Dajian Huineng – The Sixth Ancestor of Zen

 Huineng lived between the mid-seventh and early eighth century CE. He is the author of the Platform Sutra and the principle proponent of the doctrine of sudden enlightenment. He was a Chinese Buddhist of the Southern Chan school, which became known as Zen Buddhism when it moved across the water to Japan.

 According to his legend, Huineng was a lay person, it is said that upon reading the Diamond Sutra he attained a state of perfect enlightenment and was subsequently able to expostulate his understanding of the teachings of the Buddha to his teacher Hongren, the Fifth Ancestor of Zen.

 Huineng’s Platform Sutra recapitulates the major teachings of Chan Buddhism including the Diamond Sutra, the Lotus Sutra and the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana.

 He was considered to be an uneducated barbarian by his contemporaries. Regardless of the opinion that so many others had of him, it was on account of his extraordinary ability to see the broader context that held such disparate teachings together that Hongren chose him to lead his school over the monk who had been groomed to fulfil that role.

 Huineng taught "no-thought" and the purity of the “unattached mind" which comes and goes freely, functioning fluently without any hindrance.

 Be mindful!

 The principle of “no-thought” does not mean that a person is not thinking, but that in the state of “no-thought” the mind is attentive to its immediate experience, unentangled by the exigencies of the past or the expectations of the future.

 The state of ‘no-thought” is understood as a way of being, wherein the mind is open, non-conceptual or post linguistic, allowing the individual to experience reality directly.

 Huineng criticized the formal understanding of Buddhism which suggests that the individual must devote themselves to a life of quiet contemplation, likening the conventional practices and institutions of his day to the same social, religious and intellectual traps that Gautama Siddhartha, the Original Buddha sought to free people from when he taught them that they did not have to endure innumerable lifetimes and countless rebirths before they can be free from the wheel of life.

 His teaching on sudden enlightenment is a doctrine of liberation, he likened it to the five-fold-path as taught by the Buddha, both teachings aim at freeing a person from their in the immediacy of the present moment.The Buddha was a liberator and so was Huineng.

 He taught this:

 When alive, one keeps sitting without lying down. When dead, one lies without sitting up, observing that in both cases, the individual is a set of stinking bones!

 He asked the most important question: What has any of it to do with the great lesson of life?

 When I was given my first Koan to meditate on, my mentor offered me the old cliché:

 What is the sound of one hand clapping?

 In the spirit of Huineng I understood the Koan to be meaningless and replied:

 There is no sound.

 My mentor insisted that I answered too quickly, suggesting that I must meditate on the Koan further before returning a response.

 Of course he was wrong, I had simply told the truth, speaking from the immediacy of my experience, with the understanding that one hand does not clap, and there is nothing more that needs to be said about that.

Saint Augustine of Hippo, Angelic Doctor of the Church, Legate and Villain

With the possible exception of Saint Paul, whose epistles are the earliest Christian writings, Saint Augustine of Hippo is arguably the most influential Christian writer of all time.

Paul’s work delineated for the nascent Church its primary creeds and basic beliefs concerning who Jesus was and why his life…and death…should be meaningful to us. He framed the theological context within which the Gospels were written.

Paul did all of that, and yet it is possible that Augustine is even more influential, because Augustine’s interpretation of Paul has dominated Christian thought since the formation of the Imperial Church .

Augustine lived from the mid-fourth century to the mid-fifth century CE. He entered the Church just as Christianity was completing its transformation into the official religion of the Roman Empire, where it came to wield incredible power as the indispensable administrative apparatus of the state. Augustine’s extensive writing fixed that transformative process into the structure we recognize today as the Roman Catholic Church.

Augustine was midway through his career as a public servant before he converted to Christianity, at which point he entered the priesthood. He was a prolific writer, and due to his skill as a legate his career took off at incredible speed; it took only four years for him to be ordained a bishop.

Augustine’s mother was a Christian, but his father was a traditional Roman of North Africa and never converted. His father had wanted Augustine to have a regular career in the traditional Roman mode of life, and for the first part of his adult life he adhered to his father’s wishes, but at the beginning of the fifth century the entire empire was in a process of conversion and all of the good jobs in government were going to Christians. Augustine felt stymied in his career and so he converted. He surmised that apart from the Church he would only encounter dead ends. After becoming convinced that he would been given a good position in the Church he joined up, and his gambit paid off, they put him on the fast track to a Bishopric.

Though he worked tirelessly against heretical groups like the Manicheans (a movement which he had formerly belonged to), the Pelagians and the Donatists, and those writings constitute a large portion of his body of work, he also wrote voluminous commentaries on the scripture and the proper education of Christians, but he is most famous for his autobiography: The Confessions, and his magnum opus, The City of God.

Augustine penned the controversial doctrine of creation ex nihillo, as part of his seminal teaching on original sin. He also gave the its teaching on sacramental theology, arguing as a lawyer for the authority of the Church in all matters private and public.

His theology would dominate Christian thinking up until the scholastic period, but Saint Thomas Aquinas, the most influential of the scholastic theologians, leaned heavily on Augustine for nearly all of his views, which is to say that Augustine continued to exercise an indirect influence on the Church as the preeminent standard of orthodoxy, virtually all of Aquinas’ contemporaries did the same. They all know that to go against Augustine risked being labeled a heretic, having all of your work declared anathema and being burned at the stake.

The trick that the scholastic theologians employed was to find new ways to argue for Augustine’s conclusions and the cosmological schemes that supported them. To the extent that they deviated from Augustinianism they would run afoul of the hierarchy.

By the time of the protestant reformation, both Martin Luther and John Calvin believed that their work represented a realignment of the church with Augustine, and through them Augustine’s theology dominated protestant thinking and continues to do so in the 21^st century.

I have taken on Augustine as my principle opponent for my own work.

His doctrine of original sin, his doctrine of double predestination, his teaching that torture can be considered a form of charity if it brings someone to the point of conversion are anathema to the way of Jesus Christ, representing a stark contradistinction to the life and ministry of the Church’s founder as preserved by the gospels, as well as Paul’s own teaching which asserted a profound hope in the reconciliation of all people with God.    

Saint Augustine of Hippo has the title of Angelic Doctor of the Church, but he on truth he was a villain; he was brutal and cruel and a hypocrite of the highest order, his terrible pessimism regarding the human condition should be exposed and read in the light of the full body of his work which is vicious and inhumane..

A Homily – The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Joshua 24:1-2,15-18

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-3,16-23

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:21-32

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

The Gospel According to John 6:60-69 © 

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 In ancient times the Hebrew people, also known as the Habiru or the Apiru, the Iberu and the Amarru, were a polytheistic people. These people, who later became known as the Israelites, having been organized into thirteen tribes by the patriarch Jacob from a diverse group of merchants and pirates, exiles and runaway slaves, who centuries later became known as the Judeans, after the tribe of Judah which rose to preeminence among them and had Jerusalem for its capital, these people believed in the real presence of many deities. These people crafted an image of their own God, not as the law giver, but as the law itself, the universal law which binds all people, and they promoted the power of their God, as the greatest of all.

 The leadership of these people elevated these ideals, insisting that they could not be represented by totems, effigies, graven images, or images of any kind. Their God was a principle, their God was JUSTICE writ large and characterized by goodness, humility and mercy.

 And though this ideal was established, the people could not resist the lure of popular conviction that held sway throughout the ancient world and in all of the communities around them. They continued to believe in the minor deities of personified nature, in the divinity of kings and heroes, in their power to persuade the spirits of earth and water, air and fire, of their ancestors to act on their behalf, to influence their fortune, to give them a winning hand and to strike down their enemies.

 The sacred texts are replete with stories of the people, unwilling to walk away from these superstitions. The prophets, going all the way back to Moses, excoriated them for doing so, and lamented their failure in the end.  

 Christians developed a more nuanced understanding of the divine reality after Jesus, one in which the God of the Hebrew people merges with the God of the philosophers as understood by the Greeks and Romans.

 The popular conception of God among the ancient Hebrews (not the ideal manifestation of the divine as represented in the law), was a God of nomads, a God of shepherds, a God that did not have any understanding of borders or boundaries, a God that travelled with the people wherever the roamed, crossing rivers and mountains and seas. Their God was a God of aliens, exiles and fugitives, of wanderers living in foreign lands.

 When they were beset by the authorities in those places, powers and principalities, kings and queens, who threatened them with bondage, the God of the Hebrews became of God of war, rebellion and insurrection, their God became a God of power.

 Understand this:

 All of these images of God fall short of the ideals that had been set forth by the patriarchs, as well as the divine reality that Jesus preached.

 God, the creator of the universe, is a God beyond all knowing, eternal and infinite.

 God is not limited to the plains and the fields, to the mountains and seas; God is not bound by the movements of planets and stars, of galaxies and galactic clusters, God is the God of all reality, and everything in it

 According to Jesus, God is love, and love is the whole of the law that binds us. 

 Be mindful.

 If you intend to seek God, look into your heart; you will find God in loving, and in loving you will be blessed.

 Praise God through works of love. God has no name, therefore exalt God’s loving work in creation; you will find it in the love you receive and the love you share.

 Seek glory through works of service. Know that God is great because God cares.

 Listen to your neighbors, rescue them from fear, God’s light will shine on you, through faith, in hope and love.

 Know this.

 With God there is no shame. God does not respect station, rank, class or wealth. God loves everyone the same…sinner and saint.

 Remember.

 Do not look for God to save you from your troubles. We are all Job in a way. We are called to the same faith; trust in God and you will come to understand how transient our troubles are.

 All pain is temporary, but love lasts forever. There is no rescue in this world unless it comes from your neighbor, another human being, your friends and family…even the stranger may appear to you as a messenger of the divine…look for God there.

 Do not fear.

 Speak the truth.

 Avoid evil.

 Do good.

 God see all, hears all, knows all, even your innermost thoughts, secrets, desires, and motivations. God knows you as you know yourself.

 Keep your mind in the present; do not focus on the good things that may or may not come.

 God’s love is always with us, though we only feel it in the present moment, turn on your heel and you will find it.

 Listen to them that teach hope…ignore the fear-mongers; this is the way to peace.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle and know that Jesus knew nothing of the church, but he did love his people. Jesus gave himself up to prosecution, torture and death so that they would not be killed on account of his mission. This was a loving, and a holy action, and through it, Jesus pointed to the way he encouraged his followers to take.

 These were human activities, done in a human context.

 Know this.

 Jesus said nothing about the submission of women, in fact the Gospels preserve the following truths:

 The first Apostle was a woman, Jesus encountered her at the well and after his talk with her she converted her whole community into followers of the way.

 The only time Jesus is ever corrected, he is corrected by a woman of Syro-Phoenician descent, and Jesus initially refused to help because she was not “a member of his tribe.” She scolded Jesus him in the spirit of their shared faith, and when she did Jesus relented.

 Only his female followers stayed with him until the end of his life, bearing witness to his death on the cross, and it was a woman to whom the resurrected Christ first showed himself. It was she who brought the other disciples to the knowledge that he had risen.

 Remember this when you consider how authority in the church should be divided between men and women; remember that in his own time, it was the women among his followers who consistently led the way.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it gives us an example of just where the early church began to deviate from the teaching of Jesus, and the lived experience of the way he taught.

 In the final paragraph we are given the thoughts of saint Peter, who would have us believe that he follows Jesus because Jesus has the “secret” to eternal life, as if this were the purpose of the Gospel as if “believing” that Jesus is the “Holy One of God” (whatever that means), is the key to receiving the gift of eternal life.

 In the fourth paragraph 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, according to some hidden plan.

 None of this scheme is true, it is the concoction of lawyers and pitch-men.

 Here is the Gospel:

 God loves you and you are saved. You are saved already. You are not saved for anything that you have done, you did not earn your salvation, you are saved by grace because God loves you.

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. God has already forgiven you; you are already saved.

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, your only 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 and humble service to each other, for this is the law and love is the whole of it.

First Reading – Joshua 24:1-2,15-18

We Will Serve the Lord, for He is Our God

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; then he called the elders, leaders, judges and scribes of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Then Joshua said to all the people, ‘If you will not serve the Lord, choose today whom you wish to serve, whether the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living. As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord.’

  The people answered, ‘We have no intention of deserting the Lord and serving other gods! Was it not the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and preserved us all along the way we travelled and among all the peoples through whom we journeyed? What is more, the Lord drove all those peoples out before us, as well as the Amorites who used to live in this country. We too will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-3,16-23

The Lord, the Salvation of the Righteous

Those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.

Alleluia, alleluia!

I shall bless the Lord for ever:

  my mouth will proclaim his praise.

My soul will glory in the Lord:

  let the meek listen and rejoice.

Join me and proclaim the greatness of the Lord:

  together let us exalt his name.

I sought the Lord and he listened to me:

  he rescued me from all my fears.

Look to him and he will shine upon you,

  and you will not be put to shame.

This poor man called, and the Lord answered him

  and saved him from all his many troubles.

The angel of the Lord will build defences

  round those who fear the Lord:

  he will come to their rescue.

Taste and see that the Lord is kind:

  happy the man who hopes in him.

Revere the Lord, his saints:

  for those who fear him are never destitute.

The rich are hungry and in want,

  but for those who seek the Lord

  there is no lack of good things.

Let peace be all your quest and aim.

Come, children, listen to me:

  I shall teach you the fear of the Lord.

Who is the man who desires life,

  who wants to live long to enjoy good things?

Do not let your tongue speak evil:

  let your lips not utter deceit.

Avoid evil, do good:

  seek peace and follow it.

The eyes of the Lord are on the just

  and his ears hear their cries;

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil:

  he wipes their memory from the earth.

The just cried out, and the Lord listened

  and freed them from all their many troubles.

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted:

  the crushed in spirit he will save.

Many are the troubles of the just,

  but the Lord will free them from all of them.

He will protect all their bones:

  not one will be broken.

Their own evil destroys sinners:

  those who hate the just will be punished.

The Lord will redeem the souls of his servants:

  those who put their hope in him will not be punished.

Amen.

Let peace be all your quest and aim.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:21-32

Christ Loves the Church, Because it is His Body

Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is his body – and we are its living parts. For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church.

 

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!

 

The Gospel According to John 6:60-69 © 

Who shall we go to? You are the Holy One of God

After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’

Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.

Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’

 

A Homily – The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

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

First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6 ©

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33(34):2-3,10-15 ©

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:15-20 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14,12

Alternative Acclamation – John 6:56

The Gospel According to John – 2018.08.19

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The reading speaks to the way of life that all Christians are called if their intention is to follow Jesus.

Let us be clear about this; not all of those who have been initiated into the Christians Church follow the way. It is also true that the institutions of the Church have been opposed to Jesus’ teaching, in one way or another, from the beginning, though it does not know it.

Be mindful.

You do not need to be a Christian to follow the way, in fact, because of the Church’s erroneous teaching, membership in it may be a stumbling block.

Consider the teaching of the apostle who calls us to be moderate and temperate in all the things we do as Christians, and exemplars of the faith.

As followers of the way we are called to sobriety and rationality in service to our sisters and brothers. We are not called to service for the sake of our salvation; we are called on to service as a means of giving thanks to God, the creator of the universe.

Know this.

If it is your intention to seek God, look no farther than your heart; you will find God there encouraging you to a live a life of loving service. In loving you will be blessed, and through the love you give you will be a blessing to others.

If your intention is to praise God, do not sing it in church but do it through works of love, by seeking justice for the marginalized and mercy for those in bondage, through service to the stranger and even your enemy, do it with humility all the days of your life.

If your intention is to emulate the divine, do it through compassion.

Listen to your neighbors, be responsive to their cares, rescue them from fear and encourage them in hope, look into their hearts and see God’s presence there.

Remember.

With God there is no shame. God is no respecter of station, class or wealth. God loves everyone the same regardless of where they were born, the color of their skin, the language they speak or what religion they have been taught.

Do not look for God to save you from your troubles, the divine hand will not reach into our lives and change our circumstances. In this way, we are all like Job, who experienced the indifference of the universe and the fullness of human suffering. God will not intervene on our behalf, and just because we experience the universe as indifferent we ourselves are not called to be indifferent. Insofar as God does act in the world, God acts through us who calls us to share the suffering of others, as Christ did, and to alleviate their tribulations if we can.

Know this.

We cannot escape the pains of the world, our faith in God is meant to help us understand how transient they are; all pain is temporary, but love lasts forever.

Therefore, do not fear.

Speak the truth.

Avoid evil.

Do good.

Be mindful.

God sees all and hears all; God knows all, even our innermost thoughts, our secrets and desires, our true motivations. God understands our experience even as we understand it ourselves, seeing through our eyes, feeling what we feel.

Live in the present moment, do not look to the future for the good things that may or may not come…but work toward them anyway. God’s love is enduring, but it is only in the present moment that we experience it and are able to share it with others.

Teach hope and ignore the fear-mongers, except insofar as you are sharing the truth with them.

This is the way.

Consider the gospel reading for today and know this:

We are saved by grace, because God wills it. Give thanks for that, and do not place your faith in anything else.

The dogmas and doctrines of the church do not save, neither do its creeds, decrees and decretals. What the church imagines to be the effective means of salvation, the sacraments and their formulas, they do not save…the eucharist is not magical food; eating the bread and drinking the wine does not confer the gift of eternal life.

Christians do a disservice to the memory of Jesus when they use the eucharist to divide people, splitting them into groups of insiders and outsiders, and by withholding the grace which they believe it confers. The eucharist may only be seen as a sacrament insofar as it fulfills what the ministry of Jesus promised, which is to foster hope through the loving service we provide to one another at the common table, the table of God to which all are welcome and none are refused.

First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6 ©

Wisdom Builds Her House and Invites All to Eat Her Bread There

Wisdom has built herself a house, she has erected her seven pillars, she has slaughtered her beasts, prepared her wine,   she has laid her table.

She has despatched her maidservants and proclaimed from the city’s heights:

‘Who is ignorant? Let him step this way.’

  To the fool she says, ‘Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared!

Leave your folly and you will live, walk in the ways of perception.’

 

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33(34):2-3,10-15 ©

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Alleluia, alleluia!

I will bless the Lord at all times,

  his praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.

  The humble shall hear and be glad.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Revere the Lord, you his saints.

  They lack nothing, those who revere him.

Strong lions suffer want and go hungry

  but those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Come, children, and hear me

  that I may teach you the fear of the Lord.

Who is he who longs for life

  and many days, to enjoy his prosperity?

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Then keep your tongue from evil

  and your lips from speaking deceit.

Turn aside from evil and do good;

  seek and strive after peace.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:15-20 ©

Be Filled Not with Wine, but With the Spirit

Be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people. This may be a wicked age, but you redeem it. And do not be thoughtless but recognise what is the will of the Lord. Do not drug yourselves with wine, this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit. Sing the words and tunes of the psalms and hymns when you are together, and go on singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts, so that always and everywhere you are giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14,12

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Word was made flesh and lived among us:

to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – John 6:56

Alleluia, alleluia!

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him, says the Lord.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 6:51-58 ©

My Flesh is Real Food and My Blood is Real Drink

Jesus said to the crowd:

‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:

‘I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live forever.’

 

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

A Homily – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (Year B), A Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading – Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 44(45):10-12,16

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Gospel Acclamation

The Gospel According to Luke 1:39-56

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 These myths are metaphors; the woman represents the Church, but only insofar as it adheres to the way. It is a dramatic narrative, written for a Christian audience who lived during a time of persecution, who saw their fledgling movement under threat.

 From a place of fear the author of the Apocalypse imagined that the Church would come to rule the world, like an empire or a monarchical institution. In keeping with this expectation he twists the future expectation of the Gospel into something grotesque, making the threat which the dragon in his vision portends, into something of a fate accompli. He displaces the woman who is full of light from her role as Church, in-so-doing the Church becomes the dragon.  

 Be mindful.

 Chrisitan hope is not the hope for political and secular power; the proper content of Christian hope is for peace and love and goodwill between all people. These hopes cannot be achieved through violence, usurpation or coercion, but through humility, kindness and compassion.

 Know this.

 It is an exercise in vanity to allegorize a life in service to the divine as to a royal wedding. Our service will not be rewarded with gold and perfumes, with flowing gowns and feasts...doing good is its own reward and the fruit is found in the seed.

 God’s servants are more likely to be beaten and killed, marginalized and imprisoned than to be regaled with ceremonious pomp, and only after much time has passed, if they are remembered at all, are the recognized for their service and what they gave us.

 Remember.

 God is not a king or a maker of kings, and God has no enemies.

 God servants pass away from the world and go to join the creator, as do all whom God loves…which is everyone.

 Those who go to their labors early receive the same wage as those who come late in the day. There is no special-boon granted to those who found the divine and loved God while they were alive and in the flesh, only the joy that comes of its own for living justly, walking humbly and providing loving service to those in need.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle who understand the way and knows that we, humanity, were created all-together; in God we are one creation…in our failures of faith and in our triumphs of the same, we are one. 

 Consider the Gospel reading for today and pay attention to the differences in the narrative traditions of the early Church.

 Tthe writers of Mark begin their story when Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise known as Joshua son of Joseph, was already an adult male at the beginning of his public ministry. However, the early Christians wanted more, and so the authors of Luke went back in time and narrated a fable about his conception and birth. In this fable, or myth (whatever you think it should be called) they attempted to tie up various loose ends in the stories that were being told about Jesus. By doing this they had hoped to unite different factions of Christians in their time.

 The particular narrative we are given today was meant to appeal to the followers of John the Baptist, by bringing forth the notion that Jesus and John were actually cousins, and that even though John was older, he was a follower of Jesus from the time he was in the womb, they double-down on this by subordinating John’s mother to Mary.

 It is a story, a fable, a myth; the whole thing is a work of fiction.

 This was an unfortunate development in the early Church because a great deal of theology and doctrine has been hung from these exercises in make believe, and because these fictions were in themselves naked political calculations meant to manipulate the burgeoning movement.

 The succeeding Gospels, each in their turn, reached back further in time and did so for the same purposes.

 For instance, the writers of Matthew inserted a confusing genealogy into the record; tracing Jesus’ heritage back to Adam, through David on his father’s side, while at the same time the Church asked its members to believe that Joseph was not his biological father.

 The writers of John open their narrative with the beginning of time itself and the creation of the universe.

 It is a sad thing to note, that what people opted to believe about these fables ended up being the cause of extreme, bitter and deadly partisan conflict among Christians...never mind the actual teaching of Jesus, which is to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you.

 Rejoice in the divine, rejoice that we who are infinitely less than the infinite God have received an eternal blessing; rejoice in God’s mercy, emulate it without fear.

 Rejoice, and oppose the continuing transmogrification of Mary into the dragon, a beast that would eat its own tail.

 

First Reading – Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10

A Great Sign Appeared in Heaven: A Woman Adorned with the Sun

The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it.

  Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne, while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had made a place of safety ready.

  Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, ‘Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 44(45):10-12,16

The wedding of the King

This is the time of repentance for us to atone for our sins and seek salvation.

Alleluia, alleluia!

My heart cries out on a joyful theme:

  I will tell my poem to the king,

  my tongue like the pen of the swiftest scribe.

You have been given more than human beauty,

  and grace is poured out upon your lips,

  so that God has blessed you for ever.

Strap your sword to your side, mighty one,

  in all your greatness and splendour.

In your splendour go forth, mount your chariot,

  on behalf of truth, kindness and justice.

Let your right hand show your marvels,

  let your arrows be sharp against the hearts of the king’s enemies

 – the peoples will fall before you.

Your throne is firm, O God, from age to age,

  your royal sceptre is a sceptre of justice.

You love uprightness, hate injustice

 – for God, your God has anointed you

  with the oil of gladness, above all your companions.

Myrrh and aloes and cassia anoint your garments.

From ivory palaces the sound of harps delights you.

In your retinue go the daughters of kings.

At your right hand, the queen is adorned with gold of Ophir.

Listen, my daughter, and understand;

  turn your ears to what I have to say.

Forget your people, forget your father’s house,

  and the king will desire you for your beauty.

  He is your lord, so worship him.

The daughters of Tyre will bring you gifts;

  the richest of your subjects will beg you to look on them.

How great is the king’s daughter, within the palace!

  She is clothed in woven gold.

She will be taken to the king in coloured garments,

  her maidens will escort her to your presence.

In gladness and rejoicing they are brought

  and led to the house of the king.

Instead of your fathers you will have sons:

  you will make them rulers over all the world.

I will remember your name

  from generation to generation.

And so your people will do you honour

  for ever and for ever.

Amen.

This is the time of repentance for us to atone for our sins and seek salvation.

Alleluia, alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Christ Will Be Brought to Life as the First-Fruits and Then Those Who Belong to Him

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet.

 

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Mary has been taken up to heaven; all the choirs of angels are rejoicing.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 1:39-56

The Almighty has Done Great Things for Me

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

  And Mary said:

‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my saviour; because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.

Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me.

Holy is his name, and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.

He has shown the power of his arm, he has routed the proud of heart.

He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.

He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy – according to the promise he made to our ancestors – of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.

 

A Homily – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (Year B), A Holy Day of Obligation