The extravagance of God

Wednesday 4 of Lent

Readings: Isaiah 49:8-15; Ps 144: 8-9, 13-14, 17-18; John 5:17-30

It is tempting to wonder whether the people of the Old Testament, when they heard the words of hope and consolation offered by their prophets, reacted as some of us often do today when we hear our leaders putting forward their plans for a better and brighter tomorrow. For it could not have been easy for a people who frequently saw themselves as abandoned and forgotten by God to accept such words and promises as those voiced by the prophet Isaiah which we hear in today’s first reading – the promise to restore the land, to release those in darkness, and to lead those who are hungry and thirsty to springs of water.

Yet if these prophetic pronouncements must have often appeared beyond the comprehension and wildest hopes of Israel, how much more remarkable it is to read in the Gospels that Jesus not only comes to fulfil these prophecies but to realize them in a far more marvellous way than the prophets were ever able to conceive. For Jesus, who reveals himself as the very presence of God among his people, not only discloses something of the mystery of God’s inner life but actually invites each of us to share in this divine life in eternity.

Notice that Jesus does not force us to accept this generous invitation. Just as he waits for the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda to reply to the question “Do you want to be well?” before curing him (John 5:6), so he wants us to respond to his promise of new life by listening to his words and seeking to do good. The traditional Lenten practices of prayer, alms giving and fasting offer us precisely the chance to listen to God, to do good to others and to ourselves. In such a way, we can journey towards Easter full of praise for a God who is ‘kind and full of compassion’, who does not forget his people but rather, in his extravagance, promises to raise us up to share in his own divine life.

Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today...

Tuesday 4 of Lent

Readings: Ez 47:1-9, 122; Ps 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-99; Jn 5:1-16

This chapter of St. John’s Gospel marks the start of a series of confrontations between Jesus and the Jewish people which brought with them persecutions and eventually lead to his death. The question in today’s passage is whether or not the man suffering from illness should be cured on the Sabbath. He had been ill for a long time, yet was not close to death. In the Jewish tradition it was only those who were close to death who were allowed to receive medical attention on the Sabbath. What Jesus recognised was that this man’s illness had kept him in the shadow of death all that time, robbing him of the capacity to live fully and joyfully.

Jesus’ response shows something to us about the importance of the Sabbath – as the Son of God he provides us with the authentic interpretation of God’s law concerning the Sabbath, showing that the Sabbath is not only a day of rest and recreation, but a day of God’s mercy. It is never the wrong time for God to heal, never the wrong time to show mercy. Jesus brings the man healing of his sins, and gives him back the life which he had lacked for so long. We may ask ourselves then what we might be lacking – after all, evil is not a ‘thing’ at all, but an absence of the kind which prevents us from being fully human. What parts of our lives have we hidden away from God for all too long? What long term grievances do we carry around with us? Who do we need to forgive? Can we not ask for God’s healing and mercy right now, in order that Christ may enter, and we may start on the journey to wholeness?

Whose house are you building?

Solemnity of St Joseph

Readings: 2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16; Psalm 88; Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matthew 1:6, 18-21, 24

'...the word of the Lord came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord...I will raise up your offspring after you...I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name..." ' ( 2 Samuel 7:4, 12-13. RSV.)

The first reading today is taken from 2 Samuel chapter 7. One of the central subject matter is the building of a house. In verse 2 we observe King David expressing his desire to the prophet Nathan to do something majestic for God. He, David, says, 'See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent'. Initially, the prophet tells David to go ahead with his heart's desire. The prophet even adds: 'for the Lord is with you'; seeming to say, since you are the Lord's anointed, and this anointing has brought success in all your undertakings, then this too must be a proper and fitting idea. However, that very night the Lord spoke to Nathan and told him to tell David not to go ahead with his plan. 'Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to dwell in' (1 Chronicles 17:4. RSV).

There are several lessons to be learnt here. It is not the case that because someone is anointed, as all Christians are, that every idea they come up with is necessarily in accord with the will of God. Quite frankly, anointed people can get it all wrong, as was the case not only with David, but also with Nathan. What is more, even anointed poeple need other anointed people in some instances to know the exact mind of God on a particular issue. This should be a serious lesson for us. David had a special relationship with God. His heart was after the heart of God itself, and for this reason, he became the most renowned king of all Israel.

So, if a man like David could get it wrong, it is possible that others can do so too. Nevetheless, this is no excuse for being ignorant of the fact that, no matter how nice our ideas may seem, God has his own ideas. He has his own plans. No matter how holy we might be, and indeed we might truly be holy, if we do not find out what the mind of God is on a particular matter, all that we might do based on our own ideas might just be in vain.

We cannot anticipate the ways in which God will fulfill his promises. On this feast of Saint Joseph we celebrate the fact that God's promise to David many centuries before - that it was he, the Lord, who would build a house for David and not vice versa - this promise is fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of God, entrusted to the care of Joseph the carpenter. He, Jesus, is the man who finally builds a fitting house for God, that temple which is his body, the Church.

Taste and See the Lord's Goodness

Sunday 4 of Lent - Laetare Sunday

Readings: Joshua 5:9a, 10-12; Ps 34; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.

"This man welcomes sinners and eats with them..." (Luke 15:3) In response to the murmuring of his detractors, Jesus tells three parables of things lost and found: a sheep, a coin and two sons. Each ends with rejoicing and celebration when the lost is restored, and this is fully expressed in the parable of the lost sons where the father's joy is shown through feasting, music and dancing. As we have reached mid-Lent, rejoicing is indeed the keynote of Laetare Sunday: the Liturgy expresses this through the use of distinctive rose vestments and the resounding of the organ, and at the Eucharistic feast we too make music and celebrate.

Why do we celebrate and rejoice? Because the Lord has chosen to feast with us sinners and indeed He feeds and restores us to new life with his own Body and Blood. Thus today's psalm response invites us to "taste and see the goodness of the Lord". The Eucharist is the joy-filled celebration when we experience God's goodness. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his recent apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis: "The sacrament of charity, the Holy Eucharist is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus revealing to us God's infinite love for every man and woman ... Jesus continues, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, to love us 'to the end,' even to offering us his body and his blood."

In the light of this, we have a choice of either accepting Christ's offer of love or rejecting it. The prodigal son, after he had repented of his ways and returned to his father, accepted his unconditional love. That is our Lenten and life's journey in a nutshell: to recognize our sinfulness, to return to God, accepting His loving mercy and rejoicing with Him in the intimacy of the Eucharist.

But even so, some of us can be like the elder son, who observe the Father's love daily yet do not truly see and taste God's goodness; we hold ourselves aloof and independent of God's embrace and take His Eucharistic gift for granted. The Eucharist is thus a challenge to us, for "Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved [by God] and of loving others in turn. A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented". We may choose to stay outside.

Others may withdraw from the feasting because of unworthiness. While repentance is necessary, just as sorrow comes before joy and Lent before Easter, our fundamental unworthiness is not foremost. Rather, in the Eucharist, Jesus Himself chooses to welcome sinners and eat with us, and because we are unworthy, God takes the initiative. That is the way of love, the gift of the Eucharist, which George Herbert's poem Love bade me welcome expresses so well.

This Laetare Sunday, what better cause for rejoicing have we than a realization of God's love manifest in the Eucharist and the foretaste of eternal life that it offers?

'from now on it is men you will catch'

Feast of St Patrick

Readings: 1 Peter 4:7-11, Ps 95:1-3, 7-8, 10; R) v.3, Luke 5:1-11

There are few things more painful than failure; the objective knowledge that we have fallen short of what we set for ourselves. That knowledge is what faces Simon Peter and the other fisherman in today’s gospel. They have worked hard through the night and their labours have yielded nothing.

And yet the passage is a story of the success that will come to the apostles if they persevere. The key to resolving this seeming paradox is the change of perspective that is brought about in the fisherman. God’s work in the world is not wrought by us or controlled by our initiative: it is collaborative and dependent upon the humility with which we can listen to the Lord. That simplicity of spirit, which prayer breeds in us, asks us to forget the collapse of our own plans. Rather, what is highlighted is the vital contribution that we can each make to the church’s mission by being constant in prayer and generous in response to the invitation of God.

St Patrick, the great 5th century missionary to Ireland, had a profound understanding of the dependence of the true preacher upon God’s grace. As St Patrick said in his Confession, ‘I am very much in debt to God, who gave me so much grace that through me many people were born again in God’. The Lord asks us not to be afraid, but rather to cast out our nets, confident in the good that He wants to work in us and through us.

To love God

Friday 3 of Lent

Readings: Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 81; Mark 12:28-34

It is impossible to fulfil the commandment of love. Love is necessarily a relationship of equals and I am by no means equal to God. For me to love God is as unrealistic as it is for a cup of coffee to love me, and even more so: the gap between God and creation cannot be bridged. Why then, does Christ tell the scribe that the first commandment is ‘to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ (Mark 12:30)?

Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, equal in divinity with the Father. When Jesus says that the Father loves him, or that he loves the Father, it is no metaphor (as it is when, for example, I say: ‘I love coffee’).

Shall we despair then? Are we left out of this wondrous exchange of love? Are we doomed to be ever looking out for healing from our creature-hood? By no means! The coming of Christ, who is both true God and a true human being, brought an end to all despair. Now, being members of His body, the Church, we have a share in the Father’s love, the Holy Spirit. We read in Scripture: ‘See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are’ (1 John 3:1).

Since we are God’s children, it is in the Holy Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that we can really love the Father (Romans 8:16). For the first time since the beginning ...

Finger of God

Thursday 3 of Lent

Readings: Jeremiah 7:23-28; Psalm 94; Luke 11:14-23

If you have watched the film 'Into Great Silence' as some members of our community did recently, you were probably struck by the fact that in the whole film lasting for nearly three hours, there was only one person who actually spoke. The film featured the life of the Grand Chartreuse, a monastery of the Carthusian Order in France. The Grand Chartreuse is considered as one of the strictest monasteries in Christendom. After two hours of impressive pictures about the silent life of the monks and the wonderful landscape of the French Alps, one old and blind monk speaks about his life and about God. The statement lasts only a few minutes. Its outline is: 'There is a God. He is infinitely good. He helps you. Therefore be happy.'

The film is the extraordinary report of a life radically dedicated to the exploration of God’s presence by prayer, work and silence. In today’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates once more this powerful and loving presence of God on this earth. In casting out demons he makes clear that there is no place for evil and Satan in this world: 'If it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you' (Luke 11, 20-21). Lent is the time of exploring this kingdom in our life. So, let us pray that He may touch us too so that we feel His helping presence. Even though we may life not in a remote monastery in the French alps but in busy Britain ...

A godzdogz review of the film 'Into Great Silence', first posted in January, is re-posted below.