over those killed through terrorism and war, through famine and disease, through murders and rapes- and-weeps when we fail to forgive one another.In these days of continued wars, terrorism, and ethnic hatreds, may we reflect on the truth that Jesus had to give his own life that we might have life and have it to the full.

Lent may be winding down, but there is still time for us to receive the sacrament of penance. There is still time left for our Lenten Spiritual Spring cleaning. There is still time for us to be at peace with ourselves and with our Lord. May we appreciate more each day that we are privileged to share with Jesus as Christians in his continual work of bringing the world from darkness to light, from hatred to forgiveness, and from death to life.We ask God today for the courage to walk away from that which is killing us and to walk towards the Light. We ask the Lord for the courage to walk towards the voice that is saying, Lazarus, Come out which in turn is asking us to come away from all that entombs us to  the everlasting love and mercy of God. 

7 th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Recently  we had the centenary celebrations of our parish school Holy Family. There have been two masses as part of  the celebrations on Friday the 7^th and last Friday 14^th. The Mass for the whole school community was on the 7^th and during this I came across the a P3 class register from 1974 yes forty years ago with my name in it. It was an eye-opener as I think about all the various things and people that have passed through my life over the past 40 years with some of them now deceased. Also last Sunday we had the celebration of the anointing of the sick which is a highlight in our Parish year, a highlight if you can call it that because you know so many of the people present and that many of them won’t be here next year. It is a sobering thought when you think about it so many of those present both young and not so young might not be there next year and the youngest there was a few months old !!!

In this weekends readings we are told not only to be holy, but perfect as well!  We are also told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is really hard stuff especially as I live in  BELFAST NORTHERN IRELAND, that said anything that is worth doing is usually the hard thing to do the out of the ordinary thing. Do you think that Jesus is going a bit too far in today’s selection from the Sermon on the Mount?

Last week he said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” That sounded pretty extreme, but we know about the Mediterranean peoples custom of exaggeration to make a point. That Is what he is also doing today when he advises turning the other cheek; volunteering to go the extra mile when pressed to one; or lending to anyone who asks? If that weren’t enough, what about loving enemies and praying for persecutors? Then, to make it still more difficult, our selection closes with, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Will people in the pews and that means you and me just shrug our shoulders and figure Jesus is wildly impractical, or that what he says must have been applicable “back then” – but not in the 21^st century? Well in our situations of life and living I think that these stories can be applied today in our daily lives. Many people carry scars through life, refusing to let them heal until they have settled accounts with other people. Feuds, vendettas and–grudges are nurtured in parishes, in streets and even in families. Perhaps the most difficult words we pray today and every day are those words found in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” That archaic word, trespass, means to cross the line. When we say the Our Father we are saying that we will forgive those who cross the line of common decency so that we also might be forgiven for any ways that we have crossed the line.

 If we refuse to forgive, if we demand the law of talons, an eye for an eye, if we desire vengeance more than Christ’s presence, then we are refusing to accept Jesus Christ himself.  Christianity is continually reforming and renewing itself. Christian society must continually scrutinize its actions to see if it is living up to the standards set by the Lord. Consider slavery. It took almost nineteen hundred years for Christians to recognize that slavery was incompatible with Christianity. It will take many more years for Christians to eliminate the various ways the law of talons has been embedded into our culture. But the standard is there. The standard for what is Christian and what is not Christian is the Law of the New Kingdom, the Sermon on the Mount, the Word of God. Let us not be afraid to do what Jesus asks of us in this Gospel reading and that is to  love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you and to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Or at least let us try to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.