Paul's Reflections SUNDAY 22ND OF ORDINARY TIME - YEAR C. Paul Kelly

SUNDAY 22^ND OF ORDINARY TIME -  YEAR C.  Paul Kelly

 

“What’s in it for me?” “What can I get out of this?”   “What can this person do for me?”  All these kinds of questions are still quite commonly asked by people in this day and age… as they were in Jesus’ time. And I am sure these kinds of minsets disappoint God just as much today as they did back then…………Because this kind of thinking is just so foreign to God’s ways……………

 

Today’s gospel is about Jesus teaching us about the virtue of humility….  But….

“The challenge today is not about watching others practice humility but whether we ourselves are willing always to humble ourselves. Humility does not mean acting humbly but actually being humble and drawing no attention to ourselves. This is why truly humble people are loved so much. They make life easier for all of everyone else around them, no matter how ‘great’ they are considered to be by others……, they take up the burdens and responsibilities of community without drawing attention to themselves and they serve others with joy.^[1]

 

For me, humility is really about being honest about how things really are between us and God. We are truly humble when we live the truth of the fact that all good comes from God…. And that if we do any good in this world, it is by God’s grace and guidance…  not of any merit of our own….   If we help the poor…  include the marginalized….   Serve without counting the cost, we are not actually doing something praiseworthy..  rather.. we are just living the way God acts all the time…  by God’s very nature… not out of duty… but out of love…

 

The message of today’s gospel can possibly be best summed up by a saying the Jewish rabbis would have known well..  even if they did not practice it in this gospel…..   it’s a saying that goes like this…  “ the best kind of giving is when the giver does not know to whom they were giving, and the receiver does know know from whom they are receiving.”^[2]  Because, then its pure gift…  giving for the sake of giving itself.. with no self interest….

 

Another way of putting it was the words of a witty cynic.. when they said… “hospitality is a lively sense of the favours to come.”   Jesus wants to totally break this mindset….   Hospitality and engagement with others is not for what it can gain.. but for including those who cannot presently participate by the rules and expectations of a calculating culture….

 

Also, in this gospel today… 

“What Jesus is teaching are not fine points of etiquette or the best way to show table manners and the like. Rather, Jesus is promoting an interior attitude that really demonstrates where we stand, that is, do we consider our self the centre of the universe, or are we willing to be the servant of others?

The way of Christ is the latter, for the self-centred will end up lost, but those who serve others and open their hearts to all will find fulfilment. Such persons, and we are invited to be among them, will gain everything needed for a life on fire for God and the things of God. As Jesus acted in his lifetime, so should the followers of Christ. There is an Amish teaching that says (in instructing their young people): "Joy" stands for …..Jesus first, Others in between, and Yourself last.”^[3]

 

I have been thinking of writing a reflection, one day, called ‘great Christian clangers’….  That is… times when, in church experience, people or groups did actions that were so totally against the very point of calling ourselves Christian disciples…//    because, sometimes we get it very wrong…. //…and sadly we can get it wrong a lot more often than we are willing to admit…..//…   So, let us pray.. in our daily prayers,///  that God will always give us a wonderful sense of proportion..  that we will always gain a sense of what really IS the central point of Jesus message….  Because, in this gospel, the so called religious leaders of Jesus time had really gone off the point….  They sat there glaring at Jesus and trying to find fault with him when all they were really doing was hobnobbing with people who could benefit them.,.. and ignoring those most in need….and all Jesus was doing was acting out of love and curing those in need and welcoming those God loves whom others felt were of no value to them.,……/…  . sometimes ones breath is taken away about how people who call themselves faithful followers of God can get it so wrong with their actions and attitudes….   Let us pray to Jesus that we are always given a wonderful sense of proportion, generosity and  self-giving service….and of course, honest humility…

 

 

 

 

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^[1] Monastery of Christ in the Desert, Abbot’s homily (2010)

^[2] Daily Study Bible. Luke. By William Barclay (1954)

^[3] Monastery of Christ in the Desert, Fr. Christian Leisy, OSB  (2010)

Paul's Reflections 22nd August, 2010 Twenty - first Sunday of the Year - C

22nd August, 2010 Twenty - first Sunday of the Year - C

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I had my own ironic version of todays parable played out for me … and I can tell you, I found it very confusing and upsetting. …..

It makes me think of the parable from today’s gospel……. I wonder what it would be like for me to be knocking on heavens doors and saying “let me in,.. look I have the badge and the membership… only to get the hear God say...... ‘who are you?” ...I don’t know you? I don’t know where you come from?”

that would be devestating .....… terrible….

Who we are goes with how we act.. how we live…. And how we respond to God’s invitation to be disciples….. we gain entry into the kingdom not by our badge of membership alone… but by being recognisable as a disciple of Christ by our love and faithfulness to God’s message….. by being true friends of Jesus … in act as well as name…. knowing Jesus and being known by Jesus….. in our lives and choices…. / The people listening to Jesus’ parable (his own people, the people of Israel), would be very concerned by his message and they would say what is on

the lips of the people in the parable. The people are really saying words to the effect of this: “But, we ate with you, we heard your teaching! We are your fellow People of Israel. We are the chosen people who have Abraham as our Father and the Prophets as our inheritance. We are the saved people, and the privileged people of God’s promise.” The shocking reply would be too awful to contemplate: “Sorry, I don’t know where you come from!” What does he mean ‘I don’t know where you come from?” They come from his own people, but this is not enough. People from other nations and cultures, who are not part of the chosen people, as welcomed into God’s family and God’s house ahead of those who have gotten cosy and self-satisfied in the presumption that their place in God’s house is assured. Jesus is warning all who follow him that a place in God’s house is offered to all who actually respond to his values and teachings and to his invitation, irrespective of their background and culture. It is a sobering reminder to us all that we need to be constantly open to God’s surprising wisdom and teachings. We must never fall for the trap of thinking that we have gotten the message and that we having nothing more or new to learn about God’s ways.

Jesus, throughout the Gospels, constantly has to teach his disciples that they have an enormous amount to learn, (a lifetime and beyond to learn), about God’s ways and God’s wisdom. Discipleship in Christ demands of us constant vigilance, an openness of heart and mind and a willingness to be transformed and changed by God’s wisdom. Jesus also seems to be inviting us to be welcoming and open to an ever-increasing group of people throughout the community and beyond, to whom God is also extending a warm welcome.

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REFERENCES:

· FR. PAUL W. KELLY

Paul's Reflections THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION (BODY AND SOUL INTO HEAVEN) OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARYSUNDAY THE 15TH AUGUST, 2010.

THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION (BODY AND SOUL INTO HEAVEN) OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARYSUNDAY THE 15^TH AUGUST, 2010.

The blessed Virgin Mary is truly the most inspiring of all the saints……   and it is so understandable that so many churches and schools across the world have chosen as their patron saint’s name, the name of Mary……. Mary is the first and most perfect disciple of Christ……   Mary is such a perfect example of faith, trust and reflection…..    all through her life, Mary trusted and acted in the belief that her God knows what he is doing in our lives…..   we are told more than once that Mary “treasured” of “pondered”  all these things in her heart….   Reflecting upon the meaning of what was happening in her life…  trusting in God’s care and guidance….  Even when everything was going wrong…

 

In the newsletter this weekend, there is a striking and unusual quote from the great Theological writer Karl Rahner, where he writes……

"Whatever was transitory in Mary's life fell into the power of death, but only so that all that was eternal in her could shine in the full light, the eternal light made up of all the little flames of each instant of her shining existence."

—Karl Rahner, S.J. (1904-1984)

That is rather beautiful….   Especially the part about the little flames of each instant of Mary’s shining existence…..  Mary received the light of Christ…  Mary bore the light of Christ to the world… and in so many ways, big and small, Mary was a light of encouragement, grace, love and faith, to all she met… (in our own way, we receive the light of Christ by faith and baptism… we carry it and .. through our actions.. we show that light in our lives….

There is a beautiful prayer..  called the Litany of the blessed Virgin mary…   it lists some of the wonderful titles  such as (for example),..

Mother of God,
Mother of Christ,
Mother of divine grace,
Virgin most faithful,
Mirror of justice,
Seat of wisdom,
Cause of our joy,
Spiritual vessel,
Ark of the covenant,
Health of the sick,
Refuge of sinners,
Comforter of the afflicted,
Help of Christians,
Queen of Prophets,
Queen of Apostles,
….assumed into Heaven,
Queen of the most holy rosary,
Queen of Peace.

 

These and many more titles capture the qualities that make Mary so admirable…. And they all refer to her cooperation and reception of God’s gracious action…..   putting her life at the service of God’s plan for the world………….

The Assumption is a beautiful echo of the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven….   Jesus Ascended into Heaven, to return to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father….   He returned from where he had come…..    Mary, because of her absolute faithfulness, was given the blessing of being the first person to benefit fully from the promise made by Jesus Ascension…  that on the last day, we will be in Heaven with God, body and soul…..  Mary received this promise immediately at the end of her life…..   what happened to Mary, we hope will be given to us at the resurrection on the last day…… 

The assumption of Mary into Heaven…….   Mary is an ideal example of someone who cooperated with God’s plans… and as a result allowed God to do great things thorough her life and actions….//  .   and Look at the wonders the Holy Spirit of God can achieve when we are open to God’s plan in our lives….

 

Look at the incredible grace, love and fruit that is produced from saying “YES” to what God wants to achieve through us in the world…..

 

Mary stands as an incredible inspiration of human faithfulness, obedience, respect and humility….   Mary’s yes, allowed her to become a willing part of God’s plan in the world…..  

 

Let us never say,   “what can I contribute….   what good is what I have to give, compared with the enormity of the needs, the challenges… and the demands of this world….”  rather…. like Mary, may we be further inspired to say… yes Lord…..    you are great and good…… you can achieve all things (and a significant part of what God achieves, is also “in and through” the people God has invited to cooperate in God’s work……….   

 Mary did not merely trust in God by quietly sitting and waiting…  Mary was active and compassionate…..   she rushed off to help her cousin Elizabeth… she  saw a problem at the Wedding in Cana and took action to help by asking her son to assist…..   Mary was present at different parts of Jesus preaching…  and was there for him at the foot of the cross…. Mary was there praying with the Apostles in their time of doubt……..  

Mary is like…. (we are all like)    a writing instrument in the hand of our most artistic God……    if we allow ourselves to be the channel through which God’s good news, love, justice and forgiveness  is experienced…

 

“Wouldn’t it be great to be a clear mirror of the graciousness, peace and love of Christ….   whenever we do act or speak in ways that allows Jesus’ message to flow through us, it is an enormous source of blessing and good…..      Sadly sometimes, because we experience limitations, weakness and fragility…. we can block that graciousness and our actions and values can block the healing, the care and the compassion that God is trying to create in and through us…..   Let us pray that Jesus will show us how to allow ourselves to be more and more the light of Christ to each other   and to all….

 

May Mary, who shows us an openness and generosity to God….. and pre-figures the destiny of all who hope in Jesus’ promises, continue to inspire us to make a difference….  and say “yes” to God’s values in all we do, in the church, in the community, and in our homes and social situations….. 

 

 

Paul's Reflections 8th August, 2010 ST PAULS AND ST MARY'S ECUMENICAL EVENT. AT ST MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH. 8AM.

8th August, 2010     ST PAULS AND ST MARY’S ECUMENICAL EVENT. AT ST MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH. 8AM.

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Cooperation and goodwill between the churches in this town goes right back to the very opening of this church in Feb 1872.  The opening Mass was celebrated here on that day, by Fr. Paul Tissot, assisted by the Fathers..J and M. Horan, Fr McGuiness and Fr Julian Edmund Tennyson Woods…..  the mentor of Blessed Mary MacKillop …..(soon to be Saint Mary MacKillop, whose feast day is today…..and who surely visited her order of nuns staffed the parish school)

 

Records of the time show that the “choral portion of the service was taken from Mozart’s Twelfth mass and was very efficiently rendered by the choir, who were ably assisted by the kind services of several members of other denominations.  The sermon was preached by J.E.T.Woods………   I thought to myself….. mmmm…  J.E.T. Woods…..  could that be????   And yes…. It was…..   the Very Rev. Julian Edmund Tennyson Woods (Mentor to Blessed Mary MacKillop) whose sermon was described as “a most eloquent and impressive discourse”

 

One Hundred and thirty-eight years later, we gather together to continue to celebrate what we have in common. We are one people, all disciples of Christ, sharing prayer and praise of the One God, and praying for eachother’s communities. It is wonderful, and its God’s grace at work in our communities and in the hearts and goodwill of all…

 

It is so wonderful to be here today. Thank you so much to Fr Jim and the St pauls’ community for being with us today and celebrating our common discipleship in Christ…  and thank-you to Fr Jim for his friendship and enthusiasm always…

 

The readings for our ecumenical celebration today are extraordinary and beautiful…..   They speak of God’s deep and abiding faithfulness to us…. And of God’s wisdom and God’s ways that are not like our human ways of thinking………  We humans do find it so difficult to comprehend  the depth and extent of God’s love for his people…… in fact we can only marvel at the mystery of it……….   And we humans do find it difficult to understand the many ways in which God does not think as humans do……….   

 

So, we humans….  Struggle with God… we wrestle with God…..  until we finally come to the point where we realise that God knows what God is doing……   God loves us…. Blesses us and has a big –picture plan for us…. If only we would cooperate and not resist… if only we can allow God’s grace to transform us…  and not let our narrow vision.. our pride and our desire to do it our way…  get in the way of what God is doing…..  because God is making something beautiful…..  in thw world and in our lives……   its new… its different…..  its divine….. 

 

I have always been fascinated by this passage, our first reading today… of Jacob wrestling with God …. Its amazing…  and beautiful…….    And it reminds me of a true story  that I would like to share with you……   (my apologies if I have told this before, but it is, I think, a rather interesting example of our wisdom wrestling with God’s wisdom….)

 

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"  !!!!

 

“IF GOD….  Doesn’t punish him,….    Then WE …. WILL!!!!’….. 

 

My goodness……. That is very telling…   about human nature… and God’s absolutely 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.

 

This example, and the example of Jacob..  wrestling all night with a mysterious person, whom he KNOWs is God. Jacob won’t let go of God….   He can’t win, in one sense.. if he continues to hold on to God when the sun comes up, he will see God’s face and die… and so God is trying to save him…  but God also allows him to wrestle with him.. God gets right in there with Jacob.. not just standing t a distance.. and allows Jacob to engage with him very deeply….  Jacob is stubborn and filled with zeal.. so in the end God can’t get Jacob to release his grip and so blesses him… and names him… Israel.. meaning, in this context “Strove with God.”  I love this image…  Jacob comes out of it limping, but renewed and ready to face anything in life, because in a sense, God never leaves him.. Jacob will cling to God forever now.. and it is God who will never let him Go…..   but Jacob still wrestled.. wanted things his way.. and we can do that too…

 

St Peter… in the gospel.. so loyal, so passionate.. so faithful to Jesus.. and also very human and weak at times… he denied Jesus but still rushed to see him when he returns……   St Peter had to learn that he must follow God’s ways and not his own thinking.. and he learns that lesson well….  

 

In the context of our ecumenical relations and so many other worthwhile endeavours.. we need to keep looking at what God wants… what God’s wisdom calls us to.. and not merely our own personal vision or pride…  we can do this with God’s help.. and we have seen wonderful progress.. which I know will continue…

 

And the path is via ecumenism… as opposed to non-denominationalism….   Two big words but meaning two different things…   non-denominationalism is where we take what we have in common and overlook (so to speak) what we do not agree upon.. and move forward.. that has its advantages… …  but ecumenism… is acknowledging and celebrating what we have in common… and also acknowledging and exploring what we disagree with…  and moving forward in this….    A respectful, open, dialogue and journeying which seeks not just the lowest common denominator of agreement.. but the highest.. the most full… that journey is difficult and painful, but it’s the journey of wholeness that we are invited to embark upon…      

 

May God, who bends close to be with us and engage with us… who even lets us wrestle with him as we come to see God’s unworldly wisdom and vision….  Stubbornly coming around to God’s ways and not our ways…  May this God of faithfulness.. God of the journey bless us and guide us, now and always…    amen..

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·       Catholicism in Maryborough. History Book, 1980. Edited by Fr Denis Martin.

·       Fr John Fuellenback, SVD. Lectures in Sabbatical in Rome. (my personal notes). See also his book “Throw Fire”.

·       The New Interpreter’s Bible. Volume I. Abingdon Press. On the Genesis chapter.

·       FR. PAUL W. KELLY

 

 

Paul's Reflections 8th August, 2010 Feast of Mary MacKillop

8th August, 2010      Feast of Mary MacKillop

 

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For most people… its easy to be gracious when everything is going well….  When people speak well of us and treat us nicely….     And everything is going our way….   Flowing according to plan……..But it takes a saint to be gracious in times of intense difficulty……  

 

Jesus is the model for all saints…  and a saint is so named because they allow the person and message (and qualities) of Jesus to shine through their lives and find a home in their actions and attitudes…..

 

Mary MacKillop is a wonderful example of that…  It is an absolute miracle of God’s grace that such a wonderful woman is about to be canonised by the church, so that Mary MacKillop’s life might be an inspiration to Christian discipleship to the universal church.

 

It is utterly amazing that someone who was once excommunicated by the church, (albeit unjustly and wrongly)   could now be beatified and soon to be canonised…   whose praises are sung throughout the world…….   But it is this ‘grace under fire’   this gracious reflecting of God’s love and faithfulness and justice, even in the face of lies and condemnation, that shows the qualities that Jesus speaks of in the beatitudes…

 

Mary MacKillop’s life is also an example of complete trust in God’s providence….   But this is not some kind of helpless waiting  around and doing nothing …  rather Mary MacKillop knew that God’s providence was revealed through the love and care of human beings… So, Mary became famous for her attitude summed up in the saying..”never see a need without doing something to help.”  Mary saw a need for education, shelter and support of those most in need.. namely poor children, destitute men and women.. and so set up schools and shelters for people in need….

 

We can all make a difference  by responding to the needs around us and believing  that we can make a difference….

 

May Our Lord inspire us to be people of care, compassion, graciousness and love (in season and out of season) and people of practical action, making a difference to those most in need..