4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend we celebrate the fourth Sunday of the year. Time is as always passing by and life goes on and We pray for all those who need our prayers and all of us know someone who needs a prayerful boost. Also we are just ending Catholic schools week and we thank God for the gift of education and all those who are or have been our teachers throughout our lives..

In the Gospel reading  Jesus’ preaching begins with affirmation from the hearers. “All who were present spoke favorably of him.” Almost immediately the mood changed. The use of the reading from Isaiah was welcomed. It is good news that the people have waited a long time to see fulfilled. But, somehow conveyed in the words was the suggestion that Jesus himself has a role to play in the inauguration of the eternal Jubilee and it is this that is not acceptable. The examples that follow indicate that Jesus was hinting that the word of God was spoken universally, not to one particular person or group of people. The stories of the prophets, Elijah and Elisha, show that God’s love and mercy are to be found wherever there is a need and the faith to receive it. Jesus at Nazareth was experiencing the fate of all prophets.

But prophecy, being a spokesperson for God, is not about pleasing people. It’s about speaking the truth, sometimes the truth that no one wants to hear, the truth that often gets covered up, and yet the truth that one must hear and heed for one’s own good. The reaction from the group was swift and indignant. They rose up and wanted to throw him not only out of the synagogue but out of the town. The hearers hardened their hearts to the word as many today harden their hearts to the word.. Why did the crowd rise up against Jesus? Because he stepped outside the box they had constructed for him. He was no longer the local boy who made good; he was a self-proclaimed prophet. And his signs were not for the edification of the mob, but for the glory of God. In these ways, he rejected the expectations of those in Nazareth, and, so, they rejected him. As a last sign to them, Jesus walked safely through them and, according to Scripture, he never returned to his hometown.  For all of us expectations are always really hard to fulfill as we hear from the readings of this weekend. But, faith is not based upon expectations, it is based on a proper relationship with God. We must recognize the difference between the two. And as we recognize that difference we place our expectations before God and he will help us to do what he asks of us. There is a great saying that was often quoted to me by a friend who passed on a few years ago she always pointed out that man proposes and God disposes.

That  means that god will see and do whatever is good for us whether we like it or not for sometimes what we think is good is in fact the opposite !! So this  weekend we pray that we will see what god proposes for us and have the will to  do it.

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday we celebrate the 3^rd Sunday of ordinary time as we end the week of prayer for Christian unity. we also begin our annual week long celebration of our catholic schools. During Catholic schools week which this year has as its theme Catholic Schools living life to the full there will be a range of events in the parishes where we live. In the Gospel Reading for this Sunday Luke wants to make very clear to his readers what drives Jesus the Prophet from Galilee and what is the goal of his action. We as Christians need to know in what direction God’s Spirit pushes Jesus, since following him means that we are walking in the same direction as he did.  We remember that the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his Baptism in the Jordan. With the Spirit poured upon him, Jesus would proclaim freedom for the captives, the blind, and those in need. When Jesus proclaimed the Good News, he proclaimed the Spirit. Since Spirit meant breath, Jesus breathed God’s word in his words and deeds.  The power of his proclamation changed people, situations, and environments because he breathed out the power of God.  When Jesus spoke, hearts turned to God and health of mind body and spirit were restored.

There is an immediate life-implication of this Sundays  passage that is easy to overlook for us in our I want I get world. it is this: The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Jesus and comes upon the Church in order to bring good news to the people. The presence of the Spirit means joy. In the 21st century we’re OK with entertainment and pleasure, but we are often suspicious of Spiritual joy because it might be a pie in the sky illusion. How can we talk about or even allow ourselves to experience joy, when there is so much false hope, so much suffering, so much serious work to be done in the world around us especially as a result of the pandemic? The paradox of Christian faith is the cross of Jesus. The cross symbolizes the pain and sorrow that Jesus and we know so well . At the same time, the cross of Jesus is the ultimate revelation of the love and mercy of God shown to us through his son. “For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12: 2). The joy that lay before him was not only that God would wipe away his every tear, but that through his self-giving love, his joy might be in us and our joy might be complete.  What Jesus began  that day was to be continued his Spirit-anointed community, right through to today in  the church that means all of us here and now today right where we are.

In the midst of recurrent waves of uncertainty in our lives, we are called to be joyful and rejoice in the Lord as our strength. That does not mean that we ignore the challenges that weigh heavily upon us and there are many of those. Instead, our rejoicing  helps us to  recall the faithfulness of God throughout the ages and throughout our own lives. Tapping into that joy helps us  remember “God’s got this!” whatever the “this” is,  over and over again, now and forever, no matter what happens in our world he is out strength and our joy and we are empowered by that same Spirit to pass the joy of Jesus on to those we meet as we go about our daily lives .

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Weekend we hear the Gospel story of the Wedding Feast at Cana. The wedding at Cana which was the first time that Jesus worked a miracle when he changed the water into wine. We hear Mary telling Jesus that ‘they have no wine’ Jesus said ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’  This Gospel is a story with many threads – the insight into the relationship between Mary and Jesus – the miracle of the wine itself – the fact that the miraculous wine is better than the original – the fact of Jesus honouring the young couple in this way . The bride and groom whose wedding is being celebrated are in the background because at the heart of this story we see Mary and Jesus. Mary, who asks for help when she tells Jesus “they have no wine”, Mary the faith filled disciple, has trust in divine providence. In the place of the divine spouse, stands Jesus Son of the Father. The care, concern and affection of God are manifest in the Son and it is the care and affection for all of us  that are reflected through Mary his mother. In her response at the wedding at Cana Mary shows herself a model disciple who trusts in God.

Mary shows that trust with the words that are meant for all of us even now as we hear  them again in 2022 “Do whatever he tells you.”  In the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes there is an icon over the main altar with the words To Jesus through Mary and that is another aspect of this story, Mary always points away from herself to Jesus. Mary is giving us the direction to do what Jesus asks us to do. She is not saying that we should do what she wants us to do instead she is showing us the way to Jesus the son of God. She is mother to us all and  also the first disciple of her son. She knows the way to live because she learned it by listening to her son and pondering in her heart what he did and said. We should listen closely to what she says as Mary is the one who “keeps all these things in her heart,.” Do whatever he tells you is Mary’s message for us today and we need to stop and ponder what is Jesus telling us to do in 2022 in the midst of everything that is going on in our lives and in the world at large at this time. As we think about the wedding at Cana are we like Mary prepared to ponder all these things in our hearts and trust the Father who give us everything or are we prepared just to trundle along accepting the things that come along whatever they may be..

We need to learn and understand the message that is given to us through Jesus whose mother points the way to him and asks us in the to ”do whatever he tells us to do” are we prepared to do that hopefully all of us are.

The Baptism of the Lord

This Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John. The beginning of the messianic work of Jesus is marked by the moment of his baptism. The sacrament of Baptism is the key that opens the door to all the other sacraments for us. Baptism has two essential results, firstly it wipes us clean from original sin making us one with God and secondly it is the beginning for us as  we begin our journeys as members of the Church. Baptism gives us the opportunity to receive the other sacraments, most particularly the Eucharist which is the sacrament that we most frequently experience it is the main way that our souls are nourished by God’s grace.

We remember that the Baptist foretold Jesus  coming and he is acclaimed on earth by John and Jesus links himself to John by being baptized by him. After his baptism Jesus is acclaimed from heaven by the voice of the Father and the presence of the Spirit.   None of us will remember our own baptism but for those who were baptised as adults there is the added bonus of being able to tell others about their baptism as well as the journey that has brought them into the faith. Through our baptism we died with Christ and have been reborn into a whole new life (Romans 6). We, the baptized, are made a part of the body of Christ. We are  called to imitate Jesus, whom Paul says, “went about doing good.” We don’t need a detailed rule book in order to know how we should act in each situation of our lives, for in baptism, we have the companionship of the Spirit who is our wisdom, our help and our guide to do good, and that Holy Spirit enables us to do what is right in every situation we may find ourselves in. The baptism of Jesus is a moment of special grace in the story of salvation.

Not only did the Son of God join us in our human condition but the Father and the Spirit were seen and heard to be present with him by the banks of the Jordan. The gospel for this Sunday uses the simple phrase that “the heavens were opened,” the voice of the Father was heard saying this is my Son and it is a powerful statement. This particular gospel story is the beginning of the journey that Jesus was to undertake and it brought him to Calvary and the cross. Through our own baptism, each of us is asked to travel a journey of faith though we won’t end up on the Cross. Our personal faith journeys have one great purpose and the purpose is to try and live our lives as people of God inspired by Jesus and enlivened by the Holy Spirit. Sons and daughters of the Father who are called through  baptism to bring his love into the world so that the world may see how we live our lives and believe in what they see and that is the love of God in action.

Second Sunday after Christmas

How fitting  it is  that we begin the New Year 2022 with a focus on Mary, the Mother of God, and. 2021 was not exactly a year that most people I know want to remember except that now it is over and we were blessed to see it end and we thank god we have come through despite all the rules and regulations the  pandemic has brought to us. We also thank god for the life and the ministry of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa who passed died at the beginning of this week whose funeral took place this morning, may he rest in peace. We are now on the countdown awaiting the arrival of the Three Wise Men on Epiphany which takes place on 6^th January in Ireland.

By long standing tradition Christians celebrate Christmas as a season, with the twelve days between Christmas and the Epiphany as one long “Christmas feast.” The season ends with the Baptism of the Lord which is also the first Sunday of ordinary time.

I am certain many people  out there are asking themselves the time honored question for this time of the year,  why did I make such a fuss!!!  So many make a fuss about the secular part of Christmas and as a result they have missed the essential message of the season. The essential message is that Jesus Emmanuel was born in the stable in Bethlehem at Christmas and  that he is the reason for the season. Our readings this weekend are all about Wisdom and the blessings of God and the Gospel tells us about the word who was in fact the Son of God.

Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as “a man to men.”  He “speaks the words of God” to us and completes the work of salvation which His Father gave Him to do. To see Jesus is to see His Father. To see Jesus is to see the face of the Fathers love for all of us. Through the “least,” and the poor, Christ comes to us. That’s a lesson that we need to continually remember and proclaim in our lives and our dealings with other people. We will find Christ among the “least” and this is the message that lies at the heart of our faith It is the message that Pope Francis is proclaiming in our own time and place. May we not be afraid in the year that has just begun to seek the wisdom that God wants for us, that is the wisdom and the light of faith so that we will be able to show the love  of god to those around us during the year that that has just started today  as well as throughout our lives especially during this time of the pandemic..