33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel,

The Lord is near!

Fr. James McTavish

Dan 12:1-3 Ps 16:5+8, 9-10, 11 Heb 10:11-14, 18 Mark 13:24-32

The Gospel today sounds like the trailer of a disaster movie – “...the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” What are we to do? To prepare our “end of the world is nigh” banners?

The first thing that helps us is to understand the style of writing which is known as apocalyptic, very rich in figurative and symbolic language. Now we love symbols and cracking codes, so let us ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds. What does this prophecy mean? Should we be getting alarmed? What is very helpful is the subsequent verse – “then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” The Saviour is coming! So in the middle of the drama the Lord enters. Christ, the head of the cosmos has everything under control.

How can Christ make himself present in the middle of the apocalypse? Perhaps a little example from life can help. Last week I was organizing some of our apostolic activities with the youth here in Manila. After a long day of intense work we were deciding how to go home. They could not decide and there was some indecision and changing of plans. I got impatient and spoke a bit sternly to them, telling them to get their act together. My tone was apocalyptic, the atmosphere changed and it seemed like the end of the world was nigh! But here, if we are open, Christ comes. How? In the humble recognition that I was wrong. I apologised to the group and Christ’s coming was made “real” in the asking for forgiveness. The Son of Man indeed comes with great power if we let him.

Vigilance is required. The gospel tells us “when you see these things happening,
know that he is near.” At times, prompt action is needed, to respond immediately and we discover that the Lord is near. In other moments it is good to listen to the song by U2 called “40.” The song is about Psalm 40 and one line that Bono sings is, “I waited patiently for the Lord.” The Lord comes to those who wait. A person was inviting his friend back to Church. It took three years for the friend to respond. When we ask and pray to the Lord patience is sometimes required. In the waiting our faith, and love, is tested, purified and made more perfect.

It is a wonderful gift to recognize the presence of the Lord and to be able to wait for his coming too. St Patrick had a prayer which showed the closeness of the presence of the Lord: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”

In a polluted world, let Christ be the air you breathe. When all around may be doom and gloom as if the world is ending and there is no hope, how beautiful to announce good news. In my daily situations and challenges, am I an announcer of the apocalypse? When I look at the society, the people around do I only see bad news, always complaining? Or do I see that actually the Lord is near? How inspiring the one who recognizes the coming of Christ, who is able to see Christ working, to recognize the presence of Christ!

The Lord be with you! And also with you, especially in the situations that surround us. Let us not be announcers of the apocalypse but announcers of the good news “The Lord is near.” Amen

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B

Be Doers of the Word - Fr. James McTavish

Deut 4:1-2, 6-8    Ps 15:2-3a, 3b-4a, 4b-5 Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27      Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

“Doers of the Word” is an excellent book of Moral Theology written by a Redemptorist professor called Fr. Terence Kennedy. It is taken from the letter of James, where it is written “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” We are reminded to be not only listeners of the Word but doers also. Those who listen to the Word but who also put that Word into practice. Blessed is the one who listens to the Word of God and puts it into practice. This is how to give ourselves a solid foundation in our Christian life. So stop and think. If someone were to ask you which Word of God you were putting into practice this day, what would you respond?

Last week I went to a retreat preached by our sisters. One reading given was Ephesians 6:13 - “Therefore, take up the full armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” I understood that this week I needed to stand firm. And sure enough there were, as always in our following of Christ, some challenging moments, some moments when Jesus asks us to trust in him and to stand firm! One particular moment was to stand firm over a decision that was made. There were two activities to attend, both of them good. I chose one, after dialogue with my community and thus could not attend the other. Stand firm in that decision. In another moment I was asked to attend a funeral mass and give the homily, to stand firm and to share the Good News.

In the Gospel Jesus invites the listener to be very concrete. Not to get lost in unimportant things but to focus on the essentials. The Pharisees were focused only on keeping many traditions. Perhaps they lost sight of what is essential. What is it that is essential? Blaise Pascal once commented that, “what is essential is invisible.” What is essential is what Jesus tells us. It may be that our practices are empty. Like the man who was in the church choir but led a very promiscuous life. He was singing nice songs with his lips but the message of his life was rather different – “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

What is essential is to listen to the Lord and do what he asks. If he asks us to stand firm then it is to stand firm. All else is secondary. That is why it is vital to listen to the Word. How can we be doers of the Word if we don’t know what it is that Jesus is asking us to do? Like those who were doing many things, good things, holy things: “Lord, we drove out demons in your name, we preached, we did miracles.” But how did our Lord reply? “Get away from me, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22-23). What is needed is to really listen well, to spend time to discern the will of God.

Mother Julian of Norwich reassured all with her motto “All will be well.” All will be well if we listen to the words of the Lord and then do them. Sometimes it is difficult to propose this Christian way to others, especially in our modern times. Why? “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.” But as St Paul (2 Timothy 4:5) reminds Timothy (and each one of us!) “But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfil your ministry.” Let us carry on fighting the good fight with courage, standing firm always knowing that our God is close to us and all will be well if we listen to his words and put them into practice. Be doers of the Word. Just do it!

So what Word will you put into practice today?

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B

Increase your A.Q.

Fr. James McTavish

Job 7:1-4, 6-7 Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23 Mark 1:29-39

Today we listen to the prophet Job complaining about life and his work - “Is not man's life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of a hireling? He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hired man who waits for his wages.” Poor old Job, dear oh dear. But perhaps he reflects the attitude of many going to work on a Monday morning! Seeing as all of us have some kind of work to do, let us spend a moment reflecting on the importance of work in the Christian vocation and how it can become more fulfilling. Is my work only to make money? Hopefully not - as usually we don’t make so much! What is the value of work? How can my workplace become more interesting? Firing the boss?

Before doing that let us contrast Job’s pessimism with the fired up life of Paul in the second reading. He is oozing energy and vitality for his work. There is no stopping this guy. He has a very high A.Q. Do you know what that is? I.Q. is obviously intelligence quotient, E.Q., emotional quotient, in recent times what is essential is A.Q. This is your Adversity Quotient. The capacity to resist, to endure, to overcome all problems with creativity and as Paul would put it, “to fight the good fight and run the good race to the finish.” Paul had a very high A.Q. enduring shipwrecks, struggles, stoning, misunderstandings, and yet he kept going. “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! I become all things to all people so as to win at least some of them.” He was no couch potato or armchair revolutionary but he was out there giving it all he had, announcing the Gospel in season and out of season. Have you got a high A.Q. for the work of announcing the Gospel?

Maybe we can ask how to be fired up for our work and make it a place of mission? Let us learn from Jesus in today’s gospel, he is our model. Jesus was a worker and a missionary. He worked hard all day, teaching, curing, healing, driving out evil Spirits. His work was his mission. The gospel tells us that “the whole town was gathered outside his door!” Where did he get the strength? It was not magic. He also experienced challenges and tiredness but where did he go in those moments? To the source, his Father. “Very early in the morning, before daylight, Jesus went off to a lonely place where he prayed.” In prayer he received the grace, the strength and the energy of the Spirit. He recharged his A.Q. there. And then there was no stopping him – “Let’s go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there too; for that is why I came.”

The Canon Law of the Church states “Each of Christ’s faithful is called to exercise the mission…lay people have the right and obligation to strive that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all people throughout the world. This obligation is all the more insistent in circumstances in which only through them are people able to hear the Gospel and to know Christ… The lay have the special obligation to permeate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel” (Canons 204, 225). So work then becomes a place of mission! So it is ok to earn big bucks, just do it in the spirit of the Gospel and don’t forget to share some of those blessings with the less well off. (You can send donations to my bank account, number… ). Striving to live the gospel values at work means that it is more than just a way to earn money. Doing our work well contributes to our growth in holiness. Some big earners forget this and instead of being welcomed in heaven as a modern Robin Hood (someone who uses their gains to help the less fortunate) will be received as Hood Robin (someone who uses their power and position to steal from the poor and give to the rich!).

Want to enjoy more your work? Make it your mission. Want to have a higher A.Q. to love others, even those difficult ones? Find time to recharge your A.Q. in the silence of prayer. Connect to the source. Without him, life is so boring! Connect and discover your missionary potential. You too are sent by God. He needs you in your family, he needs you in your office. He needs your response. Are you available? Lord, here I am, send me…

REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel

Behold the Bridegroom! Come out to meet him! Matt 25:1-13

Fr. James McTavish FMVD

Jesus tells the parable of the ten virgins today, five of whom were wise and five were foolish. What happened? The five smart ones brought extra oil for their lamps so when the bridegroom was delayed in returning their lamps had enough fuel still. Not so the foolish ones. Interestingly enough all ten virgins fell asleep waiting the return of the bridegroom but only the wise ones had enough oil to keep the lamp burning. The foolish ones ask to borrow some oil but were denied. It reminds us that there is a personal work for each one of us and no one is exempted from this vital task. Someone else cannot do it for you and you cannot “borrow” sanctity from others. One question that comes to mind is what does the oil represent? One understanding is that it represents our life of prayer. This is something that no one can “do” for you. Others can encourage us and help us but at the end it is a personal call. Prayer is a way to store up oil. When the challenges come we can be ready.

St Alphonsus described the effect of prayer in the following vivid way: “The soul in mental prayer is like iron in the fire: when the iron is cold it is difficult to work; but when it is put into the fire it becomes soft, and allows itself to be easily worked: so it is with the soul. A master of the spiritual life calls it a furnace, because as the fire softens the iron and renders it easy to work, so mental prayer makes it easy for the soul to overcome its passions. For example, someone receives an affront, an injury that wounds his self-love: before mental prayer, it is very difficult to him to overcome the passion that incites him to grow angry, to defend himself, and even to furnish him at times with pretexts to make him believe that this is necessary. The iron is yet cold, it must be put into the fire. Let this troubled soul enter mental prayer, and at once the sweet flame of the Holy Ghost touches it, and an interior voice tells him: Is it not better to bear that without resenting it? Leave rather your defence to God, as your divine Master did when he was calumniated, he who was more innocent than you! At once the iron loses its hardness; the soul is softened, is appeased: without mental prayer, it would have been otherwise.” Wow! It makes you want to pray and build up the stores of oil!

The one who prays truly becomes wise. The first reading today is from the book of Wisdom and perhaps describes the wisdom of the wise virgins of the gospel today: “Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men's desire; he who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate. For taking thought of her is the perfection of prudence, and he who for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care; Because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude” (Wisdom 6,12-16).

Once a missionary was sharing about the gospel and he asked a very interesting question. He asked us how many different characters are there in the gospel. We said the five wise virgins, the five foolish ones and the bridegroom as well as the merchants to buy oil from and Jesus with his disciples. But there was one other character we did not spot. Who was it? The voice crying out at midnight! What does the voice cry out? “Behold the Bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” Every Christian in some way or another is called to be this voice. To call out at midnight, a time when others are drowsy or sleeping, a time of darkness when things are not clear. This is the prophetic task of the Church too, to be a watchman or watchwoman.

Let us pray and stay awake. May we fill our lamps with the oil of prayer like the wise virgins. And may we always shoulder our prophetic task ready to announce the call to action to our brothers and sisters.

A prayer

Dear Lord, please grant me the sense to know an opportunity when I see one, because I know I am blind 99% of the time. Open my eyes.

Please let me hear my own mind when it gives me a good idea on a silver platter, because I’m usually not listening. Let me listen.

Let me listen to myself and others, even the least of thy children, because everybody has good ideas.

For God’s sake, please let me always have a pen and a notebook with me so I can write ideas down, because I often forget the best ideas that come to me. Let me remember.

Let me be generous, for it is in giving that I create abundance.

And Lord, please keep me supplied with the food of the spirit, a bit of good humor.

Let me keep things in perspective.

Let me have passion for the things I’m trying to make happen, because if I do, good things are bound to happen.

Let me create from my heart — with love for others I can’t go wrong.

And finally dear Lord, please let me innovate – because it honors the creator to create, and the mortgage payment won’t wait!