Fullerton T

23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

In our Gospel passage for this Sunday St Matthew recounts Jesus’ instructions to the disciples about how they should deal with a brother who does something wrong. This same instruction applies to us and our dealings with other people in the here and now of today. This passage is very different from those of the two previous Sundays. They were dramatic stories, marked by deep emotions and with deep implications for the characters involved. This is a very practical common-sense teaching on that most common and most prosaic of community problems – conflict. It is a great wisdom teaching which continues to be valid for us in our own time. Management has become a science today, and Jesus teaching stands for us as a model of how to “manage” conflict in any situation.  

It is the duty of the disciple we are told  to point out the error and even if our correction might not be well received. St Matthew wants to let the Christians in his community know how to deal with those who drift away from the teaching of Christ or blatantly contravene the commandments.  Matthew chooses those words of Jesus which most stress the authority and the competence of the Christian community, the Church, to deal with these cases: Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.  However, there are some safeguards built into this teaching on reproving those who go astray. Jesus says that first of all you must have it out with him alone. This might lead to a speedy solution and the person’s good name is preserved. Yet it seems  from the gospel reading that the only sanction is that the person be excluded from the community of the Church.

That is surely the meaning of the words: treat him like a pagan or a tax collector treat him as an outsider. But in considering such matters we must be very careful; for getting all worked up about the behavior of someone else  can frequently be a sign of something else, something much closer to home.  Encountering the truth about another person and ourselves is daunting  because it makes us face up to the other person and ourselves and the weaknesses that are part of us and all we are. We may try to make others a function of our egos, but it fails. Rather than enter the struggle, in many cases we ignore it. Sadly in some things that have taken place in the Church this seems to have been what has happened as people did not enter the struggle to put things right at the time they happened. In a society where individualism prevails, people  usually “mind their own business’: But together all of us  form a community of faith and love.

That spirit of love, concern, and caring characterizes the members of Christ’s Church. Our human relationships mirror our relationship with God sometimes good  often times not so good.  And this is why the Lord tells us today that when we make the decisions that ultimately matter about how we are going to use the lives we have been given, we must trust, not in the authority of men who believe they know God but in the wisdom and the authority of the Christian community as a whole. We have to open our hearts and our minds as we listen to the voice of the Lord as He speaks to us.   We should not be afraid to encounter the truth about ourselves and others as we deal with the world around us these day’s knowing that Jesus is making the journey with us .

22Nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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 as he knew he would suffer and give up his life.

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 and here we are in 2023 giving this reading a second thought. There are so many people who are suffering from so many things and situations in our communities these days and for many there seems to be no end to the suffering that they are going through mentally or physically. As Christians we live in the assurance that our own particular way of the cross does not go unnoticed that Jesus is there with us helping us bear the cross.  Remember the story of the footprints in the sand their was only one set of footprints in the picture.

As Jesus was carrying the person in the story, anyone who has a cross to bear is the person in that story being carried along the long and hard road of suffering by Jesus. Jesus notices and understands  what we are going through and he is our companion along the way he is our strength and our shield; his power is mighty and we see it most of all in our weakness. If the cross we carry is the price to be paid for love, then carrying it is love in action and I know many people who are actually carrying the cross today paying the price for the deep love they have shown to their families and friends.  It is enough for us to know that all 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.

21st Sunday in ordinary time

These days we are preparing for the re opening of the local schools and the return of the pupils after the holidays. The children and parents out there are wondering what will happen and how things will go. We keep our teachers and our school going children and their families in our prayers as the youngsters return to School. This Sunday in our gospel reading Jesus asks the apostles “who do you say the Son of Man is?” Jesus was in Caesarea Philippi in the north eastern corner of Palestine. There no one would not look for Him. He had much to teach the twelve before He could leave them this was quality teaching time. So, He put the question to them that went to the heart of the matter, “Who do you say I am?” Peter acting as spokesman for the others told Him He was “the Son of the living God” Peter confesses the deep mystery of Jesus, who is the Christ and the Son of God.

In the light of this inspired confession, Peter is chosen to be the rock or the foundation on which the Church is built.. Peter received the gift of being the leader of the Church When Jesus told him “ you are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church” And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it and the apostolic succession has continued from that time right until; today. Peter was first among the apostles, first among those who were called to proclaim the Kingdom of God on earth. Peter took the leadership of the Church at Pentecost. After he, the apostles and Mary, received the Holy Spirit, Peter led everyone out to the Temple and began preaching the good news to the people. After Saul became Paul, after the persecutor of the primitive Church accepted Jesus Christ, Paul spent three years in the desert reflecting on his experience of the Lord on the Road to Damascus.

He then went to Jerusalem to receive Peter’s blessing and commission to bring the Good News of the Gospel to the world.  We do not know how Peter got to Rome. We know that he was there, though. We know that Peter died in Rome, crucified upside down. The excavations under the Basilica of St. Peter revealed a tomb with the words, Here Lies Peter. We also know that when Peter died, the charism he was given to lead the Church remained active in Rome. The ones who took his place, St. Linus, and those who followed him, St. Cletus, St. Clement in the Apostolic succession. Peter’s job was to use the ‘keys of the kingdom’ to unlock and release the reign of God’s grace into the world. This is true even today with the successors of Peter right down through the ages.  In this work of faith, decisions have to be made for the whole community of the church. Here, Matthew’s words about ‘binding’ and ‘loosening’ have nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins.

They are a kind of pledge that the sincere and honest decisions of the Petrine Ministry have divine backing. It does not mean that these decisions are the best or most perfect ones. Discernment and decision-making are part of the job of being faith filled disciples finding the way of the Lord; of being the living presence of God in the world where we live. All of the successor’s of Peter he rock are recognized as having received the  same charism that the Lord gave to Peter to lead the Church and this has passed down through the centuries.  Peter is a lot like us. We really want to believe, to become the presence of God for others, but we don’t always seem to be able to do it. We have great moments of faith and moments in which we are deeply in tune with the heart of God. We also have moments when we fall back into narrow and harsh ways that cannot hold the power of God’s love.But the Gospel reassures us that, in spite of our weakness and the many ways in which we may be found wanting, God is still close to us and faith is a journey, not a destination. So let us continue our Journey as we go forward together in faith to our heavenly homeland that is our final destination.

19the Sunday Ordinary Time

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 the trust all of us have 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 and maybe we didn’t call out for help from other people or from God when we were sinking or 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  ourselves. Jesus shows us that our father in heaven is not distant from our problems when he reaches out a hand to Peter and to us he is our companion who makes the journey of life with us especially  during the storms that life brings.  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 and our heavenly homeland  For us there is a lesson in this particular 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 weakness in so many things. But God foresees all these misfortunes, and he lets them take their course, because they can and should be the means of showing us life’s true meaning and they should draw us closer to god. Christ knew the storm was coming and the risk the Apostles would run when He sent them across the lake. But that trial and the grave danger was for their own good, because they learned 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. May we like Peter reach out to Jesus and ask him save us as we put our trust in you for you are the son of God.

Transfiguration of the Lord

We are now well into the month of August  and for many of us  the summer holidays are over and it is back to work. For others who have children the run up to school starting in September will shortly begin. As usual we are on a never ending circle of everything being the same but different as time never stays still. This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the transfiguration. In the Gospel story the disciples went to an out of the way place, a mountaintop. The  Apostles are responding to the invitation of Jesus to come apart and rest for a while and mountains were the best place to get away from it all. On that mountain the disciples heard A  loud voice from the heavens that told them, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

The Transfiguration was a grace-filled moment of clarity for the disciples. But it was only a moment along the journey of their lives as today the transfiguration is just a moment in the journey of our lives. The question for us today is do we listen to what Jesus is telling us here and now in 2023? We don’t have such a spectacular revelation as the disciples had on the mountain side but like them we come apart to our place of worship each Sunday and there we hear the voice of God the Father that asks  to   “Listen to him.”  We listen to Jesus In the scriptures proclaimed for us and they tell the story of  God’s forgiveness, compassion and unfaltering love for us.  The voice we hear on this mountain directs us to be not afraid as we listen to Jesus, because in our world  there are many competing voices that might lure us to ways of living other than the one Jesus calls us to follow.

Worshiping together as the community of believers gives us an opportunity to  listen to the Word of God and what it is saying to us,  and the word of God  calls us to point out a number of things. The scriptures tell us that we need the presence of God in our lives and recognize how good he has been to each of us. Despite the dramatic way this message is revealed to the disciples they are consoled by the words of Jesus, ‘Do not be afraid.’ They look up into the eyes of Jesus and they see their friend. We need to let people know that just as His Love for us has no end   it will be the same for  them as it is for us as it was at the beginning for the apostles his first followers. We do not walk alone He is with us always, until the end of time.  People do want to be with people who are happy within themselves.

We are Happy because we know that God is with us in all the stages of life. The disciples will have to delve deep into their well of memories after the death of Jesus, to recall those wonderful moments of intimacy with him, where he often said, ‘Courage, be not afraid.’ Let us take this refrain from today’s Gospel as we rejoice in the Lord who calls us to not be afraid as we remember that  Jesus the Son of God is with us  in our lives with all their ups and downs and we should listen to him as he guides us along the right paths that lead to salvation.

17th Sunday of ordinary Time

Here we are at the last weekend of July and the summer holidays are now at the half way stage. I’m sure there are many parents out there wondering when will the long holidays end it will be no time until the beginning of the new school year.The readings for this Sunday are about the wisdom of God which is very different from the wisdom of the world. Biblical wisdom is about everyday life; it concerns practical matters and guides us in living a godly life. Anyone who is  familiar with the bible will know the unique qualities of this wisdom. A person of wisdom may not be the most intellectually brilliant person in the room. When the bible speaks of a wise person, a wisdom figure like Solomon, or a prophet, it presents a person who is closely tuned into the things of  God. The wise one and God have a strong and intimate relationship and the recipient of wisdom is characterized by very practical, everyday knowledge that enables him/her to live an ethically upright life.

The first reading recalls how Solomon requested the gift of understanding instead of material goods or power. The psalm reminds us that God’s commands are more precious than gold. The second reading tells us to work for God’s purpose and that is not always what we want for ourselves or those around us. 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 thrown away, at the end of the age the wicked will be rejected. To be members of the Kingdom means to share our knowledge of it with others. To truly believe in Christ means leading other people to the same knowledge by what we say and do; for secret faith is no faith at all. We should be happy to bring out of the house that is our life all kinds of treasures to share with our neighbors. But these treasures are not physical things but attitudes that are virtues like love and justice and truth and hope and so on. The things that  we bring out from our treasure store of faith are the values of the Kingdom and the knowledge of God the father. God loves us just the way we are, but He refuses to leave us that way. He wants us to become his treasure for other people so that they can discover the faith which is the pearl of great price the treasure hidden in 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 co-existence of good with evil. 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.  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 that lives in a world in which very little is black and white. 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 or the darnel. 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 Gospel Parables allowed for various interpretations, depending upon the audience and their circumstances. To help relieve anxiety among his persecuted followers, Jesus told this parable as a story about 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 the same questions these days.  The message of the parable is something that Jesus lived throughout his ministry. He reached out to all sorts of people, mixing with priests, crooks, scribes, politicians, children, tax collectors. Religious separatism was something Jesus refused to advocate, making it his business to seek out and save the lost.  The Pharisees, those whose very name means “the separated ones”, criticised him for associating with the wrong crowd. But Jesus knew that all communities are a mixture of the good and bad, the crooked and the good. And, further, that it isn’t always easy to tell which is which. 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. Let us Choose the Lord that we may have life and live it to the full.  

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

One of the most wonderful things about Jesus has been and continues to be his special love for ordinary people. It comes out in a particular way in 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. Remember 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 that is the  care of God freely given through Jesus his Son. All through the gospels, we sense the surge of compassion rising within his heart. He is not moved by the grandeur and beauty of the great Temple buildings (Mk 13:1-2), but by the generosity of a poor widow who puts her last coin  into the Temple treasury to assist others (Mk 12:41-44). When everyone else around him is jumping for joy about Jairus’ daughter come back to life, Jesus is concerned that she be given something to eat (Mk 5:42-43).

Also in the second reading we are called to lead spiritual lives that is lives enlivened by our faith in God and what is taught by the Church inspired by the Holy Spirit. Those who have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within them belong to him and will have life. The passage urges believers to live according to the Spirit and put to death the deeds of the flesh, for those who live according to the flesh will not inherit eternal life. Today we see so many people constantly searching for new idols and these idols are so easy to find, We live in  a world which has left the path marked out by God a world where so many have little or nothing at all and the few have so much. 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. So, the big question for each and everyone 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 and healing. Or on the side of the scribes and Pharisees who are  amongst us even today  and they are fierce, fault-finding, heartless, 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. We are called to bring the message of Jesus into our own lives as well as the lives of those around us. It is a message of compassion and understanding that todays world needs to hear.  Let us remember the words of Jesus as we go out into the world   ‘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 start of July and the beginning of the summer holidays. Here in Northern Ireland where I am the schools will be closed for the next 2 months and by the end of that time the parents will be ready for the asylum. So these days spare a thought for all those parents out there who are wondering what they will do with the youngsters over the next few weeks. We were lucky as we were able to  go to the country and the cousins and many friends were there so times were great during the summertime for us but the summer holidays can be a difficult time for many families who mightn’t have the opportunity for a holiday this year so we remember them in our thoughts..

In the First Reading through the woman of Shunem we learn that in our search for God, practicing hospitality is important, for it can be the occasion of a blessing from God through the person we are dealing with at that moment. In our Gospel story we are reminded that  the priority of faith demanded radical consequences for early Christians as they took up their crosses to follow Jesus. 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, a believer could not placate his or her family if the cost threatened faith. 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 spiritual heroes. They were convinced that Christ was the Son of God their saviour who had come on earth to bring all men to heaven. 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 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. We may not be able to preach, or teach the truth of the faith in the same way as priests deacons or religious do but we can help all those who are doing so by our prayers and our actions in living our lives according to our Catholic faith. This Gospel highlights for us the importance of hospitality in the Christian life.

To welcome another in Jesus name is to extend hospitality to Jesus himself. We have many opportunities in our daily life to reach out to others, to be a welcoming presence and a sign of God’s love in the world especially where we live let us not be afraid to take these opportunities when they arise.