Saturday, August 11, 2012

HOMILY FOR THE 19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B 1 Kings 19:4-8/ Psalm 34/ Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51 THEME: Stop murmuring

Christ is the living bread essential to us as a pilgrim people called to an “impossible” love on earth, and eternal life with God: this is the essential message of today’s readings. Both the bread God gives Elijah (First Reading) and the manna he gives the Israelites (Gospel) prefigure the Eucharist. It enables them to complete their journey, to where God has called them; yet neither has the virtue and the power of the living bread, Jesus, who feeds us with his word and with his own flesh. Strengthened by this bread, we become able to follow his way of love, and the seed of eternal life is sown in us (Second Reading and Gospel). The first reading of today forms part of the large section of the First Book of Kings (Chapter 17, 18 & 19). Elijah had raised to life the son of the widow of Zarephath; he has won victory over the prophets of Baal; he had predicted drought in the land and the like. All these events show God’s hand powerfully at work in his life. Yet, today, he flees from Jezebel who wanted to kill him because he had killed the prophets of baal. Elijah was so frustrated that he told God: “… he asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors’ (1Kings 19:4). This is surely human nature. In our moments of adversity, we easily forget about the successes God has enabled us to attain. The pilgrimage of Christian life can be arduous. There are times when life – or maybe just the coming week! – can appear too arduous a journey. God speaks to us then, as to Elijah; like Elijah, we often do not get the message. He has to repeat it, arouse us again and again from our discouragements and lack of trust. We need to learn not to let the minutes and hours of our life leak away through the cracks of our inaction and faint-heartedness. This necessary pilgrimage is “the time of grace and mercy which God offers [man] so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny” (CCC 1013). Compared with the eternal life God promises us, the span of our lives is a mere speck, a tiny instant; whatever the effort required to reach the “mountain of God”, where all is right, forever, it is eminently worthwhile. By referring to the “murmuring” of the people – their critical small-mindedness and complaining – Jesus quite deliberately harks back to the people of the exodus, who had also “murmured” against God in the desert (Exodus 16:2). This is a pervasive and extremely negative human trait in which the echoes of mankind’s first sin, with its distrust of God’s benevolence (Genesis 3:5), still reverberate all too clearly. It fails to take into account: that God is our Father; that everything he allows is a precious gift of his love to us; that everything is not just possible but “easy” for him; and that we cannot possibly grasp more than a very faint inkling of his intentions and his plans. On both occasions in the desert, God “shows up” how inadequate purely human thinking, unenlightened by faith, really is. The strength of Christians is found in the Eucharist. And yet it is true that by ourselves, like Elijah, we would be unable to reach the goal. The goal proposed to us as Christians – how we should live in this life, what will be in the next – is so lofty that not even what God worked in Old Testament times is enough. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died”. To walk through this life in such a way as to be worthy of being called to eternal life – that is, to live lives effectively inspired by love (Matthew 25:16) from which the opposite has been expelled (Second Reading) – we need “the bread that comes down from heaven (Jesus), for a man to eat and never die”. “ Elijah had had enough. The greatest of the Old Testament prophets was n0t just tempted to give up; he practically did so. Is it any wonder then that similar temptations can assail us too? Ours are perhaps less dramatic, but for that very reason, all the more insidious. The Christian way, the “way of love”, is long, and at close range can often seem as barren as the desert that stretched out endlessly before the prophet. We tire of trying to love people who just do not seem very lovable! Sure, it sounds like a beautiful program, but whatever about the saints (and, well, nations and statesmen and Church leaders, whom we readily criticize if they do not follow it), it is not for us. But the Christian message is that it is indeed possible. St Paul reveals the secret for achieving it. Of course, if we do not follow his advice, we should not be surprised we cannot manage it. No one, not even Elijah, can do it on his own. What is the key? Look to Christ. His love is made tangibly present in the Eucharist. Eating his body and drinking his blood we will be fortified to walk the long road. And like Elijah it will enable us to reach the mountain of God. We have the problem that it is too easy for us to receive the body of Christ in Communion. We do not take it seriously. Imagine how we would think about Communion if it were possible to receive it only in one place on earth –say, Jerusalem – and only once in our lifetime. Perhaps we would all have a year-long retreat, with fasting on bread and water, to prepare for it. It would be the high point of our lives. But it is no less marvelous because we can receive Communion every day if we please. It should still be the high point of our lives: we just get to repeat it. The Holy Father’s purpose in writing his recent encyclical on the Eucharist is precisely to revive in us the kind of awed amazement and wonder that should overcome us when confronted with this extraordinary mystery. This is not an emotional response but amazement rooted in faith. It arises if our actions with regard the Eucharist are expressive of such faith: receiving communion frequently and well, dropping into the parish on our way home to pay the Lord a visit, attending adoration or other Eucharistic devotions, reflecting seriously and with wonder on the mystery. In conclusion, the fruit of Holy Communion is overwhelming for “What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit, preserves increases and renews the life of grace received at baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum. CCC 1392). Lessons • Life is a pilgrimage. This necessary pilgrimage is “the time of grace and mercy which God offers [man] so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny” (CCC 1013). • Stop murmuring. This is a pervasive and extremely negative human trait in which the echoes of mankind’s first sin, with its distrust of God’s benevolence (Genesis 3:5), still reverberate all too clearly. It fails to take into account: that God is our Father; that everything he allows is a precious gift of his love to us; that everything is not just possible but “easy” for him; and that we cannot possibly grasp more than a very faint inkling of his intentions and his plans. On both occasions in the desert, God “shows up” how inadequate purely human thinking, unenlightened by faith, really is. • The strength of Christians is found in the Eucharist. Elijah had had enough. The greatest of the Old Testament prophets was n0t just tempted to give up; he practically did so. Is it any wonder then that similar temptations can assail us too

HOMILY FOR THE 19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B 1 Kings 19:4-8/ Psalm 34/ Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51 THEME: Stop murmuring

Christ is the living bread essential to us as a pilgrim people called to an “impossible” love on earth, and eternal life with God: this is the essential message of today’s readings. Both the bread God gives Elijah (First Reading) and the manna he gives the Israelites (Gospel) prefigure the Eucharist. It enables them to complete their journey, to where God has called them; yet neither has the virtue and the power of the living bread, Jesus, who feeds us with his word and with his own flesh. Strengthened by this bread, we become able to follow his way of love, and the seed of eternal life is sown in us (Second Reading and Gospel). The first reading of today forms part of the large section of the First Book of Kings (Chapter 17, 18 & 19). Elijah had raised to life the son of the widow of Zarephath; he has won victory over the prophets of Baal; he had predicted drought in the land and the like. All these events show God’s hand powerfully at work in his life. Yet, today, he flees from Jezebel who wanted to kill him because he had killed the prophets of baal. Elijah was so frustrated that he told God: “… he asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors’ (1Kings 19:4). This is surely human nature. In our moments of adversity, we easily forget about the successes God has enabled us to attain. The pilgrimage of Christian life can be arduous. There are times when life – or maybe just the coming week! – can appear too arduous a journey. God speaks to us then, as to Elijah; like Elijah, we often do not get the message. He has to repeat it, arouse us again and again from our discouragements and lack of trust. We need to learn not to let the minutes and hours of our life leak away through the cracks of our inaction and faint-heartedness. This necessary pilgrimage is “the time of grace and mercy which God offers [man] so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny” (CCC 1013). Compared with the eternal life God promises us, the span of our lives is a mere speck, a tiny instant; whatever the effort required to reach the “mountain of God”, where all is right, forever, it is eminently worthwhile. By referring to the “murmuring” of the people – their critical small-mindedness and complaining – Jesus quite deliberately harks back to the people of the exodus, who had also “murmured” against God in the desert (Exodus 16:2). This is a pervasive and extremely negative human trait in which the echoes of mankind’s first sin, with its distrust of God’s benevolence (Genesis 3:5), still reverberate all too clearly. It fails to take into account: that God is our Father; that everything he allows is a precious gift of his love to us; that everything is not just possible but “easy” for him; and that we cannot possibly grasp more than a very faint inkling of his intentions and his plans. On both occasions in the desert, God “shows up” how inadequate purely human thinking, unenlightened by faith, really is. The strength of Christians is found in the Eucharist. And yet it is true that by ourselves, like Elijah, we would be unable to reach the goal. The goal proposed to us as Christians – how we should live in this life, what will be in the next – is so lofty that not even what God worked in Old Testament times is enough. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died”. To walk through this life in such a way as to be worthy of being called to eternal life – that is, to live lives effectively inspired by love (Matthew 25:16) from which the opposite has been expelled (Second Reading) – we need “the bread that comes down from heaven (Jesus), for a man to eat and never die”. “ Elijah had had enough. The greatest of the Old Testament prophets was n0t just tempted to give up; he practically did so. Is it any wonder then that similar temptations can assail us too? Ours are perhaps less dramatic, but for that very reason, all the more insidious. The Christian way, the “way of love”, is long, and at close range can often seem as barren as the desert that stretched out endlessly before the prophet. We tire of trying to love people who just do not seem very lovable! Sure, it sounds like a beautiful program, but whatever about the saints (and, well, nations and statesmen and Church leaders, whom we readily criticize if they do not follow it), it is not for us. But the Christian message is that it is indeed possible. St Paul reveals the secret for achieving it. Of course, if we do not follow his advice, we should not be surprised we cannot manage it. No one, not even Elijah, can do it on his own. What is the key? Look to Christ. His love is made tangibly present in the Eucharist. Eating his body and drinking his blood we will be fortified to walk the long road. And like Elijah it will enable us to reach the mountain of God. We have the problem that it is too easy for us to receive the body of Christ in Communion. We do not take it seriously. Imagine how we would think about Communion if it were possible to receive it only in one place on earth –say, Jerusalem – and only once in our lifetime. Perhaps we would all have a year-long retreat, with fasting on bread and water, to prepare for it. It would be the high point of our lives. But it is no less marvelous because we can receive Communion every day if we please. It should still be the high point of our lives: we just get to repeat it. The Holy Father’s purpose in writing his recent encyclical on the Eucharist is precisely to revive in us the kind of awed amazement and wonder that should overcome us when confronted with this extraordinary mystery. This is not an emotional response but amazement rooted in faith. It arises if our actions with regard the Eucharist are expressive of such faith: receiving communion frequently and well, dropping into the parish on our way home to pay the Lord a visit, attending adoration or other Eucharistic devotions, reflecting seriously and with wonder on the mystery. In conclusion, the fruit of Holy Communion is overwhelming for “What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit, preserves increases and renews the life of grace received at baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum. CCC 1392). Lessons • Life is a pilgrimage. This necessary pilgrimage is “the time of grace and mercy which God offers [man] so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny” (CCC 1013). • Stop murmuring. This is a pervasive and extremely negative human trait in which the echoes of mankind’s first sin, with its distrust of God’s benevolence (Genesis 3:5), still reverberate all too clearly. It fails to take into account: that God is our Father; that everything he allows is a precious gift of his love to us; that everything is not just possible but “easy” for him; and that we cannot possibly grasp more than a very faint inkling of his intentions and his plans. On both occasions in the desert, God “shows up” how inadequate purely human thinking, unenlightened by faith, really is. • The strength of Christians is found in the Eucharist. Elijah had had enough. The greatest of the Old Testament prophets was n0t just tempted to give up; he practically did so. Is it any wonder then that similar temptations can assail us too

HOMILY FOR THE 19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B 1 Kings 19:4-8/ Psalm 34/ Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51 THEME: Stop murmuring

Christ is the living bread essential to us as a pilgrim people called to an “impossible” love on earth, and eternal life with God: this is the essential message of today’s readings. Both the bread God gives Elijah (First Reading) and the manna he gives the Israelites (Gospel) prefigure the Eucharist. It enables them to complete their journey, to where God has called them; yet neither has the virtue and the power of the living bread, Jesus, who feeds us with his word and with his own flesh. Strengthened by this bread, we become able to follow his way of love, and the seed of eternal life is sown in us (Second Reading and Gospel). The first reading of today forms part of the large section of the First Book of Kings (Chapter 17, 18 & 19). Elijah had raised to life the son of the widow of Zarephath; he has won victory over the prophets of Baal; he had predicted drought in the land and the like. All these events show God’s hand powerfully at work in his life. Yet, today, he flees from Jezebel who wanted to kill him because he had killed the prophets of baal. Elijah was so frustrated that he told God: “… he asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors’ (1Kings 19:4). This is surely human nature. In our moments of adversity, we easily forget about the successes God has enabled us to attain. The pilgrimage of Christian life can be arduous. There are times when life – or maybe just the coming week! – can appear too arduous a journey. God speaks to us then, as to Elijah; like Elijah, we often do not get the message. He has to repeat it, arouse us again and again from our discouragements and lack of trust. We need to learn not to let the minutes and hours of our life leak away through the cracks of our inaction and faint-heartedness. This necessary pilgrimage is “the time of grace and mercy which God offers [man] so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny” (CCC 1013). Compared with the eternal life God promises us, the span of our lives is a mere speck, a tiny instant; whatever the effort required to reach the “mountain of God”, where all is right, forever, it is eminently worthwhile. By referring to the “murmuring” of the people – their critical small-mindedness and complaining – Jesus quite deliberately harks back to the people of the exodus, who had also “murmured” against God in the desert (Exodus 16:2). This is a pervasive and extremely negative human trait in which the echoes of mankind’s first sin, with its distrust of God’s benevolence (Genesis 3:5), still reverberate all too clearly. It fails to take into account: that God is our Father; that everything he allows is a precious gift of his love to us; that everything is not just possible but “easy” for him; and that we cannot possibly grasp more than a very faint inkling of his intentions and his plans. On both occasions in the desert, God “shows up” how inadequate purely human thinking, unenlightened by faith, really is. The strength of Christians is found in the Eucharist. And yet it is true that by ourselves, like Elijah, we would be unable to reach the goal. The goal proposed to us as Christians – how we should live in this life, what will be in the next – is so lofty that not even what God worked in Old Testament times is enough. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died”. To walk through this life in such a way as to be worthy of being called to eternal life – that is, to live lives effectively inspired by love (Matthew 25:16) from which the opposite has been expelled (Second Reading) – we need “the bread that comes down from heaven (Jesus), for a man to eat and never die”. “ Elijah had had enough. The greatest of the Old Testament prophets was n0t just tempted to give up; he practically did so. Is it any wonder then that similar temptations can assail us too? Ours are perhaps less dramatic, but for that very reason, all the more insidious. The Christian way, the “way of love”, is long, and at close range can often seem as barren as the desert that stretched out endlessly before the prophet. We tire of trying to love people who just do not seem very lovable! Sure, it sounds like a beautiful program, but whatever about the saints (and, well, nations and statesmen and Church leaders, whom we readily criticize if they do not follow it), it is not for us. But the Christian message is that it is indeed possible. St Paul reveals the secret for achieving it. Of course, if we do not follow his advice, we should not be surprised we cannot manage it. No one, not even Elijah, can do it on his own. What is the key? Look to Christ. His love is made tangibly present in the Eucharist. Eating his body and drinking his blood we will be fortified to walk the long road. And like Elijah it will enable us to reach the mountain of God. We have the problem that it is too easy for us to receive the body of Christ in Communion. We do not take it seriously. Imagine how we would think about Communion if it were possible to receive it only in one place on earth –say, Jerusalem – and only once in our lifetime. Perhaps we would all have a year-long retreat, with fasting on bread and water, to prepare for it. It would be the high point of our lives. But it is no less marvelous because we can receive Communion every day if we please. It should still be the high point of our lives: we just get to repeat it. The Holy Father’s purpose in writing his recent encyclical on the Eucharist is precisely to revive in us the kind of awed amazement and wonder that should overcome us when confronted with this extraordinary mystery. This is not an emotional response but amazement rooted in faith. It arises if our actions with regard the Eucharist are expressive of such faith: receiving communion frequently and well, dropping into the parish on our way home to pay the Lord a visit, attending adoration or other Eucharistic devotions, reflecting seriously and with wonder on the mystery. In conclusion, the fruit of Holy Communion is overwhelming for “What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit, preserves increases and renews the life of grace received at baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum. CCC 1392). Lessons • Life is a pilgrimage. This necessary pilgrimage is “the time of grace and mercy which God offers [man] so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny” (CCC 1013). • Stop murmuring. This is a pervasive and extremely negative human trait in which the echoes of mankind’s first sin, with its distrust of God’s benevolence (Genesis 3:5), still reverberate all too clearly. It fails to take into account: that God is our Father; that everything he allows is a precious gift of his love to us; that everything is not just possible but “easy” for him; and that we cannot possibly grasp more than a very faint inkling of his intentions and his plans. On both occasions in the desert, God “shows up” how inadequate purely human thinking, unenlightened by faith, really is. • The strength of Christians is found in the Eucharist. Elijah had had enough. The greatest of the Old Testament prophets was n0t just tempted to give up; he practically did so. Is it any wonder then that similar temptations can assail us too

Sunday, August 5, 2012

HOMILY FOR THE 18TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Psalm 78; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35 THEME: Let Christ be your priority

The central message that links the first reading and the gospel is the food that God provides for his people. In the desert Israel received manna, a food which could give strength to a perishable body. Now God feeds his people with the bread of life, with his word: Jesus of Nazareth. The second reading shows the kind of transformation this bread can work. Those who assimilate it will become new people. The Father is the one who provides man with the food he needs for his life (First Reading, Psalm, and Gospel). But like pagans, we live with empty minds (Second Reading) and are so taken up with filling our stomachs and the needs of this life that we fail to grasp the real meaning of his gifts or the incomparable worth of the bread of life who is Jesus himself (Gospel). Receiving this gift we become a new creation, with “a fresh, spiritual way of thinking” (Second Reading). In the first reading of today, the people of Israel showed ingratitude to God by murmuring against Moses because they were hungry in the following words: “if only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3). Ingratitude has filled their hearts so much so that they had just forgotten how God had delivered them from the power of the Egyptians through the Red Sea. They preferred slavery to freedom. In our moments of adversity, let us be mindful of what we say and do. Let us learn to show gratitude at all times because this is what pleases God. They tested the patience of God but God proved faithful to them once more for the Lord spoke to Moses: “ At twilight you shall eat meat and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 16:12). Anything that God does in our lives is meant for His glory. As if that was not enough, when they saw the manna, they ask with impunity “What is it” (V.14). When we fail to see God’s hand at work in every circumstance of our lives, we will surely be ungrateful to him. People want God today because of the benefits he is able to give them. But God wants us for a lasting relationship. This is what the gospel reading of today draws our attention to. Last week, Jesus feeds the multitude to draw our attention to the fact that he provides our needs at all times even when we fail to recognise it. Today, they follow him and Jesus tells them: “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that the Father has set his seal” (John 6:26-27). I thought the signs that Jesus performed should rather lead them to faith in him. I am sure that this generation will have won Jesus’ admiration because we are prone to signs and wonders. Why are you here today? What is your motivation for coming to Church today? People want Jesus today because of the benefits he is able to give them. But Jesus wants to establish a lasting relationship with you. Jesus invites them to believe in his person as someone sent by God. It is only this that can guarantee them salvation. He invites them to transcend this material world and its goods and think seriously about what brings them salvation when he told them that he is the bread that has come down from heaven. It was as if they did not still understand Jesus. All they could ask for was that “…Sir, give us this bread always” (v.34). Jesus then dropped the bombshell namely his first “I AM” saying “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (v.35). This statement became the basis for Jesus’ rejection by his own people. Many will begin deserting him. But Jesus never stops making such statements. Today is no exception. Not even modernity or post- modernity has changed this statement of Jesus because it is the truth. Like the people of old, there is a void in our hearts and lives that only God can fill. In grace our Lord fed the hungry people but in truth, he gave them the Word of God. They wanted the food but they did not want the truth and in the end, most of them abandoned him and refused to walk with him. He lost his crowd with one sermon namely the Eucharist. For God so loved the world that, not content with giving us his only Son through the Incarnation, he continues giving him to us each day in the Eucharist. The Eucharist comes from the Father. The Eucharist also leads us to the Father (the Eucharistic liturgy, reflecting this, is all “turned towards” the Father). In fact, what the Eucharist is, is not a kind of “static” presence of Christ, but the living and perfect self-offering of Christ to his Father, carried out by giving himself to us and for us. What a marvelous synthesis of the faith! Here is the heart of Christian dogma and ethics all in one. Christ saves man by offering himself to his Father, out of love for the Father and for us. The great commandment of love of God and man – practiced here in the most extreme way by Christ- is instantly justified and made imperative by the fact that we are necessarily configured with this saving event (its “pattern” is imprinted in our being as Christians). Pope John Paul II has stated firmly in his latest encyclical that all who take part in the Eucharist must “be committed to changing their lives and making them in a certain way completely ‘Eucharistic’”: which means “a transfigured existence and a commitment to transforming the world in accordance with the Gospel According to St Paul in the second reading, if Christ is really active in our lives (and who among us wants to claim he is not?), our very way of thinking will have been turned upside down; that is, it will have been put right, because sin has perverted the order of our values. Our priorities (when we vote, when we wonder if we should have more children or not, when we choose our entertainment, when we go shopping, when we are tempted to cut corners at work, take advantage of a customer, or skip our homework, and when we make any of the countless minor decisions of every day) will not be “what is in it for me”, “what will this do for my bank account”, “is it pleasurable” or “can I get away with it”, but rather, “how can this help me reach my real goal, eternal life”, “is this what God wants”, “does it bring me closer to God”, “will this help others”, “will it be a better witness of Christian life”. In conclusion, let us draw some quick Lessons: • People want Jesus today because of the benefits he is able to give them. But Jesus wants to establish a lasting relationship with us. • To come to Christ means to yield to him. • Like the people of old, there is a void in our hearts and lives that only God can fill. • That salvation involves both divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The Father gives sons and daughters to Jesus but they must come to him namely believe in him. He assured them that nobody who came to him would ever be lost but would be raise at the last day. Even death cannot rob us of salvation