Fullerton T

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We are now at the mid point of August and soon the schools around will be reopening for the new school year. Time is flying by. Our Gospel reading for this Sunday is all about the faith of 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 this Sundays  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 her faith is great. 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.  

The woman  of this Sundays  gospel is a clear sign to all of us  that God’s salvation was meant for all people and all nations – not just for the Jews.  Jesus encounter with the Canaanite woman shows a change in his human understanding of God’s plan for humanity. How does this change take place? By the woman’s persistence and unwillingness to accept a narrow and restrictive view of God. She realized birth and religious origins cannot hold back the outpouring of God’s love on all people where and who ever they are. If we make God too small and puny in love we have not heard the gospel. She proves to be one of the most remarkable people in the Gospels. She digs in, takes Jesus on, and proves herself to be the wordsmith He is and even better. She hits Him right between the eyes with her famous reply, “Lord, even dogs get the crumbs that fall from their owner’s table.” But she doesn’t want crumbs. She wants the whole loaf – her child’s cure. His irritability and even bad manners indicate Jesus was strung out. His nerves must have been as tight as an overstretched rubber band. The heat was 100 plus degrees. This Canaanite was the first Gentile of record whom He had dealt so aggressively with.

 Still, confronted by this courageous woman and, unlike us. He cools down. It is an admission of bad manners on His part. He honors the woman by learning from her. Besides, Christ was charmed out of His sandals by her reply.  He may well have broken out into laughter at Himself and given her a high five. Score Canaanite woman 5 and Christ 0. Wit is still prized in the Middle East by both Jews and Arabs  the ability to match riddle with riddle, to cap one wise saying with another, to match insult with insult, and to turn raw insult into a compliment. Christ cured her child. He also salutes her Great faith She was also great for a second reason. She was the only one in any Gospel who had beaten Him in public debate. Would our faith be as persistent as the faith of the Canaanite woman in this Sundays Gospel? Only you can answer that one for yourself and I hope that your faith is persistent like the Canaanite woman whose daughter Jesus Cured because faith moves mountains but as the saying goes we need to keep on climbing!!

CHRISTMAS DAY 2022

At Christmas the Christian Churches throughout the world celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ  The Scripture readings of Christmas tell us “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” And the Angel tells us ‘Behold, I bring you news of great joy for all the people. To-day a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’ Every Christmas this marvellous message is announced to us too. Throughout the Advent season we have waited for the coming of our Savior. Now we celebrate His birth with unrestrained joy. But as joyful as we might like to be we remember that for a large number of people Christmas is not a happy time. We also  remember that in many places  things are not as good as they could be. During the Christmas season there is an extensive exchange of greetings and good wishes among friends. These greetings are a reminder of those “good tidings of great joy that shall be for all the people, for this day is born to you a Savior Who is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11).

They are a reminder, too, that all blessings and graces come to us from God. During the Christmas season there is also an exchange of gifts. But with the exchange of gifts comes the responsibility to remember those who have little or nothing at all in terms of a roof over their heads and food in the cupboard especially this year with the current financial hardship that many people are having to deal with. At Christmas we celebrate the consoling truth that God came among us in Jesus. At Christmas we celebrate the great truth that God is not wrapped in silence, but wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. In the infant Jesus we see the one who will show us how close God is, who will teach us how to call God “Abba”, and the one who will die on the cross to prove the measure of God’s love for us. Christmas is a great celebration of our faith in Jesus the Son of God our saviour. We gather to celebrate light in the midst of darkness; we celebrate the new hope that Jesus has generated in people down the centuries. He is our light; he is our hope.

When we want to know God, it is to Jesus that we turn; when we want to worship God, it is through Jesus that we sing  our praises.  We give glory to God in the highest for revealing himself to us. All of us  and many millions of people since the birth of Christ, have a new way not just of understanding life but of living it. It is a truth of history that for more that twenty centuries untold numbers of people have, have been caught up in the message, of Jesus the child from Bethlehem and have had their lives profoundly changed by him.  We are numbered among them here and now whoever we are wherever we are. At Christmas all of us  are invited to take the Christ child and welcome him into our hearts. In Jesus we have the sure and certain proof that God loves us, and we all need to live in the assurance of that love. Let us rejoice over this Christmas season in the one who reveals the face of God to us, Jesus  who is Emmanuel  the Son of God who is God with  us.

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend we pray for the happy repose of the soul of Queen Elisabeth the second who died on Thursday may she rest in peace. It is hard to believe that she was head of state for the UK and the commonwealth countries for 70 years and now we have King Charles the third and we wish him well in the task ahead. In our reading from the Gospel of Luke on this Sunday we hear the story of the Prodigal Son. This story is about the mercy of God  as well as us seeking the mercy of the father. Many people today become so entrenched in their opinion on many subjects that they see no other point of view apart from their own and find it impossible to come back or start to take the steps to return. At times the steps necessary for our walk back to the Father may seem too many and too arduous for us and we hesitate even to make the first move.

Perhaps it is only when we see, like the Prodigal Son, that we are then willing to rouse ourselves to say sorry  and to take the path of conversion that leads to the merciful embrace of our heavenly Father. When we make even the slightest effort in sorrow, with God’s grace, it is then we see the Father waiting with love to embrace us and welcome us home.  Rejection of the love and presence of his father, in the communion of life and love as a family, was a terrible choice for the prodigal son. He desired things over people, his share of the inheritance in preference to a life in communion with the father who gave him life and loved him. He wanted the father to be as if dead to him. Having said that let us remember that God celebrates every time  that we return to him.  Jesus said, “I tell you that there will be more celebration in heaven over one sinner who repents then over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.” 

 The tax collectors and sinners did not come to hear the  Pharisees and scribes, because they knew that they would find only judgment. They came to hear Jesus, because he was happy that they wanted to change their lives.  God did not give up on them and he does not give up on us in the ever present difficulties of our daily existence. He will not give up on us, calling us to him personally Seeking us out. Nor does He give up on anyone, even those who have been far from the faith.  He calls us all to join Him in the joy of His Presence, the Joy of the Banquet of  the Lord. The return of those who have had been away is a time for celebration. The cause of their leaving no longer matters.  They have returned. The family is back together.  We need to celebrate. We remember that no matter who we are or what we have done  all of us need the loving mercy of God in the same way as the prodigal Son needed the mercy of his Father who welcomed him back with open arms.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the gospel for this Sunday Jesus says, “I have come to set the world on fire and how I wish it were already blazing.” Jesus is ready and willing to face the hardships that lie ahead his words must have unsettled the people around him. It doesn’t sound like Jesus meant that the practice of our faith should make us comfortable, guarantee harmony or tranquility. Indeed, as he predicted, belief in him would cause the most severe conflict, even in the close-knit-family world of his Mediterranean followers and this interreligious conflict continues today in many places throughout the world especially in the Holy Land.

Jesus is zealous about his mission; He has a task to complete and will follow it through, despite the threats to his personal safety. Jesus refers to his fate as “a baptism with which I must be baptized.” He sees his passion as a baptism which he will accept and which will set a fire upon the earth. Remember when John the Baptist spoke of Jesus he linked baptism and fire, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. When our lives get difficult, for any reason we are tempted to think that the Holy One is asleep behind a closed door. We feel very much on the outside. At these times it’s important to remember that Jesus the Son of God is with us throughout the turmoil we may have as a result of the hurts and hardship that life throws out to all of us on many occasions. Making decisions on the journey of life is a natural process for us; we make many of them each day. Our senses take in all kinds of information some of which we accept, some we discard and much, we are not aware of.

Our minds move us to a yes or no that is what the will does. So our imaginations can present data to our minds for a choice as well.  So a faith based decision to walk the ways of Jesus needs some information which Jesus gives his disciples, t and the same information  is given to us through the scriptures the word of God that we hear every Sunday when we come to Church. The faith that Jesus calls us  to is the  faith that leads us to live lives which reflect the life of a believer in Jesus and what he teaches. It is much easier to follow from a safe distance and not let our lives be challenged and changed by faith in the Son of God. It is very easy to let the bitterness of others take us over but at the end of it all Jesus went to the Cross to overcome all the hatred and bitterness that we see around  us. Remember that the words of Jesus are there to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Faith was not easy at the beginning of the Church and isn’t easy now the martyrs throughout history right up to our present time bear witness to this.

 If we stop and look around us even now there are people who are prepared to give everything they have including their lives for the faith. Following  Jesus is not easy and we have to work at it for anything that is worth doing or being part off will never be easy.  Today we are called to follow were God leads us in faith and he will do the rest for nothing is impossible to the Father who journeys along with us in the good and bad times of our lives.  

HOLY THURSDAY

 On this day we celebrate the Sacraments of Priesthood and Eucharist. In every  diocese the priests who have given their lives in generous service of the people of God gather with the Bishop for the Chrism Mass and they renew their commitment to priestly service. Also at this Mass the oils of Chrism, Catechumens and the Oil of the Sick are blessed by the bishop, these holy oils will be used in the Baptisms, Confirmations and anointing of the sick in the local parishes. The theme running throughout this day is one of service, service to God and one another. On Holy Thursday Evening we commemorate the first Eucharist when Jesus gave us the gift of himself to be with us for all time.  The Evening Mass commerates the Last Supper and its theme is one of service and sacrifice.  We see Jesus as one who serves. Just as he  freely gives himself in washing the feet of his disciples, so too he gives himself  in the bread and wine he takes, blesses and hands to the apostles gathered in the upper room as he does through the priests down through the generations to us, in the same way he will give himself on the cross on Good Frida.  All these acts of self-giving are the same act – that of the Son of Man who came ‘not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

The action of the Church that is our action  as the body of Christ on this night also witnesses to the Church’s respect for Christ’s Body present in the consecrated Host in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, carried in solemn procession to the  Altar of Repose. No Mass will be celebrated again in the Church throughout the world until the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening when we proclaim the Resurrection. As people who are followers of Christ We should embrace all those who are in need of any kind as Christ did. We should be leading lives of generous service to all those who need our help wherever they are and there are many people around who may need our help and care. Each of us is called to show that we are a caring people showing the love of God to all those who have nobody to care for them we have to show them that ours is an all loving and caring God.  When we serve our brothers and sisters in whatever way we are called showing them that our God is an all-loving and caring father in heaven then the Eucharist whenever we partake of this great sacrament will bring us joy and peace. In the words of the liturgy let us go forth to meet the Lord in peace and thanksgiving as we celebrate the three days of the Easter Triduum

Saint Patrick’s Day

Today with all the Irish all over the world we celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick who is credited with bringing the faith to Ireland. We also pray for all those who are suffering as a result of the War in Ukraine especially the refugees who have been forced to flee to other countries. I often wonder what St. Patrick who drove the snakes out of Ireland would do about the modern snakes that we have in Ireland today. I imagine he would look at what was going on around him and get on with the job of proclaiming the Gospel and its values which are timeless.  The spirit of St Patrick affirms the worth of each human being. His Confession invites us all to personal conversion especially during Lent. His message is to draw people to follow Christ in the sharing spirit of the Gospel. This mission is still an urgent one especially in today’s Ireland were there are so many people who are experiencing a crisis of faith.   proclaimed the message of salvation and he insisted on it and many years later we are the inheritors of the rich tradition  of faith born of him. In our Gospel Reading for today the phrase Fishers of men” is used to describe the mandate given by Jesus to his first disciples. Two brother’s the  fishermen, Simon called Peter and Andrew, were casting a net into the Sea of Galilee and got a huge catch. As he commenced his Sea of Galilee reaching ministry, Jesus called them to follow him and told them that in doing so they were to become “fishers of men”. Saint Patrick in his turn was a fisher of men as he took up the challenge to follow Jesus and through his acceptance of that challenge he brought the faith to Ireland and many people of his time followed the faith he professed as we follow that faith today. As we all know there are many snakes out there looking to destroy what we hold as being good and honourable as Catholics, it  is up to us to us to choose the right course; to be brave under trials; so that we in our turn will be fishers of men.