A Homily – The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading - Wisdom 1:13-15,2:23-24

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 29(30):2,4-6,11-13

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alternative Acclamation – 2 Timothy 1:10

The Gospel According to Mark 5.21-43

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

All things born shall die, this is true of both plants and animals, it is true of planets and stars; this is the order of creation.

God made the world and it is replete with pain, God endures that pain with us, and with all beings, in all places, at all times; God suffers with us, even as we suffer ourselves.

Be mindful.

There is wisdom here, but it must be understood that the blessing of peace which belongs to the virtuous, the trusting and the faithful, is a blessing that awaits everyone.

Everyone goes into the fire, everyone is transformed in the refiners fire, in the eyes of God, we are all pure as gold.

Do not give any credit to the enemy of peace for the creation of anything.

God alone is the creator, even death was authored by God, for God’s own purpose, and because it is God’s our faith instructs us to believe that it is for the benefit of all creation.

Remember!

God, the creator of the universe, God will not intervene in your affairs. God will not lift you up, God will not strike you down. God will not be angry with you, but God does love you, and God’s love is forever.

God does not need us to proclaim God’s goodness, though it is never wrong to do so, but God does not require this because God is already speaking in the hearts of each and every one of God’s children.

Consider the words of the apostle, as happens so often in the scriptures, there is language here that taints the message the author intended to convey.

Know this!

Jesus is not a lord. He was rich in spiritual gifts and he shared those gifts with many, with all whom he encountered, and by sharing he became richer in those gifts.

There was no poverty, lack or want in Jesus this is true because no person is poor who has friends; Jesus was our friend, and he encouraged friendship among us.

He encourages us to share what we have and to build something new together, he implored us to find common cause with those we know and those who are strangers to us, he taught us to make peace with our enemies and sit with them, share our water with them, break bread with them at the common table.

Be mindful!

The early church often went astray, deviate from the teaching of Jesus and the way.

Peter would have us believe that he follows Jesus because Jesus has the secret message of eternal life, as if finding this secret and keeping it were the purpose of the gospel, as if believing that Jesus is the “Holy One of God” is the key to receiving the gift grace. We are asked to believe that God parcels out access to Jesus, to the truth, to the reality of life everlasting, allowing some to come to it while refusing others.

None of this scheme is true.

Here is the gospel: God loves you and because of this you are saved. You are not saved for anything that you have done, you did not earn salvation (neither were you asked to earn it, just as you did not ask to be born); you are saved because God loves you and for no other reason than that.

The promise of salvation is not that you will be spared from suffering and torment in hell, or that when you are judged God will forgive you.

The good news is that God has already forgiven you; you are saved already. God has prepared you and everyone for eternal life.

Believe it!

Let the goodness of the promise flow through you now and start living this life as if it were true.

We are not called to believe in the idea that Jesus is this or that, the Holy One of God, we are called to act on the principles of his faith, to live lives of charity, humility and service to each other.

God is calls us to be holy at all times, God is speaks in our heart, inviting us to share with the divine a life of compassion.

God does this out of love; this is the divine plan and has been from the beginning of time. There is not one of us, not one child of God, not one being in the whole of creation who is outside of this plan.

Jesus revealed this; follow him.

The gospel is not that God has abolished death as much as it reveals that the death of the body is merely a transition, one we all pass through on our journey toward the creator.

Consider the gospel reading for today, it is a lesson on faith.

It is steeped in stories of divine power and magic, but it is really about faith, which means trust.

Today’s reading speaks to all people who suffer, encouraging them to hope and believe in the coming of a better day.

It is easy to read this narrative as a story about Jesus and his power. This is not the right way to read it, his super-natural deeds must be understood as myth and read as allegory. No such miracles ever occurred.

We live in a world where disease and illness afflict us, in which death surrounds us, all of it is in accordance with the laws of nature, laws which God established for the good of all creation; it is our task to see this for what it is.

Remember!

God does not abrogate God’s own law.

Therefore, we are given to understand that what the gospel intends, is for us to have faith, faith in the notion that everything we suffer is a part of God’s divine plan, and that plan includes our salvation, which means an end to all suffering, for all time. The gospel writers used the stories of miracles, and healing to convey their faith.

First Reading - Wisdom 1:13-15,2:23-24

God Takes no Pleasure in the Extinction of the Living

Death was not God’s doing, he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living.

To be – for this he created all; the world’s created things have health in them, in them no fatal poison can be found, and Hades holds no power on earth; for virtue is undying.

Yet God did make man imperishable, he made him in the image of his own nature; it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world, as those who are his partners will discover.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 29(30):2,4-6,11-13

Thanksgiving for Rescue from Death

Lord, I cried to you for help and you have healed me: I will thank you for ever.

Alleluia!

 

Lord, I will give you all praise, for you have rescued me

  and not let my foes triumph over me.

My Lord God, I cried to you

  and you healed me.

Lord, you led my soul out from the underworld,

  gave me life so that I would not sink into the abyss.

Sing to the Lord, his holy ones,

  and proclaim the truth of his holiness.

His anger lasts a moment,

  but his favour for a lifetime.

At night there are tears,

  but in the morning, joy.

Once I was secure. I said,

  “I will never be shaken.”

Lord, by your

favour you had given me strength, set me high;

but then you turned your face from me

  and I was shaken.

I cried to you, Lord,

  and prayed to my God.

“What use is my life,

  when I sink into decay?

Will dust proclaim you,

  or make known your faithfulness?”

The Lord heard and took pity on me.

  The Lord became my helper.

You have turned my weeping into dancing,

  torn off my sackcloth and clothed me in joy,

It is my glory to sing to you and never cease:

  Lord, my God, I will proclaim your goodness for ever.

Alleluia!

 

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15

The Lord Jesus Became Poor for Your Sake, to Make You Rich

You always have the most of everything – of faith, of eloquence, of understanding, of keenness for any cause, and the biggest share of our affection – so we expect you to put the most into this work of mercy too. Remember how generous the Lord Jesus was: he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty. This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need. That is how we strike a balance: as scripture says: The man who gathered much had none too much, the man who gathered little did not go short.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – 2 Timothy 1:10

Alleluia, alleluia!

Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 5.21-43

Little Girl, I Tell You to Get Up

When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.

  Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’

  While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.

 

A Homily – The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

The Feast of Saint’s Peter and Paul, Founders of the Church

Not all Christians celebrate the lives of the Saints, but today is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, who, following Jesus, are the principle founders of the Church.

We celebrate their feast on the day of their death and ascension; June 29^th is the anniversary of their martyrdom, the day they were murdered as enemies of the Roman State.

The influence of Peter and Paul on Christian doctrine was more extensive and more enduring than Jesus’ own teaching. Though was literate, it is reported that he read and taught in synagogues and was purportedly well-versed in the law; we do not have a single written word from him.

Paul, through his letters, wrote the core articles of Christian doctrine, including the Apostle’s Creed; Peter was the first Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of the Latin Church.

Peter and Paul did not always see eye to eye.

Peter carried the rank as chief of the disciples, and Paul was the apostle to the gentiles, founding churches all over the ancient near east, Greece and Asia Minor, and though Paul never met Jesus, he was the greater teacher and was more responsible for opening Christianity to the world.

Note well:

Peter is given credit for founding the church of Rome. The lore of the Church tells us that he was its first bishop; this is pure mythology, the earliest record of a bishop in Rome refers to a man named Linus. Church tradition now holds that Linus was the bishop following Peter, but no-one called wither of the Pope (or papa), a title which was not even in use during Peter’s day. And while Rome was important, the center of the Christian movement was in Jerusalem, where Jesus’ brother James was bishop, and it was James who resolved the conflicts between Peter and Paul.

In order for Peter to bear the title of apostle, he needed to be given credit for founding a Church somewhere and so he was given credit for founding the churches at Rome and Antioch. Though other people are also given credit for founding the Church in Antioch, including Barnabas and Paul as recorded in the Book of Acts.

Peter travelled and was an ambassador of the faith, but Paul was a true missionary; he founded churches wherever he went.

It is accepted as true that both men were put to death in Rome, martyred there on account of their commitment to the Church and its mission, they were not put to death so much for the content of their beliefs, but for leading the kind of secretive society that was generally feared by the Rome’s emperors, who perceived such groups as a threat to Imperial authority that had to be curtailed.

Paul was a Roman citizen; his letters are the earliest known Christian writings, and though not all of the letters ascribed to him were written by him, Paul’s actual influence on the Christian narrative and its doctrine are immeasurable.

A casual observer of history may find the authority he held to be odd, because Paul never met Jesus, did not know him, never heard him speak. Prior to his conversion Paul was the type of man who would punish members of his community if they were not properly observing the traditions of the synagogue; he fulfilled a function similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the morality police in Iran…and Christians were his primary target.

After Paul’s conversion to Christianity he led the mission to the gentiles, he opened the way to the masses by sharing the good news that Christ had risen, and he made it so that a person did not need to become Jewish first in order to join the church.

The Feast of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons

Saint Irenaeus served as the bishop of Lugdum (now Lyons), a Celtic city in Cisalpine Gaul, named for Lug the chief god of the Celtic pantheon.

Irenaeus was born c. 130 CE and died c. 202. His leadership in the Church took place during a time commonly referred to as the Apostolic Era. He was an acolyte of Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, a Greek city in Anatolia (modern Turkey), who was himself acquainted with the apostle John, making him only three steps removed from the life and ministry of Jesus. He was a martyr of the Church, though the details of his martyrdom are unknown.

Irenaeus was a prolific writer; his surviving works demonstrate a deep commitment to the unity of Christian doctrine. He was among the first of the Ante-Nicene theologians to argue for the doctrine of apostolic succession, positing that a bishop of the church, and through the bishop all of the priests that he ordains, should stand in an unbroken line of succession that goes back to the first apostles, who were the disciples of Jesus. And he was ardently opposed to heterodox sects like the so-called Gnostics that were prominent in his day.

What is most important in Irenaeus’ work is something referred to as the Irenaean Theodicy.

Theodicy is the specific field of theological study devoted to understanding the problem of evil, and its ultimate resolution by God.

The Irenaean Theodicy was the leading doctrine in the church for three-hundred years; from the time that Christians were a persecuted minority, through the transformation of Christianity into the Imperial church. The Irenaean cosmology and the metaphysics that supported it were preeminent until late fifth and early sixth century when they were supplanted by Saint Augustine’s sacramental theology and its reliance on the novel doctrine of original sin, after which Saint Augustine’s teaching became normative, and still holds sway throughout the Christendom today.

 Augustine taught that creation was made perfect and without blemish, and subsequent to creation the fall into sin occurred, teaching that the inclination toward sin, corruption and depravity comes out of nowhere and nothing, resulting in a degree of chaos and disorder which completely separates the created order from God.

Irenaeus did not deny the fall, though he posited that the world is not wholly fallen. He understood the reality of sin, but he taught that creation, including the fall, takes place within God, and that God is in the fallen world.

His argument was for unity, making it so that the fall (as we understand it) is not an irreparable breach that requires supernatural or divine power to overcome it; he put forward the notion that God’s plan for the resolution of evil is to slowly draw all things to God’s self and that this takes place within the context of the natural order, according to the specific nature which God has relegated to all things and being.

For Irenaeus the perfection of the created order is a process of assimilation, which he calls recapitulation, imagining that each individual-being is on a journey, coming closer to the divine over-time, and that our imperfections fall away as we approach the eternal, a process which culminates in the atonement, at which point we become one with God

Irenaeus’ theology, which was never condemned, provides a strong theological grounding for a theology of universal salvation, the teaching of which has been my mission since I first discovered that I had something to say on the matter.

Thanks to the work of Irenaeus eighteen-hundred years ago, this hopeful theology has persisted as a teaching of the church…though only among a minority of believers.

The Feast of Saint John the Baptist, A Homily

John, born in darkness

bore witness to the light

 

A faint spark in the deep night

 

He saw the light and felt its warmth

            preaching by the river

eating honey in the wild 

he baptized Jesus

who showed him the way

 

John, man of the desert

herald and prophet

repentant…angelic

 

The way is not in stillness or silence, John taught us

The way is found through service, love and humility

 

John…was comforted by Sophia

Ruha…washed him in living flame

while Salome danced for her father

and the soldiers came for his head

 

John lived by the Jordan

he was not perplexed by his fate

he had turned once toward the divine

and was not tempted to turn away  

 

From the Gospel According to Mark

A Homily – The Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Job 38:1,8-11

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 106(107):23-26,28-32

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

The Gospel According to Mark 4:35 – 41

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The sentiment expressed in today’s reading from Job is misguided.

 God, the creator of the universe, God does not intervene in the lives of human beings, God is not capricious or vindictive. God made us and all that is free from divine coercion…and yet, in the end, all things move toward the same end.

 Let us affirm our trust in God; God is not a partisan, and God is good.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle. Paul is mistaken about the meaning of Jesus’ death.

 Jesus was not crucified in order to raise all people to eternal life. His death was a political murder, a rather ordinary tragedy in the age he lived. Jesus went to his death willingly so that the lives of his companions might be spared and to avoid further bloodshed among the people who followed him, both of which would have certainly followed if he had resisted.

 By accepting his death his demonstrated his faith in God, not only in God’s plan for him, but in God’s plan for all people. Jesus encouraged his people to keep that same faith, to live in that place of trust, wherein we are free from our concerns, from life’s fears, even the hunger of the flesh; this is the way. Along the way we experience freedom as a foretaste of what life in the heavenly garden was meant to be.

 Remember.

 Our salvation is the work of God, it is accomplished in and through Christ; the work began as the introduction to John’s gospel explains, in the first moment of creation.

 The fall, whatever it might have been, happens subsequent to and in the context of God’s saving work. Jesus revealed the truth of it, and has entrusted all future generations of those who aim to follow him along the way with the task of sharing that Good news.

 Know this!

 You are reconciled to God; there is no debt to pay. Allow the burden of the fear of sin, and God’s judgement, to fall away from you.

 Be glad.

 It was always God’s plan that we fall and rise together, as one, because we are one.

 Consider the life of Jesus, and God; whom he called papa.

 Is God glorious?

 Yes, God is the creator of the universe. And yet God’s greatest glory is not in the raw power of the creator, but in relationship to us as a loving parent.

 There is hope in the knowledge of God, extend the hopes you have for yourself and those you love to everyone, even those you do not love; this is the way that leads to God.

 If you think that God has promised riches and glories to be the inheritance of the saints; remember Jesus’ teaching that the first will be last and the last will be first, and that divine riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things.

 Be mindful of the miracle narrative.

 In the gospels magic and miracle making, wonder working and acts of power are equivalent to, perhaps greater than the works of the prophets of old.

 However, none of the authors of Luke’s Gospel met Jesus. At least half a century had passed from the time of Jesus’ death, to the time that Luke’s Gospel was written, and by that Palestine (Judea and Samaria) were completely under Roman control. The temple had destroyed, Jerusalem was in ruins and its population scattered across the Empire in the second great Diaspora.

 There were no witnesses the raising of the widow’s son. No one to give the story of the reaction of the crowd. The story itself is a fabrication, pure mythology, it never happened, but it became a part of the tradition and has been handed down as evidence that Jesus was a man of great compassion and great power.

 In raising the dead at Nain, the authors of Luke assert the principle that widow should not be left alone with no husband, and no son to protect her. The resurrection of the widow’s son is a metaphor not a miracle, meaning that in place of the woman’s son the Church will take up the familial obligations, protect and look after her.

 This is the role of the Church; we are meant to be caretakers and guardians of the meek. That we could create such an enduring institution is the miracle, because its mission is in contradistinction to the common way of life, which would have forced the widow out into the margins of society.

 Be mindful.

 God is not a sorcerer, God does not violate the laws of nature; not once, not ever. If we are going to accept such stories as part of the Gospel we must find a way of reading them that rules out the supernatural…because there is no such thing as magic.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today another example of pure mythology…another metaphor, this time the gospel writers intended to cast Jesus in the role of the Roman Jupiter or Jove, the Mesopotamian Marduk or Zeus of the Helenes…they depict him as kings of the gods like the pagan peoples do, one who commands the wind and waves, the lightning and thunder…such representations are idolatrous and should be set aside.

 

First Reading – Job 38:1,8-11

From the Heart of the Tempest the Lord Gives Job His Answer

He said:

Who pent up the sea behind closed doors when it leapt tumultuous out of the womb, when I wrapped it in a robe of mist and made black clouds its swaddling bands; when I marked the bounds it was not to cross and made it fast with a bolted gate?

Come thus far, I said, and no farther:

here your proud waves shall break.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 106(107):23-26,28-32

Let Them Thank the Lord For His love, For the Wonders He Does For Men.

Alleluia.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

  for his kindness is for ever.

Let them say this, the people the Lord has redeemed,

  those whom he rescued from their enemies

  whom he gathered together from all lands,

  from east and west, from the north and the south.

They wandered through desert and wilderness,

  they could find no way to a city they could dwell in.

Their souls were weary within them,

  weary from hunger and thirst.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He set them on the right path

  towards a city they could dwell in.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

the Lord, who feeds hungry creatures

  and gives water to the thirsty to drink.

They sat in the darkness and shadow of death,

  imprisoned in chains and in misery,

because they had rebelled against the words of God

  and spurned the counsels of the Most High.

He wore out their hearts with labour:

  they were weak, there was no-one to help.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He led them out of the darkness and shadow of death,

  he shattered their chains.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

the Lord, who shatters doors of bronze,

  who breaks bars of iron.

The people were sick because they transgressed,

  afflicted because of their sins.

All food was distasteful to them,

  they were on the verge of death.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He sent forth his word and healed them,

  delivered them from their ruin.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

Let them offer a sacrifice of praise

  and proclaim his works with rejoicing.

Those who go down to the sea in ships,

  those who trade across the great waters –

they have seen the works of the Lord,

  the wonders he performs in the deep.

He spoke, and a storm arose,

  and the waves of the sea rose up.

They rose up as far as the heavens

  and descended down to the depths:

the sailors’ hearts melted from fear,

  they staggered and reeled like drunkards,

  terror drove them out of their minds.

But they cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He turned the storm into a breeze

  and silenced the waves.

They rejoiced at the ending of the storm

  and he led them to the port that they wanted.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

let them exalt him in the assembly of the people,

  give him praise in the council of the elders.

The Lord has turned rivers into wilderness,

  he has made well-watered lands into desert,

  fruitful ground into salty waste

  because of the evil of those who dwelt there.

But he has made wilderness into ponds,

  deserts into the sources of rivers,

he has called together the hungry

  and they have founded a city to dwell in.

They have sowed the fields, planted the vines;

  they grow and harvest their produce.

He has blessed them and they have multiplied;

  he does not let their cattle decrease.

But those others became few and oppressed

  through trouble, evil, and sorrow.

He poured his contempt on their princes

  and set them to wander the trackless waste.

But the poor he has saved from their poverty

  and their families grow numerous as sheep.

The upright shall see, and be glad,

  and all wickedness shall block up its mouth.

Whoever is wise will remember these things

  and understand the mercies of the Lord.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

We Do Not Judge Anyone by the Standards of the Flesh

The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.

  From now onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 4:35 – 41

'Even the Wind and the Sea Obey Him'

With the coming of evening, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us cross over to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, ‘Master, do you not care? We are going down!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped, and all was calm again. Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’ They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’

 

The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)