Paul's Reflections Fourteenth Sunday of the Year - B. 5th July, 2009

5th July, 2009      Fourteenth Sunday of the Year - B

 

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When Jesus came to visit his home town.... he got a very poor reaction......   People could not cope with him. They did not believe he was the messiah or anyone much special........    In one way you could say.....  Jesus was too much for them......   Bt actually... it would be more accurate to say that the problem they had with Jesus was the opposite.... it wasn't that he was 'too much' for them, but rather, "he was not at all enough for them".   Jesus??.....  the messiah....  can't be ....... a prophet.....  something more???   How can this be.... we KNOW him..... we have seen him growing up...... we know his family........    There isn't anything special about him..........     They couldn't SEE anything in him.... he seemed to ordinary, too normal.... too "not-special"... And to me, this is the beauty of this gospel message today......

 

We fall for this trap even in this day and age, some two thousand years and more later......    We keep thinking that the 'divine'  the 'special'   and the exciting can only be found in the 'different' in the 'exciting' and the unusual and the dramatic......     and yet, here comes Jesus .... one who was ordinary like them, who grew up in this same home town next to them,  did the same daily chores.... ate with people... worked .....   laughed... cried....   what's special about that?????    How can this 'ordinary' person be extra-ordinary...... 

 

Jesus spent a lot of his ministry trying to calm people down..... they took too much store from miracles and signs and dramatic shows of power. Frequently Jesus said....   'it is a wicked generation that asks for a sign...none will be given to it..."   .....   Jesus did not want people believing in him because he could give them miraculous bread and fish... calm storms.... heal sick people....  and do unusual acts that amazed and astounded.... rather he wanted them to learn about his message and learn about the ways of God and t live the gospel message in its beauty... in its inclusiveness... in its forgiveness... and in sharing and justice......  

 

The gospel was not about 'smoke and mirrors' but about the divine in the everyday of life......     his message was not about lightning and earthquakes but about the gentle breeze of God's presence in and through the ordinary events and people and actions of our lives.... 

 

This gospel reminds us to look for the extraordinary in the ordinary..... to seek the wisdom of God wherever it be found.... especially in the unlikely and seemingly unexceptional situations and people that it reveals itself, to those who will look....

 

How can someone who claims to be God be quite that ordinary....  quite that......  (i don't know....) human????.....

 

But, here is the true miracle....  'it is precisely in the exercise of all the virtues of ordinary human relationships; in trust, in acceptance, in patience, in faithfulness, that we too will experience the building of the kingdom, the power of Christ. .....  If we live our lives with faith, hope and love...   then Christ (God) is at work in our lives... and through the ordinariness of our daily virtues and actions... the world is being remade in the image of Christ's kingdom.... 

 

 

"These two readings challenge us today to perceive the presence of God in one another, to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking in one another, to have hearts that are open to one another.  Although Jesus was unique and his divinity derives from his very nature as the Son who is eternally one in being with the Father.....  yes, jesus also tells us that God's Spirit dwells within us and that he allows us to share in the divine life of God.....So, whilst, We do not expect to find divinity in one another the way in which divinity was fully present in our Lord Jesus, nevertheless we know that God is truly present in every other human being and too often we can ignore that presence or even deny by our actions and attitudes that it is truly and always present in each other.

 

Saint Paul, in the second reading, has a very different problem.  He is SO aware of the divine presence within himself that he must concentrate on his own weaknesses in order to be present to others.  He realizes that his incredible spiritual gifts can lead him astray and so focuses on his weaknesses and brokenness. 

 

We can be so clearly aware of the teaching of our Lord Jesus in all of today\\\'s readings.  At a practical level these teachings invite us to look for the divine in others and to be aware of the weakness and brokenness in ourselves.  (Isn't it true that we so often do things the other way around.....   we can see the brokenness and sinfulness of others whilst failing to deal with our own weaknesses, brokenness and sinfulness..... and we can spend too much time searching for the diving within our own lives and not spend enough time searching and finding it in those around us..........When we learn to see the divine in others and the brokenness in ourselves, we are ready to form with others the communion which is the Church, which is the body of Christ.

 

Let us ask our Lord today to send His Holy Spirit on us so that we may never fear speaking the truth (but always with love and always in order to build up the body of Christ), and let us ask the Lord to let us always delight in the goodness and divinity of others and may we continue to ask the Lord for the healing of our own sinfulness and brokenness." 

 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

• FR. PAUL W. KELLY
• Seasons in the Word. John Sandell.
• MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT. ABBOT'S HOMILY.

 

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13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B - 2009

From Fr Paul

[13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B - 2009
(Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43)]

Our prayers and thoughts are with the family and friends of Matt Minnegal, parishioner of St Mary’s Maryborough, who passed away on Friday. (His funeral will be Funeral 2 p.m. Tuesday 30th June at Heritage Chapel- Maryborough Crematorium). May he rest in peace! When there is a death of a family member, friend or parishioners, we take enormous courage, strength and hope from the promises of our faithful God who, in the words of the first reading this weekend, reminds us that "God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; ….. For God formed humanity to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them."

In faith, we pray and wait for the promises of God to be revealed in all their fulness, when at the end of time Jesus will, like he did in the gospel, call out to each one of us who await God’s promises: "I say to you, arise."

This weekend’s Gospel is wonderful. I love that part where the lady quietly touches Jesus clothes in the trust that Jesus had the power to save her. Jesus reaction is amazing. He IMMEDIATELY knew that power had gone out from him. He asks a question that stumps the disciples: "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to Jesus, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ';Who touched me?'" The reaction of the disciples is understandable: "What is he talking about, everyone is touching his clothes, there is a crowd pressing in on him from every side, but still he asks, ‘who touched me.’???

But Jesus knew exactly what he was asking. He KNEW that all manner of people were touching him, but he knew even more that only one person had touched him with the purposefulness and clarity of faith and trust in WHO he is and WHAT he could do, and the SIGNIFICANCE of his mission. Jesus stopped because he sensed that this wonderful lady who had suffered so long had dared to break cultural taboos and risk ignoring the rules of the religious law because she believed that Jesus had the power to save her. She was right and Jesus praised her for her faith.
We too trust and believe in Hope that Jesus has the power to save us, to heal us and to forgive us, and to give us the eternal life that he has promised us.

Paul's Reflections Homily 21st June, 2009

Homily 21st June, 2009

Jesus Calms the storms of life. Jesus is God, whom even the Wind and the
Waves obey.

"We begin to reflect on who God is for each of us. What do we think of God?
How have we experienced God in our lives? Like these early followers of
Jesus, if we meet someone who can stop a storm, who can still the wind and
the waves, we would surely be impressed and wonder about that person. Today
we can imagine Jesus sleeping in this boat. It could not have been a very
large boat and the storm would have been tossing it all over the place. And
Jesus sleeps!

How many times have we experienced storms in our lives and thought that the
Lord was asleep, that God was not concerned, that God was simply ignoring
us? The Gospel today lets us know that God is always aware of what is
happening in our lives, even when He seems asleep, unconcerned and
uncaring. The Gospel invites us to a deep level of trust in our God. God
loves us and cares for us always and will not let us perish. We don't
always understand the ways of God—and that should never surprise us. God
sees all and knows all and our vision and knowledge is so restricted!

The first reading today, from the Book of Job, is part of our learning
about the divine also. Job finally realizes that God is God—and Job
understands so little of all reality. We also must learn that lesson. We
can easily think that we know what is best in any situation. So we don't
pray and we don't even ask God to give us wisdom and understanding. We also
need to repent, as Job does at the end of the Book of Job. We stand in the
presence of the Almighty and think that we have more wisdom and knowledge
than does the Almighty! Again, we can reflect on our personal image of God
and of the power of God."

(excerpt from Abbot's Homily, Monastery of Christ in the Desert).

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Message to Sacred Heart Parish Childers on the occasion of their Feast day
celebrations on this Sunday:

My dear friends of Sacred Heart Parish Childers,

I send you my sincere greetings to Fr Emmanuel and all the members of
Childers parish as you celebrate your parish feast day and gather to enjoy
Mass and celebrations in community.

I am sorry that I cannot be with you, but I am away on annual leave
attending to family commitments. However, I am thinking of you and wish
you every joy and blessing on your feast day.

Its wonderful that the parish has decided to mark this years feast by
celebrating the gifts of the community : parish, school, families and
young people. It is great when all combine to recognise and celebrate our
unity and common mission.

A special hello to Principal Tim Stinson and all the staff of the parish
school who do such a wonderful job. Thanks to everyone in the parish and
schools who do so much to spread the good news message of Jesus.

And what a fitting parish name you have the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The burning love and compassion and mercy of Jesus' Sacred Heart is very
inspiring and important for all of us.

Jesus' love is so profound for us and for all people that we can barely
comprehend its infinite depths. The image of Jesus' heart which is so
loving that it burns for us, inspires us to know and love God and our
neighbour and ourselves every more deeply with every day of our life.

Our vocation in life is to allow the deep and overwhelming love of God to
make a firm home in our hearts and minds.

In this spirit, my mind turns to that great saint, Saint Thérèse of
Lisieux, also known as Therese of the Child Jesus (1873-1897) . Thérèse
writes of the importance of God's love in the world and the church and I
find her words deeply encouraging, empowering and inspiring. I will
conclude with a quote from her writings, and may it inspire us to love and
deepen the power of Christ's Sacred heart in our lives, in our parish and
in our world. God bless you today and always,

Sincerely,

Fr Paul Kelly
Adm. Sacred Heart Childers

"Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to
the epistles of St. Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By
chance the 12th and 13th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians
caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can
be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety
of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand.Even with such an answer
revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.

"I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found
this encouraging theme: Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will
show you the way which surpasses all others. For the Apostle insists that
the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love
is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found
peace of mind.

"When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognised
myself in none of the members which St. Paul described, and what is more, I
desired to distinguish myself more favourably within the whole body. Love
appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the
Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the
necessary and more noble member was not lacking; I knew that the Church had
a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that
one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were
extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the
martyrs would have shed their blood no more.I saw and realised that love
sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this
same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is
everlasting.

"Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O
Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly
I have found my place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my
God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will
be all things, as my desire finds its direction."

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Paul's Reflections The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ June 14th, 2009

We believe that in receiving our Lord in the sacrament of the Eucharist, we
take in Jesus' life and Jesus presence and values becomes part of our lives
in an essential way.

Being united to Jesus promises us the values of his Good News. Jesus
promises us that he has come to give us life, and life to the full. He has
also promised us that what he offers us is that our joy may be made
complete. So, ultimtately, we believe that by following Jesus along the
road less travelled, we will come to discover the truth of God's plan for
us and for the world. The true meaning that Jesus gives our lives gives us
lasting joy and life.

Speaking of the meaning of True Joy, i was listening to an ABC Radio
national programme the other night and it was absolutely fascinating. In
it, the article speaks of a university study that is probably the longest
ever conducted. It was an enormously indepth study into the lives and
wellbeing of Harvard University graduates. The aim of the study was to
determine what makes people happy and what factors contribute or detract
from that happiness.

It was an abssoultely engaging article..

The links to this article are as follows..

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2009/2594321.htm

and also, see

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness

It makes fascinating reading. In summary, the virtues matter, values
matter, friends matter, cholestoral doesn't !

The Body and Blood of Christ is our food for the journey through life. It
is an honour and a joy to participate in the Eucharist and to encounter,
every week, this deep gift and mystery that sustains us in our everyday
life. After we celebrate Eucharist and receive Jesus in his Body and his
Blood we are commissioned and sent out; to go and live just as we
proclaim. As we take in God's Word and God's presence in this mystery, may
it constantly renew, challenge and transform us. If we do not go back into
the world more and more changed by the Good News of Jesus, then let us pray
even more fervently that Jesus' challenging and life-giving gift may truly
and deeply make us more into the Body of Christ. May Christ's values show
even more clearly in our words and actions, and may any selfishness and
anything that is not Christ-like be changed and replaced by that which is.
May the fruits of what we receive in this real presence of Christ be lives
that clearly reflect the love, mercy and service that Jesus himself shows
us.

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Paul's Reflections Trinity Sunday 2009

I think this quote from the great English writer C.S. Lewis says so much
about the Trinity:

Three persons, one God of love

People seem not to notice that the words 'God is love' have no real meaning
unless God contains at least two persons. Love is something that one person
has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world
was made, He was not love…Christians believe that the living, dynamic
activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created
everything else… in Christianity God is not a static thing – not even a
person – but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama…
Almost, a kind of dance. C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

I love the Trinity, it is an indispensible part of the Christian faith. it
is certainly not merely an academic construct, but an absolute necessity to
get a small grasp and glimpse into the the breadth, depth and diversity of
God's inner nature which is implicitly community, innately relational and
loving.

My favourite image of the Trinity, is that icon by Andre Rublev, from the
15th Century (i think). Firstly, all persons of the Trinity in this
picture are portrayed as humans, not just two people and a dove. Althoguh
the dove is an ancient symbol for the Holy Spirit and quite valid, it can
sometimes not capture the fact that we believe in three persons equal in
divine nature.

I also love this icon of the Trinity because it captures the perfect
inter-relation between the three persons, it is as if each is deferring to
one another and giving each other precedence and respect and in return they
give it right back. To explain it simplistically, its perfect harmony,
perfect giving and perfect receiving, as if one is pointing to the food at
the table and saying to the other, please, be my guest, you first, and the
other is saying, thank you, i appreciate it, now, please take some
yourself, thank you, you are kind.... and on it goes..... But in a more
serious aspect, the community and nature of God is perfect hospitality,
perfect relation and absolute respect and reverence. If we can be part of
this it will transform us and the workld around us. We are invited into
it.

it is no wonder jesus is made present in the form of a meal and that Jesus
was executed, among other reasons, for the people he ate with. God is love,
and God is relational. Its great to share a meal and encounter a glimpse of
what God shares all the time.

God bless.

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Paul's Reflections Pentecost, 2009

Pentecost (confirmations)

 

In mass over the week’s of preparation for the sacraments, I have been focusing in the homily on a few aspects for the children’s preparation.

The action of the laying on of the hands, how all seven sacraments have a point where the church calls down the Holy Spirit upon the person or the object to be blessed. This connects the Holy Spirit to what we do.

-         Confirmation is the universal church, (that is the worldwide church’s confirmation of Baptism, and the role of the bishop as representative of the wider church connections we share.

 

Ancient practice… whenever the bishop. who is the senior leader of the faith community, would celebrate mass… he would break the bread into pieces for communion, like we do…. but they would take a piece of the broken bread and take it to other churches and drop a little piece of bread in the cup with the wine… to show we are ‘in communion’ with the wider church and with God and with one another…  a sign of our unity.

 

-         The way Confirmation and communion keeps referring back to Baptism, and completes their initiation. This is why we will be renewing our faith with a renewal of baptismal promises, before the confirmation sacrament…

-         How they have been coming forward with their hands in a cross for a blessing at communion time, but now they bring their hands forward and present them outstretched to show they are ready to receive communion.

 

- whenever we receive communion, we are receiving Jesus, really present to us…. who makes a home in our heart and in our life….

 

 

-         That we call it “first Holy Communion” and not “First Eucharist”  because this is not their first Eucharist, they have participated in Eucharist before every time they attended Mass, but the big thing here is this is the first time they will participate in receiving Communion !!

-         There is only one thing better than first holy communion, and that is second holy communion, and there is only one thing better than second holy communion and that is third….. this sacrament does not make sense if this is the first and last time you ever come to communion… this is starting a pattern that calls you to participate in the community of the church regularly, to experience the fullness of your membership as a disciple of Jesus.

 

now that they are confirmed, they are welcome to join the altar servers roster.   

We pray for and congratulate our Confirmation and Holy Communion candidates, their sponsors, families and friends. and a special thank you to the sacramentalteam……Paul Heffernan, Jenny Elmer, Teresa Jirasek, Stuart McKinnon, Luke Brown, Kathy Banney and everyone involved in making this celebration so wonderful.  

 

When we receive communion we say….Amen…. at the end of our prayers we say… amen… Amen is a word that means …Yes.. it is true…. Yes… I agree…..  so by saying AMEN.,.. when you are confirmed and Amen when you recveive the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus in holy communion… you are saying… YES>.. I believe…. YES I agree….   I agree that the Spirit in alive in me…. I believe that Jesus is still with us and we receive him in communion so we can live as one with Jesus in our lives and actions…

 

COnfimration and communion candidates….   are you ready to Say yes….  to say amen  to these things??

 

Then, may God who has already begun this good work in you, bring it perfection.

 

 

 

God bless.

 

 

 

 

 

Paul W. Kelly

269 Adelaide Street

Maryborough Qld 4650

Australia

 

Office:  (07) 4121 3701

Fax: (07) 4121 2829

Phone 041 778 6456

Please visit our website: www.marycatholic.com

 

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This was sent to you by Fr Paul Kelly from St Mary's Catholic Parish, Maryborough, QLD. My apologies if you did not want to recieve this, please contact me and I will delete the email if you do not want to continue receiving news. Back copies of previous logs can be found by visiting the parish website. www.marycatholic.com

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Paul's Reflections 24th May, 2009 Ascension - B

Ascension - B.  24th May, 2009 .

 

The Ascension marks the completion of Jesus’ earthly and bodily presence on earth…..   Jesus had to return to the Heavenly Father, because his rightful place was with the Father in Heaven, ruling heaven and earth from his place in Heaven…..  He needed to return to his Father so that he could send the Holy Spirit to make his work continue in and through his disciples….. 

 

Our Catholic faith is big upon seeing beyond appearances….. to see deeper into things than just the surface….. it’s a recurring theme throughout our faith and worship….

 

Jesus tells us, that God judges not by appearances but sees straight into the heart, into the inner dispositions and attitudes of the human person, and knows the truth of each one of us…..  Jesus encouraged us to ensure that our lives, our attitudes, our values and our actions flowed from a deep inner life connected with God and built upon love…….  mere outward appearances don’t mean a lot in the gospel’s scheme of things.  This is a valuable lesson for us, and for the world….in a time and culture where appearances seem to be taken on more of a value than they should…..    sometimes at the cost of inner value…

 

Jesus returned to the Father, and disappeared from our sight, so that we would look for and find the continuing real presence of Jesus, in different forms… that are not so obvious……  If Jesus still walked the earth the same way he did while he was with his disciples, there would be no need for us to look for him elsewhere. But Jesus’ mission is to be “ALL IN ALL”…. to be draw all things to himself and to to bring to life God’s Kingdom in and through all of creation……  this requires Christ to transform and fill up with his presence … all people and all the world…….. He achieves this with the Holy Spirit, and with the cooperation of his followers who continue his mission.

 

Jesus Christ is not visible in the same way as he was when he walked the earth with his disciples…..  but we believe Jesus is still present and active amongst us in new ways…. and through the power of the Holy Spirit….(which reminds us of all Jesus did and said and makes effective all that we do in Jesus’ name). So, we all would become the hands and feet and heart of Jesus in our daily lives…… 

 

St. Teresa of Avila composed a prayer poem which the confirmation and communion students have been learning about.   

As St Teresa writes….

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

….

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

 

 

And we become the body of Christ, by taking in the body of Christ in communion. We receive Our Lord as food and drink, and take in his presence, his grace and his values…. becoming, (with God’s grace) more and more like Jesus with every day)…….    

 

The outward appearance of the bread and wine does not change….but its inner reality does….into Christ’s presence….  we look and seem the same, but inside, we believe Jesus has made a home in our hearts… and hopefully our actions and attitudes show that living presence within us…

 

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REFERENCES: FR. PAUL W. KELLY

 

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please reply emails to

holyjoe@ozemail.com.au

This was sent to you by Fr Paul Kelly from St Mary's Catholic Parish, Maryborough, QLD. My apologies if you did not want to recieve this, please contact me and I will delete the email if you do not want to continue receiving news. Back copies of previous logs can be found by visiting the parish website. www.marycatholic.com

and also please visit my photo pages by clicking this link:

www.mysteriousthree.com

or the direct link by pasting the following into your web browser

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/554239563oXJIdn

(some of the recent photos appear at the start of the page of photos, other new ones may be right at the last page)
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