22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Deuteronomy 4:1-2.5-8; James 1:17-18.21-22.27; Mark 7:1-8.14-15.21-23

http://www.medjugorje.ws/en/pictures/medjugorje-images-late-summer/

For it is from within, from men's hearts, that evil intentions emerge ...

Like most visitors to Medjugorje I prayed the Rosary before the beautiful bronze reliefs which so easily draw you into meditation as you pause before them.

What caught my eye immediately in the image of the Annunciation was Mary's foot pressing down on the root of the tree. A tree! Mary is standing under a tree! My imagination instantly set to work.

I thought of another woman standing under another tree in another garden. She was not in conversation with an angel but with a serpent. She, too, said yes - and when she did it seemed as though that tree took root in her heart - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It took root and grew, sinking its tenacious roots deep into the heart of humankind, and no gardener, no herbicide, no chainsaw would ever be capable of removing this evil from its new home.

Now let's be honest with ourselves and with one another. We all know that there is not a single man, woman or child here in this church, nor in any other church, nor in the whole wide world who is not aware of this horrid tree of iniquity growing within them.

We experience it in our thoughts; we hear it in our words; we acknowledge its presence in our actions. What's more, we all recognise that the violence and turmoil in this poor, divided world is simply the expression of the turmoil and division of individual human hearts. Jesus is so truly right - evil comes from within!

And what can be done about it? What can you or I do about it? Certainly we can beat the branches with the rod of willpower. This seems to be the preferred option. ‘I will never do that again! I promise!’ And we dislodge a few leaves and even, occasionally, break a few branches, but we soon realise that willpower is simply not enough. Our willpower  resembles more a twig than a rod.

No, striking the branches won’t work. We have to get to the roots and this, firstly, with our understanding. We have to acknowledge the reality of our sin, it’s awful power over us and our own helplessness.

Long ago I had a parishioner, a married Catholic man who was committing serious sins, crimes, against children. He hated himself and he tried and tried to overcome his weakness without success. One day he went to confession and the priest strongly advised him to go to the police.

He did, and he told them everything – names, dates - everything. The police were wonderful; I imagine they instinctively sensed they were dealing with a man who was sincerely trying to come to terms with himself. No one had charged him yet but they warned him it was possible and likely. He took counselling and when eventually he was charged by a number of his victims he lost his job, wife, family, friends and went to goal.

Soon after he came out of goal I lost touch with him but I recall his faithfulness to Mass and personal prayer during that time. I can honestly say I had the greatest respect for him. Here was a man who, through the grace of God, had been able to pull out ‘by the roots’ the all too common self-deceptions that sin can be excused, that it’s not really our responsibility, that it’s too strong for us.

The Pharisees deceived themselves by imagining that fastidious obedience to the exterior practices of the law regarding washing of hands and pots and pans, as well as tithing and so on, would make them clean and righteous in God’s eyes. How wrong they were!

For it is from within, from men's hearts, that evil intentions emerge ...

Having acknowledged our sin as offensive to God and our own responsibility we then need to acknowledge that we are not capable of dealing with it on our own – but that God is.

Regular ‘one on one’ confession to a priest – faithfulness to Sunday Mass – daily prayer which is significant and focussed – spending prolonged time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – penance – service in the community – and the support of a spiritual director or prayer group are all graces from God which help us ‘starve’ that tree within us ‘from the roots up’. Its final destruction is reserved to God but a sick tree cannot bear fruit: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.

Mary’s foot on the roots of the tree indicate for me not only that God has preserved her immaculate, free from all evil, but that she can assist us, her children, to become free too. Do not ignore this great gift of God to our salvation. He came to us through her and invites us to come to him through her.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Joshua 24:1-2.15-18; Ephesians 5:21-32; Gospel 6:60-69

If you were at Mass last Thursday you would have heard read Matthew’s gospel  – chapter 22, verses 1-14. A king prepares a banquet of fine foods and sends his servants to call those who had been invited; but they are not interested. Some just walk away (one to his farm, another to his business), while others seize his servants and maltreat them and even kill them.

Today’s gospel concludes the teaching which Jesus has been giving over the last few weeks. He, too, has been offering a banquet to his listeners; a banquet of food and drink so rich it offers eternal life – his own flesh and blood. Now he awaits the response of his listeners.

Joshua (1^st Reading) also waits for a decision. He has gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem and called them to choose, to make a decision: If you will not serve the Lord, choose today whom you wish to serve, whether the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living.

Only human freedom can truly decide. Yes or no? This God or that god? Are you coming to the banquet or not? Do you accept my teaching or not? Do you believe or not?

Before Joshua the People make their choice: We...will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

The guests who walk away from the king’s banquet make their decision. No, I’m going to the farm; I have some work to do there. No, I’m off to attend to my business; I need to make money.

And the disciples who decide to leave Jesus and stop being his disciples are also making a choice. We might judge that they are making the wrong choice, a decision which will have consequences, but we cannot deny that there is something true, something honest, something healthy, something real about their walking away from what they cannot accept. It is the logical thing to do.

And notice that neither the king nor Jesus has anything to say about those who make a decision to walk away. Jesus simply says: …there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe and who it was that would betray him.

…and who it was that would betray him – this is the first reference to Judas.

Notice Jesus makes a clear distinction between not believing and betraying.

Judas would have done better to simply walk away with the others. He would have been in good company: the rich young man who ‘went away sad’; the apostles who ran away from him in the garden; the disciples of Emmaus who left Jerusalem. To leave would have been the understandable and proper thing for Judas to do – but he didn’t. For whatever reason, most probably the ease with which he could help himself to the contents of the money meant for the poor, he stayed – and became a traitor.

Judas was like the man who entered the wedding celebration without a wedding garment? He wanted to be a part of the feast but on his own terms. Poor Judas!

About the man without the wedding garment the king said: Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. About Judas Jesus said: …Alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born! (Mtt 26:24)

Fortunately, like Israel who committed themselves to serve the Lord, the Twelve commit themselves to Jesus. On their behalf Simon Peter declared: Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.

The Twelve, gathered around their Master, form the pillars of his Church. It was most unlikely that they had understood the teaching Jesus had just given; it was the person of the Christ, the man Jesus, to whom they declared their loyalty and love; their communion was with him.

Though this small band of Apostles has now grown in our own day to a College of Bishops over five thousand strong they are still ‘the Twelve’. They are still the teachers and guardians of the truth Jesus has left with his body, the Church. They are as much the living voice of Christ as the Twelve were after the Lord’s resurrection.

They teach with the authority of Christ and we stand before them as we stand obediently before Christ. Many have walked away from the Church’s teaching – I will not condemn them; they may return one day. Many are not yet ready to accept the teaching of the Church – it would be foolish to condemn them – only Christ can see into their hearts.

But, and finally, what are we to make of those among us who do not believe; those who pretend to a communion they do not possess? What are we to make of those who criticise and condemn the Church, publicly and privately denying and rejecting her teachings, casting doubts among the faithful and sowing confusion and division, and yet, all the while claiming to be Catholic?

Our communion cannot be with Christ if it is not also with his body, the Church. A man is not pleased when you despise or ignore his wife because they are one body and: a man never hates his own body.

My friends, the Church submits to Christ... . In other words, she has nothing that is not his. We cannot claim to love Christ without loving the Church - and we cannot walk away from the Church without walking away from Christ.

Had he not told them (Lk 10:16): Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me?

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

In 2001 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, our present Pope, published a small book entitled God Is Near Us. One of the chapters in that book is headed The Presence of the Lord in the Sacrament. It makes wonderful reading. He begins this chapter with the very text of the Gospel of today's Mass: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.

Yes, indeed, God is near us, and we might recall with joy the exultant words of Deuteronomy 4:7: What great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us?

In Jesus God himself has taken flesh and come to dwell among us, sharing our human condition and giving himself totally in love to us and for us to the Father, and then remaining with us, daily feeding us with his flesh and blood in the form of bread and wine. He places himself, as Cardinal Ratzinger says, 'in our hands and in our hearts'. We praise him and sing to our God a joyful hymn, marvelling 'that such a thing could be.'

And yet, as we all know, the doctrine of the Real Presence of our Lord in the Eucharistic bread and wine has been a stumbling block in the faith of many who would otherwise wish to be Christians. And it was so from the very beginning, from the moment Jesus first taught it in the synagogue at Capernaum. People have always murmured and revolted against it - that such a thing could be.

Since then the murmurs have continued down the centuries to our very day: This is not the way we want our God to be, humble and near to us, in a mystery of presence so embarrassingly intimate - we want him great and far away.

Cardinal Ratzinger identifies a number of objections to Catholic teaching on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist but let us look at just the first. He puts it this way: Does the Bible actually say anything like that? Does it present us with this or is it just the naive misunderstanding of a later age .. ?'

In the 16th Century the dispute which raged was over the meaning of the word is in the phrases: this is my Body ... this is my Blood.

Are we to understand the word is as referring to a true bodily presence or is Jesus merely using an image which should be understood as: this stands for my Body and Blood?

Scholars have debated this point down through the ages until they realised that to debate the meaning of a word outside it's context is ultimately a waste of time. Just as a note of music gains its significance only from its place in the symphony as a whole, so this pivotal word is must be looked at from within its place in the context in which it is used. When we do this we can see that the Bible gives a perfectly clear answer.

The sixth chapter of St John's Gospel is a clear and explicit teaching on the Eucharist. Jesus introduces the doctrine in words which can hardly be said to be ambiguous. That's precisely why the Jews got so upset - it was so clear! They understood perfectly what Jesus was saying. He was asking them to eat his flesh and drink his blood and this thought was not only repugnant to their (and our) human sensibility but it was also dead against the Law of God - and Jesus knew it.

His listeners objected a number of times but Jesus took no account of their objections. If you are going to teach something teach it; put it out there and then let your listeners deal with it.

There was no way Jesus could have made this teaching more acceptable to them and, besides, like all his teachings, this one, God's teaching, is not susceptible to human criticism.

Jesus had already told them: This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent. (Jn 6:29) He was not asking them to grasp the hows and whys .. he was asking them to believe in the one on whom the Father, God himself, has set his seal. (Jn 6:27)

It was a moment of high drama: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you ... my flesh is food indeed.

How easily Jesus could have pacified them if his words had only been metaphors or figures of speech! But they weren't, and they aren't, and so he didn't. He held his ground: If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.

The Jews could not believe, it was possible. How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

Next week we will see them walk away. How disastrous for them! But that's how it is, isn't it? Refusal to believe is always a walking away but, and let's be clear about this, it is a walking away which does not invalidate the truth.

The Jews walked away from the teaching on Holy Communion because they understood. Sometimes I think many people today ask to have their children baptised and confirmed and have them do their first Confession and Communion because they don't understand.

If Jesus' words are, as Peter affirmed, words of life, then simple logic points out the direction of this walking away and its ultimate destination - and it
is not towards heaven.

Jesus came to us in a body because we live in a body. We are not angels but humans and so we have a bodily existence. What Jesus did in the synagogue of Capernaum was to assure us that he would give us bodily food, real food, which we were going to have to eat, like all real food. This food would give life to us, body and soul. It would give us eternal life, body and soul.

If the bread and wine of the Eucharist remain just bread and wine they are not the Body and Blood of our Redeemer and so they cannot give life.

St Augustine struggled with these questions during his conversion and one day was granted a vision in which a voice said to him: I am the bread of the strong, eat me! But you will not transform me and make me part of you; rather, I will transform you and make you part of me.