Paul's Reflections Palm Sunday/ Passion SUnday 2010

Palm Sunday 2010.

 

Since the gospel reading of the Passion is so long this weekend, I will only say a few words about the gospel today…. 

 

During this coming week, it would be wonderful to take the long version of Luke’s Gospel and read through it prayerfully and reflectively. There is a lot of richness in this most important text.

 

Two things that stike me about the version of Luke’s Passion account that we listened to this weekend….

 

1.     The enemies of Jesus are liars. They hated his message of love, forgiveness and inclusion and spent all their time trying to trap Jesus and find something against him. In the end they could find nothing wrong… so…   did they give up?  No, they just made up accusations…   the thigns they accuse Jesus of in Luke’s Gospel are lies….  Jesus was inciting revolt?  No he wasn’t. he was seeking to avoid it. Opposing payment  to Caesar, no he didn’t, and okay, yes he was claiming to be the Christ… but to say he was setting himself up as a King to overthrow the earthly leader.. was a distortion to make Jesus look insidious…    They were lying through their teeth to convict Jesus,.. but even Pilate says…  he is not guilty….  

2.      When people bring Jesus to Herod, he is completely self-absorbed… he doesn’t even listen to what they are saying… he just wants to meet Jesus and get him to do a miracle… it’s a horrific sign of out of touch, self-serving leadership that doesn’t even know what the issues are….

Jesus came to forgive, include and welcome… and he is repaid in rejection, dishonesty and hatred….  He showed the absolute depth of his love by sacrificing everything for us…  and this has saved us….  We thank God, for Jesus’ life and saving death.. and we keep vigil this week as we enter the holiest week of the Church’s year…  a journey through suffering love…  leadership of complete service…  that goes through death to new and everlasting life…

 

 

Paul's Reflections Fifth Sunday of Lent - C

21st March, 2010      Fifth Sunday of Lent - C

 

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(The Woman caught in Adultery)

 

This gospel is disturbing in so many ways….   We all know that Jesus is our saviour….   But in this present Gospel situation, this truth became immediately relevant to the woman who was caught in this life or death situation.  As the experts of the law were so happy to point out, the law entitled them to stone this woman to death. What a brutal and harsh justice….   No one would have dared to dispute, though,  if Jesus had taken the high moral line that the experts in the law were taking, since it WAS the letter of the law.  But Jesus really cares about us, and really cared about the true welfare of this woman, and so he refused to condemn her and did not go along with the baying crowd in giving them what they expected. 

 

Jesus has our true interests at heart….  Jesus’ accusers were just USING this woman as a device to trap him. They did not care for her welfare of her salvation and were using her as an object to attack Jesus.

 

It is a reminder that it is possible to use a righteous thing for an unrighteous motive…  they appeared, whilst claiming to be faithful followers of God, to be filled with malice and hate and contempt…. Not only for Jesus, but for human life…..  they were showing their true colours…

 

It’s a terrible trait in us humans that we, all too easily see the faults and sins of others, but can be quite blind to our own personal failing,s faults and sins….   Also, the natural inclination of human nature is, when faced with outward visible sin and failings… one can be tempted to kick the person when they are down….   Its as if a mirror is being shone at us and we don’t like the reflection, so we can try to remove anyone who shows weakness, and sin and failings, because it can remind us that we too are weak, and sinful and fail …..

 

This gospel challenges us all…  in our work, in our homes, in our churches and in our community…..   in what ways are we tempted to thrown metaphorical stones at those we see to have weaknesses and failings…….  In what way are we failing to humbly acknowledge our own weaknesses….. and sins…  how can we ask the Lord to help us to be people who build others up, and don’t tear them down…..  can we ask the Lord to give us the grace to respond with compassion, sensitivity and gentleness when faced with others weaknesses, sins and failings…  and can we be gentle and constructive about our own sins and failings too….   Jesus wants to lift sin and enmeshment from our shoulders not have us trapped and stuck in these things forever and ever…

 

Many generations of people have wondered… what in the world did Jesus write in the sand… why didn’t john the evangelist tell us what he wrote…..   but that is the thing….  The gospel writers don’t tell us everything… they tell us what they regard as important… and for John.. and with Jesus…  its what you DO that counts… not just what you say… not just what you write…   Jesus didn’t just talk the talk… he ACTED justly and lovingly and compassionately… and he showed that these experts in the law knew the letter but had failed to live the spirit of God’s law… and were doing great harm because of it…

 

The contrast between Jesus and the experts in the law is enormous…. 

 

Isn’t it interesting that there is no one more compassionate the loving and gentle towards those who have fallen than truly holy people…. The real saints are the the ones who are closest to those who have done wrong.. and are living complex lives…   and their presence amongst them is loving and gentle… 

 

The opposite is also sadly true… there is no one more judgemental and condemnatory and intolerant than the self-righteous phoneys…  they can look very similar to the holy ones, but their actions and attitudes show them up for what they really are…  fakes… and frauds…  Jesus shows us the true response to people in their brokenness and sin and pain….  The self-righteous phoneys are unbridging in their expectations and unforgiving in their standards,…. Except when it comes to their own failings… then everyone should just move on quickly… and get over it….   A horrific double standard that Jesus rejects utterly…

 

Jesus is not only the good shepherd… he is the divine surgeon..  the ONLY reason he would want our sins exposed is so that they can be brought out into the light.. and only for the purposes of healing and wholeness… not to condemn, not to imprison and never to reject…. 

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REFERENCES:

 

• FR. PAUL W. KELLY
• MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR c. BY MARK LINK S.J.
• 2010 – A BOOK OF GRACE-FILLED DAYS. BY ALICE CAMILLE.
• SUNDAYS AND HOLY DAY LITURGIES. YEAR C. FLOR MCCARTHY S.D.B.

 

 

Paul's Reflections Fourth Sunday of Lent - C

14th March, 2010      Fourth Sunday of Lent - C

 

The parables of Jesus are really profound and challenging….  But WATCH OUT>>>>   we  can “kill” Jesus' parables if we neutralise them or water them down with worldly wisdom. Jesus is offering us unworldly wisdom.

 

So too with the so-called “lost son” parable. When he comes back his father gives him a

-Robe

-ring

-shoes

 

These are signs of status. This lost son is now FULLY REINSTATED, NO QUESTIONS, NO RETRIBUTION, NO AMENDS. This is completely insane! But it gets worse. They kill the fatted calf. Perhaps this calf was being fattened for the other sons wedding day feast some time in the future. The father in this story is foolish. But he says "we had to celebrate, he was lost to me and I love him, not matter what, and I have got him back! I had to do this, he is my son after all, I cannot deny him……(Wow).

 

One of our lecturer’s in my sabbatical a few years ago tells a story of a visit he made to a village while he was in the missions. The local theatre people did a play enacting the "lost son" but in their version of the story they unwittingly neutralised the message of Jesus and replaced it with a frightening message of worldly wisdom we can see all too often ://… in their version, when the lost son is walking home, the father sees him and yet does not move. Then the servants  come out of their huts with sticks in their hands, run up to the son and start 'beating him with the sticks' until the father eventually walks up and say 'okay he has had enough!'  when our missionary priest  asked why the troupe had changed Jesus' parable, they said "you cannot let this story run as it was. The rascal must not be able to get off free. If God doesn't punish him, then we will"  !!!!

Very telling…   about human nature… and God’s absolutely insane and unconditional love for us, his beloved people….

 

It so important to let the parable of Jesus speak to us, challenge us, transform us with God’s unworldly wisdom.

 

The story has something for everybody: for those who have strayed in their lives and wonder if they would be welcome in the “father’s house”; for those who have returned to be met on the way with mercy and joy; for those who feel they have always been the good and dutiful ones and who feel miffed when the black sheep returns to such a fine reception. The point is, at one time or another we all find ourselves “outside the father’s house,” and he is eager to welcome us inside where we belong. It’s a day to ask ourselves, “What’s preventing me from entering the father’s house in joy?” and to make haste to let go of everything that keeps me from finding my way home.

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·        FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·        FOLLOWING THE LORD – BY REV JOHN FUELLENBACH SVD.  TALKS ON DISCIPLESHIP. BASED ON HIS BOOK: “THROW FIRE” (1997)

·        Prepare the Word reflections

 

Paul's Reflections Third Sunday of Lent - C. 7th March, 2010

7th March, 2010      Third Sunday of Lent - C

 

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The readings this weekend highlight the absolutely vital connection between God’s nature and JUSTICE; and between a God of love and a God who acts on that love in practical ways, to help those in need.

 

And how essentially interconnected is our discipleship of Christ and our lives of active service.

 

Social action, and social justice and GOD go together, necessarily !

 

You have probably heard of the model of Christian action called “SEE, JUDGE, ACT”

 

That is, we as Christians are encouraged to SEE the situations and needs around us, to be aware of what is happening around us;  … to assess or JUDGE what is needed to be done in response to those needs and then to ACT….  To DO something about these needs.

 

Well, we see from the first reading that God INVENTED that model….   Because, God SEES the need of his beloved people, who are being mistreated…   God decides that he has to DO something about it to free them from their oppression…..   And GOD acts, definitively in history by calling upon his servant Moses to ‘set his people free’.

 

And God then works WITH and THROUGH Moses and his brother Aaron to achieve the freedom God desires for his people.

 

Some people say, how can God stand by and see so much suffering and so much injustice in the world?  … But, in reality… God SEES and cannot STAND the wrongdoing and injustice in the world…. And HAS and DOES do something about it…..  God CALLS upon all people of goodwill… such as Moses….   To DO something about it….   God has no hands on earth but ours….   As the saying goes… 

 

God also PROMISES to be with all who strive and work for justice in the world… and God is also very much with the people who are suffering and in need..

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On this special weekend, where we commemorate a special milestone….   Sixty years ago to this very day…..  the Maryborough Catholic Women’s League was formed……..  (or as it was then known the Catholic Daughters of Australia, Maryborough Branch)….  The then parish priest, Monsignor Jordan SAW various needs …   for a group that would meet the social and charitable needs in the community….  And as a wonderful support to the parish’s mission…. And so, the Catholic Daughters of Australia, Maryborough branch was born.

 

Now, sixty years later… sixty years to the day…  we celebrate  sixty wonderful years of …SEEING needs…..deciding on a course of action….   And ACTING to make a difference in the parish in the wider community and the world…..

 

Even a very brief list of the works, events, activities and projects of the CWL over the last sixty years is a MOST impressive “C.V”  for any organisation….  Absolutely superb.   

 

In so many, many ways, the CWL have put prayer, reflection and community and action into a perfect combination.. for the good of others and for all…

 

We thank God for the graces God has bestowed through the generosity of the CWL members of these 60 years…   May there be many, many more years of blessing…

 

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In this season of Lent….  The readings invite us to keep reflecting on our lives and the challenges hat can de-focus us ……  

 

In the second reading today…  Saint Paul has some very strong words for the community in Corinth….   St Paul warns them very sternly.. to be on their guard……   He lists three great dangers that can poison a community….  

Complacency…..    Self-indulgence… and a culture of Complaint and negativity…..

 

Make no mistake.. each of these are absolutely deadly to a community….

 

St Paul mentions Moses again…  this time in relation to Moses the people of Israel as they travel in the desert for forty years…..  This community suffered greatly by a culture of complaint….  The people have been freed by God from their slavery   and are now being led by Mosese….  But they start complaining and grumbling….  And the people get negative and start complaining …  including saying that they would have been better staying in Egypt as slaves… which is an awful thing to say…..   One could imagine that for a group of people travelling as pilgrims through the wilderness for such a long time….  Living from one moment to the next….   Negativity and complaints and dissatisfaction would utterly infest and stall any means of moving forward… its absolutely poisonous….  // St Paul warns the people of Cornith.. and us in this day and age too…..   NOT to get sucked into a culture of negativity and complaint….

 

St Paul warns us that there is nothing more destructive than a culture of negativity and criticism and complaint in a community… it will rip the community in two and render it useless…..

 

It can be so easy to become a toxic influence that stunts any development and growth….. and we always walk a fine line between looking constructively at any obstacles… in our way….  And  harping on the negatives until a project falls over……  We would never do anything if we only focus on the obstacles… and in fact, I have always believe… the first question is ‘is it worth doing…’  if the answer is YES… then do it..  despite the obstacles…..    if something is worthy of doing…   the obstacles are merely challenges that stand in our way… challenges to be overcome… and will be overcome… and not things that stop us in our tracks….

 

I just think of all the wonderful, wonderful projects achieved in the past and even today … by so many generous people , including the CWL….    It would never have been achieved without God’s grace and inspiration…. And without positive encouragement and energy…..     to overcome any and all obstacles……..   to achieve all worthy goals……

 

Let us continue to build upon  this in every way….

 

For the honour and glory of God…

 

 

 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·        FR. PAUL W. KELLY