This Precious Gift

This weekend we celebrate the great Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is also the day when ninety-two of our children will make their First Holy Communion, and we pray for them and for their families. They have prepared long and hard for this day and we hope it will be an occasion in which their faith and their understanding of the real presence of Jesus in this most precious of sacraments is deepened and more fully appreciated.

My mind on this day often goes to the gospel account of Jesus telling the disciples that unless you become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Notice how Jesus doesn’t specify or say anything about age when he mentions the children. What he wants us to understand and appreciate is something more, something deeper about the kingdom and its centrality to our lives and the best way we can grasp this is by changing our whole perception of how our relationship with Jesus and thereby with the kingdom is viewed. As we know, children are open and loving and quite willing to take things on trust, not in any naïve or unreasoned way, but within an experience of generosity and loving kindness, which is established by coming to both knowledge and truth about the person who reaches out to them. These realities are the building block of the kingdom, and they are laid upon that foundation stone of Jesus. Where do we see this at work? In the lives of people who take the living Jesus into their hearts. People who receive the fulness of his sacramental body and blood as their ‘food for the journey’ and who allow his loving presence to mould and shape the pattern of their lives.

Recall the disciples who were at table in the presence of that stranger at Emmaus. Here is the example par excellence that renders all we need to help understand the eucharist as an image of vibrancy and joy. We see in these two characters a snapshot of how our lives can often seem devoid of hope. Yet it is in the breaking of bread that their eyes are opened so that they recognise him, their hope revived, and their joy reignited. They have turned into children of the kingdom, their faces alight with new expectation, their bodies reinvigorated, their minds cleared of any doubt about what they have experienced. The Risen Jesus is present with them! Renewed and filled with the bread of life they truly are companions – sharers of and partakers in the bread that is the body and blood of the Risen Lord. They go back, no longer disillusioned and downcast, but as kingdom makers.

May our hearts be similarly renewed and revitalised now, on this day and in the weeks ahead, Sunday after Sunday. We all come to the table as children to be fed, for the cup we bless, is a communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread we break, is a communion with the body of Christ.

The Trinity of Love

Today’s second reading from St Paul, contains his last sentence in his correspondence with the Church of Corinth. His relationship with his community at Corinth had at times been a fractious one, encompassing a whole set of different emotions and experiences. It ranged from a deep and personal concern and love for his flock, to a sense of shame and anger for what he felt was their failure to grasp the immensity and importance of what he was preaching to them about Jesus Christ. Here though in this last sentence of what became his second letter to the Corinthians, we find a truly trinitarian grasp of the reality of God, present in the heart of all that he preached to them.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. It is a beautiful sentence with which to conclude his whole understanding of the message he offered. A three-fold summation of what God is and of how God is made manifest. If we look at the words in bold type and examine them, we too can appreciate and deepen our own understanding of what the Trinity actually means.

In speaking about Jesus, Paul uses the word karis which has been translated as grace or charity. Instinctively we know what it conveys. Someone who is charitable is generous, considerate and doesn’t count the cost. Applying it to the person of Jesus expresses his nature as the one who offers himself totally and in obedience to the needs of others. In describing God’s love, Paul uses the word agape, a word which carries within it the image of an oblative outpouring of goodness. God is total love. A love that is to be given away to allow more love to be generated. Finally, the Holy Spirit is categorised as the one who creates koinonia, fellowship or as we call it community. The Spirit is the binding force that forges together all that is generous and loving within a framework of abundant and total giving. What Paul is doing is urging his fellow disciples in Corinth to be configured as Father, Son and Spirit are, and to live out their discipleship accordingly.

Are we able to accept a similar ideal? If we are, then the Trinity is no longer a mystical enigma that remains beyond our understanding, but instead a tangible reality that through our encounter with grace of Jesus Christ, enables us to embrace the love of the Father in the fellowship of the Spirit. This is our active participation in the life of the Trinity through our relationships, in our families and within our parishes and workplaces. It is a wonderful witness of faith alive in our world. It is the Trinity of love. 

I HAVE GIVEN YOU AN EXAMPLE SO THAT YOU MAY COPY WHAT I HAVE DONE TO YOU.

Our image of Pentecost is in one sense totally conditioned by the description
familiar to us all in the Book of Acts. The wind from heaven, accompanied by a noise that filled the entire house, and then the coming down onto the apostles of tongues of fire. It is a dramatic moment which grabs our attention and captures our imagination. It is an explosive moment, in that something flashes before the apostles’ eyes and then illuminates their minds with meaning and purpose. The build up to this event has been characterised by their own introspection and
indecision. What were they to do? How were they to respond to what they had experienced? The crucifixion and death of Jesus had left them bereaved and distraught. The resurrection had made them bewildered and confused, and now this, what did it all mean for them and for their future? Certainly, they knew that something utterly unique had happened to Jesus and to them. Their lives had been turned upside down and they had a decision to make. Disregard it all as a misguided mission and head back to Galilee and pick up the threads of their former lives? Or realise and believe the enormity of what God in and through Jesus had done for the world.

The reality of Jesus’ risen presence amongst them during those days between Easter Sunday and the Ascension must have been the reason they stayed together. They knew they weren’t seeing a ghost. They knew they weren’t speaking with a vision. They knew they weren’t listening to voices in their heads. Jesus had already spoken to them about this moment and of the impact it would have on them. At the Last Supper, he told them the Holy Spirit would come and would remind them of

everything that he had spoken to them, and now, in the early morning of the day of Pentecost, the traditional Jewish Feast that celebrated the giving of the Law by God to Moses, the apostles come stumbling out of the room in which they were gathered and begin proclaiming the new Law given by Jesus Christ. The new commandment given by Jesus to them at the Last Supper was to love one another as I have loved you, and now with those thoughts in their minds, and with their hearts emboldened by the Holy Spirit, they realise what it is they must do: teach and bring this message of love to all peoples.

The image of Pentecost must link us with the image of Jesus at the Last Supper, inaugurating the commandment of love through both the gift of himself in the form of bread and wine, and in his foot washing deed of service. It is what he asks us to do, and on this feast of Pentecost filled with the power of the Spirit we are called to copy his example.

I have made your name known; Keeping the flame alive.

How many of us can really say that, and at the same time feel that we have made it a priority? I know from my own point of view I have fallen short. But we mustn’t beat ourselves up about it, after all even St Paul admits to the reality of the weakness of our fallen nature when he told the community in Rome with commendable honesty, how often he failed to do the good he wanted to do and instead kept on the doing the wrong he didn’t want to do. We all know how he felt! Nevertheless, we must not allow our own weaknesses to prevent us from striving to do the work we are called upon to do, which is the task of making the name of Jesus Christ known.

What then can we learn from what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel? He seems to be speaking in veiled almost esoteric language which we often find difficult to understand and to convey. So just how are we to approach the task? Remember the context of his discourse is the Last Supper, the moment when he showed us all how to love, and so everything he tells the disciples thereafter must be related to this reality. The relationship between Father and Son is predicated on the nexus of the Holy Spirit which issues forth from this Father, Son relationship. Notice how Jesus constantly relates the events he speaks about as a mirroring of what he has received from the Father and has passed on to the disciples. This is to be the model of our actions and deeds. We are to love in the same way as the Father loves the Son and the Son, the Father and as long as we sense and experience the presence of the Spirit within our love, we retain in our relationships the life-giving breath which was first kindled in us from the very beginning of creation.

This last week of the season of Eastertide now gives way to the abundance of the feast of Pentecost and to the season of what used to be called post-Pentecost and is now referred to as Ordinary Time. I think I liked the former as it kept the feel of the presence of the Holy Spirit very much alive and in our minds. Our inclination when we speak of the ordinary weeks of the year is to imagine a sense of normality or convention, whereas what we should have in our minds is the image of the fire of the Spirit re-igniting the Easter flame that burnt so brightly at the great Vigil on Holy Saturday making our own hearts burn within us. Indeed, if we were to do the Vigil Mass of Pentecost properly it would be like a mini-Easter Vigil with 4 Old Testament readings and associated psalms. Doing it in this way would highlight the importance of what this feast means. Perhaps next year we should give it a try and it might just light up our lives to live in his love and to make his name known.

The Coming of the Spirit.

The Season of Eastertide is coming to its final weeks and as it does, we begin to think about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the community of faith. The coming of the Spirit as described in the scriptures shows that its presence is not limited in terms of spatial or temporal reality. Jesus himself spoke in such terms about the Spirit in his conversation with Nicodemus when he said: The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound but cannot tell from where it comes or to where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit. The Book of Wisdom speaks of the Spirit of the Lord filling the whole world and of how it holds all things together, knowing every word spoken by man. All of us therefore, who have through our baptism, been re-born in the Spirit, are endowed with gifts of life in the Spirit and through the action of the Spirit we are called to express such life in all its abundance and beauty.

In the readings from Mass today we are given an insight into how the Spirit will help and assist us in our proclamation of the Gospel. We are to speak about our faith with reason, offering our arguments for why we believe, with courtesy and respect. In such a way the Spirit will guide our words and thoughts to show and demonstrate the truth of what we believe about God and about Jesus Christ, and why we believe it. This advocate, will be alongside us in our task, giving us the knowledge and wisdom, strength and clarity of understanding, to enable the message of the gospel to be sown as a seed that will enlighten those who receive it as they grow in the ways of the truth.

Reading John’s Gospel, you get a sense that the Spirit is pervading every page, every line and every word. When John uses the words completion, fulness, remain, in describing Jesus’ actions you feel the Spirit behind the impact and consequences of those actions, crafting, working and moulding them to provide deeper and more prescient understanding of their meaning and relevance to our world. Each sign has been chosen with care to display the power of the Spirit at work in Jesus. Indeed, John’s purpose in writing his gospel was so that we would be able to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing this, we would have life through his name. It is by the real presence of the Spirit alive in the actions and deeds of Jesus that makes it so.

The Spirit is coming to open our minds to this truth. Let us prepare a good and fulsome welcome for such a bountiful advocate.

Servant King

On the day when our minds are filled with thoughts and images of kingship and coronation how fitting it is that the lectionary has also provided us with an image of kingship. It is one which defines that role within the context of “servant” and of “service in the kingdom of heaven” as opposed to any earthly realm. Don’t get me wrong – we pray each day for the kingdom to come, so it is apposite to say that the Coronation liturgy, which King Charles himself has been deeply involved in drafting, has him reciting in prayer the following words: God of compassion and mercy, whose Son was sent not to be served but to serve, give grace that I may find in thy service perfect freedom, and in that freedom knowledge of thy truth. Let us pray that he will hold fast to the image of kingly service which Jesus came to inaugurate and that in so doing, servant leadership may become the paradigm of his reign.

In the Christian tradition the diaconate as the ministry of service, has its roots in the incident as described in the Acts of the Apostles in today’s first reading. The need to provide for those in the community who are less well off must always be of paramount importance in our understanding of our calling as servants. We recall how Jesus at the Last Supper spoke of how he himself was among them at table as “one who serves” (Lk 22.v27). In order that this service should be a natural and central element of our discipleship it must be expressed and lived out in each and every aspect of our lives. In whatever profession or role, public or in private, that we are called upon to undertake, the image of the servant must be applicable within its performance, from the top of the hierarchy to its foundations: “the stone rejected by the builders must be the cornerstone”, to quote the psalmist.

In the gospel, Thomas makes his famous intervention: we do not know where you are going so how can we know the way? It is a question that as a society and as a country we may well find ourselves asking as this new era of our history commences. It is a question which calls for a leadership which embraces the many and varied strands of our diverse communities and seeks to draw them together in a shared framework of support and acknowledgement of the good which rests within each. In his response to Thomas, Jesus makes a threefold connection to show us as Christians, how his servant leadership can be a powerful image for each of us. By walking his path, by proclaiming his truth, and by living his life we, as Christians, can contribute by our service, to the growth and enhancement of our communities up and down the nation.

Let us pray for King Charles and for our country.

In the Lord's own house shall I dwell

This as you know is a line from today’s responsorial psalm, universally known as The Lord is my Shepherd. It is probably one of the best-known lines of all scripture and the psalm itself is frequently used at funerals because of its reassuring sentiment and consoling imagery. Jesus, as a Jew would have understood and appreciated this imagery and every time he prayed this psalm, we can easily imagine that he himself found reassurance and consolation from expressing and reciting those words. The Gospels frequently relate how Jesus would rise early in the morning and go off to a silent place in order to pray and there can be little doubt that the psalms were an integral part of his prayer. It is therefore reasonable to assume that when he began to speak to the Pharisees, as he does in today’s gospel about the role of the shepherd, he must have had this psalm in his mind and would have assumed the Pharisees would have made the connection too.

His words are spoken to the Pharisees immediately after he had given the man born blind his sight, and a rather heated exchange ensues with them about who Jesus is claiming to be, and it centres on their “blindness” as they fail to understand who he is. To help them to understand who he is, Jesus offers them another pathway of coming to faith in him. He takes the imagery of the psalm which they would have known and applies it to himself. He begins to express the sentiments of the psalm and uses them to open up how he himself is personified in the role of the shepherd who guides people along the right path, so that all who enter the pastures through Jesus, need have no fear as they freely come and go, assured of the goodness and kindness that accompanies them. It is only those whose motives are contrived or who come as “thieves and brigands” who will not be listened to. Jesus goes on three times to use the phrase “I am”, clearly expressing that he himself is the gatefold, the gate, and the good shepherd. Sadly, the blindness of the Pharisees is only entrenched further by his words.

In offering us this beautiful image, Jesus says that through him we have the pathway to life and have it to the full. The psalm evokes this fulness by describing the richness of a banquet set in the sight of those who dissent or disagree. All though are offered this bountiful food with its abundant overflowing love. In the eucharist, we receive the foretaste of the banquet knowing that goodness and kindness will surely follow, all the days of our lives, for of his fulness we have received grace in return for grace.