Don't Look Back

 

                  13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Elijah was one of the great prophets in the Old Testament. In his time--about 700 years before the birth of Christ-- the Jewish people, their leaders, and their priests had departed from their ancient faith to follow strange gods. Elijah stood virtually alone against this apostasy. Jewish tradition held that Elijah would one day return to usher in a new age. 

 

In today's first reading Elijah, at the request of the Lord, chooses Elisha to be his successor. The young man is working, he is plowing a field, when Elijah calls him by throwing his cloak over him. Elisha understands that he has been called but only asks that he be allowed to kiss his father and mother good-bye. Elijah's response indicates that Elisha is under no compulsion. He is free to do what he wants. He has to choose. In his own way, by slaughtering the oxen, he sells all he has and gives it to the poor. Then "Elisha left and followed Elijah." 

 

Who could not see the similarity between this episode and today's gospel? Chapter 9 of St. Luke's gospel is full of the signs and wonders that Jesus worked. The most incredible sign was the multiplication of the loaves and fishes when Jesus fed the multitude. Many in the crowd thought that Elijah had returned. Afterwards, Jesus asked the disciples, "who do you say that I am?" Right after Peter replied that Jesus is the "Christ of God," St. Luke tells us that our Lord took Peter, James, and John up the mountain where He was transfigured or glorified. At the Transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared talking with Jesus. We don't have that reading today because the Church always has reserved the Transfiguration for the second Sunday of Lent.

 

Unfortunately, when they come down from the mountain, Jesus finds that people, even his followers, do not understand. A man has to beg Him to free his son from an evil spirit because the disciples had not been able. Jesus "healed the boy and restored him to his father." Next the disciples can't believe Him when he again says that He "is to be betrayed into the hands of men." Finally, they even start arguing among themselves about "which of them was the greatest." Again Jesus has to rebuke them: "he who is the least among you, he is the greatest."  

 

This is the background to our gospel today where Jesus sets out on the "journey to Jerusalem." His first stop is a Samaritan village. Samaritans were Jews who long before had intermarried with non-Jews and accepted strange gods. Here we see our Lord's standard operating procedure. When they refuse to welcome Him, when they turn their backs on Him, and fail to offer Him even common hospitality, He just moves on to the next village. It's their choice. 

 

Then St. Luke tells us of three individuals who express a desire to follow Jesus. The stories are brief and puzzling and have been subject to much interpretation. I don't think that Jesus wants us to disregard our basic human obligations. My guess is that Jesus knew that his would-be followers were offering excuses or having second thoughts. "Let me go first and bury my father," or "first let me say farewell to my family at home."

 

Jesus says to the fearful, to the undecided, to the waverers among us, "don't look back,""seize the moment," "strike while the iron is hot." He actually uses a proverb that was old even in His day, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." In a famous parable He spoke of a merchant who was willing to give up everything he had in order to gain the  "pearl of great price."

 

For St. Paul the "pearl of great price" is our freedom. Our journey to Jerusalem is a journey to find our freedom. It's strange that although we live in a world that values freedom above everything else, we actually possess so little of it. It's not just that so many people in the world live under tyrants and despots, or that so many are victims of poverty and hunger. Even here in the greatest and wealthiest country in the world's history, so many of us are enslaved to one addiction or another. 

 

Could it be that our emphasis on "self-esteem" has led us down the wrong path?

 A children's doctor suggested as much in a newspaper column the other day. We have to recognize that the basic principles of religion are at odds with the world today, just as in the time of Elijah or St. Paul. Self-sacrifice, not self-esteem, is at the heart of Christianity. Last week our Lord said that we must lose our life in order to find it.

 

This week St. Paul reminds us that our flesh (our individual desires) is at war with the Spirit. He says that Spirit and flesh "are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want." Anyone on a diet looking at the dessert menu will understand the "war" that goes on within us. Anyone mindlessly flicking through the TV channels for hours will be hard pressed to explain to themselves how they could waste so much of the valuable time that has been allotted to them.

 

Today, St. Paul's advice to the Galatians and to us is, "serve one another through love." True freedom is found in the "Golden Rule." "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Wouldn't our children be happier today if they were taught to esteem their parents, relatives, teachers, and neighbors rather than themselves? Wouldn't we be happier?

 

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Reading 1. 1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21

Reading II. Galatians 5: 1, 13-18

Gospel. Luke 9: 51-62 (Let the dead bury their dead). 

Corpus Christi

                  Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

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The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ used to be called the feast of Corpus Christi, from the Latin words which literally mean the Body of Christ. The feast commemorates not just the Body of Christ but also the fact that it was given up or sacrificed for us. That's probably why each of the Mass readings features a priest who makes an offering to God. 

 

The first reading goes back to the first book of the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis, where the mysterious priest-king, Melchizedek, offers up bread and wine to "God Most High." Although little else is known about Melchizedek, the early Fathers of the Church  viewed him as a forerunner of Christ as both priest and king. At Mass if the priest uses the first Eucharistic prayer, he will compare our Eucharistic sacrifice with Melchizedek's.

 

The gospel is St. Luke's account of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes. This miracle, where Jesus provided food for the 5000, has also always been viewed as a precursor of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Like many of the miracles of Jesus this one follows a standard format. Jesus is busy at his work of teaching and healing when a problem--a hungry crowd--is brought to his attention. At first He doesn't see what it has to do with Him, and tells his disciples to take care of it themselves. "Give them some food yourselves." When they confess their own inability, He takes over. 

 

      Then taking the five loaves and two fish,

      and looking up to heaven,

      he said the blessing over them, broke them,

      and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

 

St. Luke concludes that "they all ate and were satisfied," and that plenty was left over.

 

Despite the fact that this miracle is the only one to appear in all four gospels, it is one of the most difficult for many people to accept. Today it is fashionable to offer a purely natural or sociological explanation. Some think that people were shamed by the selfless sharing of Jesus, and proceeded to take food which they had hidden about their persons and share it with their neighbors. 

 

That's one theory but I prefer to think that the God who is responsible for every grain of wheat that grows on the earth, and for every fish that swims in the sea, could feed 5000 people. Right after this miracle St. Mark tells us that Jesus saved His disciples from drowning when he calmed the storm at sea. St. Mark relates this incident to the miracle of the loaves. He says that the disciples in the boat "were utterly beside themselves with astonishment, for they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was blinded."

 

Many people also find it hard today to believe that the Body and Blood of Jesus are offered in the Sacrifice of the Mass. In the second reading from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians we have what is probably the first written account of our Lord's offering of His own Body and Blood at the Last Supper. It's obvious that Paul didn't make these words up. He says that he heard them from the Lord Himself in much the same way that the other Apostles did at that Passover meal.

 

What could the Apostles have been thinking when they saw Jesus take the bread, offer thanks, break it, and then say, "This is my body that is for you?" How could the bread be His Body? Or what about, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." How could the wine be His Blood? We know that they believed it because He said it and because He would raise His Body from the dead only three days later. We also know that the first Christian communities also believed it and from the beginning repeated the Lord's words whenever they gathered together "in remembrance of Him."

 

Since the beginnings of Christianity theologians have tried to come to a better understanding of what our Lord meant. In the Middle Ages they came up with an explanation that is as good as any that has been offered since. Guided by the rediscovery of the works of ancient Greek scientists and philosophers, theologians like St. Thomas Aquinas developed the concept of "transubstantiation."

 

Like most scientific words "transubstantiation" is a long word made up of different parts in order to give greater clarity and precision. But if we break the word down into its parts, we will get a better idea of what it means. First, let's deal with the prefix, "tran." It means going from one thing to another, like in transport or transmit. The suffix, "ation", at the end of the word means a process or action, like in transportation. So if we get rid of the prefix and suffix, we're left with the root or core of the word, "substance." Now  "sub" means under and "stance" comes from the Latin verb, "stare" which means "to stand." 

 

When we deal with substance we're dealing with that which stands under a thing, it's real core, what it is. So "transubstantiation" means that the bread and wine although they still look, and feel, and taste like bread and wine, have become something else. It's something like when we advance through the different stages of life, from infancy to old age. Although our bodies change, aren't we always the same person?

 

However, transubstantiation is an attempt to explain a mystery. It is not the mystery itself. Like the early Christians we believe that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist because our Lord said so at the first Eucharist.

 

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Reading 1. Genesis 14: 18-20

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26

Gospel. Luke 9: 11b-17 (Loaves and Fishes). 

Trinity Sunday 2022

                   Most Holy Trinity

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On Trinity Sunday one is reminded of the great saint and philosopher, St. Augustine. There is a well known story that one day Augustine was thinking about the Trinity while walking upon the seashore. He came upon a little boy who was busy emptying pails of water into a hole he had dug upon the beach. Augustine asked him what he was doing, and the boy replied that he was trying to empty the sea into the hole. When Augustine told the boy that he was attempting the impossible, the boy replied that Augustine in trying to understand the mystery of the Trinity was also attempting the impossible.

 

Nevertheless, the boy's advice did not stop Augustine from writing a treatise on the Trinity. Nor has it stopped theologians and homilists from writing millions of words about the Trinity ever since. None of these words would ever have been written if our Lord had not repeatedly referred to the Trinity during His time on earth. The Church did not invent the idea of the Holy Trinity, our Lord did. 

 

In today's gospel He says that "everything that the Father has is mine," and tells the Apostles gathered at the Last Supper about the coming of "the Spirit of Truth." In our second reading from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, he says that "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," as if the two were somehow different. Paul then goes on to say that "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." Clearly, Paul understood what our Lord was saying.

 

In other words, neither Paul, nor Augustine, or anyone else would have come to the idea  of three persons in one God by the use of reason alone. Reason had led even the pagan philosophers to conclude that the many gods of antiquity were fraudulent, even comical. Reason had led them to conclude even before the time of Christ that there could only be one God. Of course, the Jews had come to this realization even before the philosophers. 

 

Still, only the words of Christ opened up the idea that this one God contained three Divine Persons. Let's pause for a minute and consider the meaning of the word "person." The Latin word "persona" means the mask or masks that ancient actors wore to express different characters or emotions. We've all seen pictures of these masks, some with smiles and others with frowns, which the actors held over their faces while playing their roles. It's similar to the way our TV newsmen will look glum while reporting a tragic story but then smile when the next story deals with the rescue of a cat from a tree.

 

We often today think of our "personality" or "persona" as something different from ourselves. No matter what we are like inside, our personality is the way we appear to the world outside of us. Looking at it this way, couldn't we say that there are many persons in any one of us. A man could be a husband to his wife, a father to his children, a son to his own parents, a friend to his friend, etc. A woman would not be the same person to her husband as she is to her children, or her parents, or her friends. 

 

Certainly Jesus meant much more when He talked about the relationship of the Persons of the Trinity. And I don't mean to suggest that God wears masks. I am merely saying that He has chosen to appear to us in different ways. I know that this is not a scientific explanation but if we consider the Trinity, we will see that our Lord is telling us that it is possible to have a warmer, more intimate relationship with God than our reason could ever imagine. Just imagine that the same God who created not only this world but all the worlds keeps them in existence by love alone. He actually came into our world as one of us. Then after He suffered, died, and rose from the dead, He sent His own Spirit to dwell in us and guide us.

 

Some poor heretics throughout history have been unable to accept this divine intimacy. For some Jesus was God but never truly a man. How could God lower Himself in such a way?  For others, Jesus was a good man but certainly not God. How could a man be God?

We say, however, that what kind of a God would it be who couldn't do it, or who wouldn't do it? 

 

Who would want a different God? God is not a white haired old man sitting on some mountain top waiting to zap us with lightning bolts when we do wrong. He is not some force of nature that guides our evolutionary progress. Neither is He some kind of unconcerned creator who made the world and then ignored it. St. John tells us that God is Love. The Book of Proverbs says that God "found delight with the human race." Our creed tells us that God sent His Son to be one of us, and to suffer and die for us. St. Paul says that the grace of God is our hope,

 

      and hope does not disappoint,

      because the love of God has been poured into our hearts

      through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

 

We have a mystical relationship with the Trinity. Because of the Trinity we can with Jesus call God, "Abba" or "Father." We can call Jesus, "our brother." Finally, we can say that the Spirit of God lives not in the faraway heavens, but in our very selves.

 

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Reading 1. Proverbs 8: 22-31

Reading II. Romans 5: 1-5

Gospel. John 16: 12-15 (the Spirit of Truth).

The Spirit of God

              Pentecost

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In today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles St. Luke gives us the well known account of the extraordinary appearance of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles in the upper room. The Apostles had gathered together for the Jewish feast of Pentecost, a feast which commemorated the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai.  

 

Next week we will celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity but today's feast is about the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Let's start out by clearing up a few misconceptions that some of us may have about the Holy Spirit. First of all, the Spirit is not a bird. I know that the traditional image of a dove given us by Christian artists is probably ingrained in all of us. It is hard to portray a purely spiritual being in art for a spirit has no body to paint or sculpt. In one gospel passage the movement of the Holy Spirit is likened to the fluttering flight of a dove and so I guess the early artists used the dove as a kind of artistic shorthand.

 

Speaking about images I have to confess that as a child I thought that the "tongues as of fire" that rested on the Apostles at Pentecost were actually human tongues on fire. It took me years before I realized that the "tongues" were actually similar to the darting flames that we would see in our own fireplaces. Also back then it was more common to refer to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost, which only conjured up images from old Abbott and Costello movies.

 

But in today's readings we see that although we cannot see or feel or hear the Spirit of God, It dwells in us and works through us. St. Luke says of the Apostles that "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." St. Paul says in the letter to the Romans that,

 

       you are not in the flesh;

       on the contrary, you are in the spirit,

       if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.

 

Our Lord says in today's gospel that the Father will give "you another Advocate to be with you always," and then He promises,

 

       Whoever loves me will keep my word,

       and my Father will love him,

       and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

 

If we can't see or feel or hear the Spirit, how do we know that He dwells in us? As Christians we have to learn to read the signs. Just as the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe knew that there were other men on his lonely island when he beheld their footprints, we will know the Spirit by His signs. St. Paul says in the letter to the Corinthians,

 

       There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Lord;

       there are different workings but the same God

       who produces all of them in everyone.

 

Then, talking to us as well as to the Corinthians, Paul says that to "each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit." In other words we all have a role to play in bringing the Spirit of God to each other.

 

What are the signs that the Spirit dwells in us? In years past we used to speak of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you pick a fruit from a tree and it tastes and smells and feels like an apple, then you can conclude that it's an apple tree. The same goes for a peach or pear tree. In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul lists the fruits or signs of the Spirit as charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity." Some of these words might sound strange to us today but we surely get the general idea. Who would not want to receive the Holy Spirit? Would we want to be uncharitable, miserable, quarrelsome, impatient, malicious, bad, mean-spirited, offensive, unfaithful, immodest, wasteful, or promiscuous?

 

We don't need miraculous, mystical, or ghostly experiences to encounter the Spirit today. After all, we have all received the Spirit at Confirmation. Right after Pentecost the Apostles saw that it was necessary not only to preach the Word but also to lay their hands on all the baptized in order that the Spirit might dwell in them.  Generation after generation have continued this practice. Every confirmation is a kind of Pentecost. 

 

Even though the Apostles had walked with the Lord and had seen His Risen Body, they still needed to receive His Spirit before they could leave the upper room and go out and face the world. St. Paul says the same for us.

 

       For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

       For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,

       but you received a Spirit of adoption,

       through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!

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Reading 1.  Acts 2: 1-11

Reading II. Romans 8: 8-17 or

            1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13

Gospel. John 14: 15-16, 23b-26 or

       John 20: 19-23. (the Advocate).