Faith

Forgiveness is a funny thing, it warms the heart and cools the sting – Tuesday, 11th week in ordinary time – Matthew 5:43-48

Love your enemies, this is a tough one to deal with! How we wish we could love our enemies as Jesus did from the cross. The truth is that Jesus did not see those who put him to death as ‘enemies’. He never stopped loving them and because he loved them, he saw and considered them friends who were misguided. “Father,” he said, “forgive them for they know not what they do.”

So often, our friends, misguided by their actions and words, find themselves over night on our ‘enemy list.’ How we see people is how we live and deal with them. Healing comes easier when we see a person we once loved as  misguided rather than a hated enemy.

Jesus did not see those around him as enemies but that does not mean they saw him as a friend. They plotted his death, hung around him to trap him and at his trial brought false witnesses. For them, Jesus was the enemy. Jesus had to deal with people who hated him for doing good and for being God.

It is amazing to see that everything that Jesus preached in the sermon on the Mount he practiced during his passion and death. Preaching to his disciples on this mount in Galilee he speaks of loving one’s neighbour and praying for those who persecute you. This was not what the Rabbis advocated. They had conveniently twisted the law of God. Leviticus 19:18 says, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself,” it never said you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. This was clearly a misrepresentation of the teachings of Moses.

It is for this reason that Jesus says, “you have heard it said,” for it was a man-made saying and not the prescription of God. God desired reconciliation and love for God is love. For the Jews at the time of Jesus, the concept of a neighbour was another Jewish brother or sister. To love a Jew who was your brother or your sister was considered mandatory. By teaching one to hate everyone else was tantamount to nothing short of religious sponsored racial and ethnic discrimination; one that chose to exterminate the other even physically.

When Jesus spoke of loving one’s enemies, he was mindful that among the enemies of the Jews, the Romans stood first in line. They were the political rulers who stopped at nothing. Their taxation imposed a hard life on the people but their remote controlling of the Jewish faith and their constant interference was seen as intolerable. It is for this reason that Jesus not only spoke of every and any enemy who should be loved but also the need to pray for one’s persecutors.

On calvary, Jesus was able to forgive because love and forgiveness was second nature to the Son of God. Love and forgiveness is not a podcast we tune into when we need to be lectured hard and long on how to forgive but like exercising in a gym, it is something that is practiced every day, till it becomes a way of life.

As Christians we desire to forgive. We say to people who hurt us that we forgive them, yet the sting of that pain seems hard to go. Jesus did not just say love your enemies; he also gave us the ‘magic portion’ to take away the sting; pray, he said. On the cross of suffering, Our Lord Jesus did not just pronounce a public declaration of forgiveness. He did not say “Enemies of Christ, I forgive you,” rather he made a public prayer of forgiveness. It is prayer that takes away the sting, not merely OUR human desire to forgive. By itself, our human desire is unable to deal with so grave a sting that has become the tool of satan but with Jesus, with prayer -hate is overcome, forgiveness is given, pain is forgotten and joy is restored.

If you want to truly forgive you need to ask yourself, ‘are those who you do not like on your prayer list or on you hit list?’

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Faith

Called to reflect not react – Monday, 11th week in ordinary time – Matthew 5:38-42

The methods that Jesus proposed were radical to say the least. Even nature reacts when provoked. Don’t poke an angry bear is not just a passing thought but the experience of one who has borne the consequences of such stupidity. It is in our very nature to strike back. Yet Jesus came to ‘nurture’ this untamed nature of ours.

What does retaliation really get us but more pain and anger? The cycle of hate that Jesus came to challenge and transform was demonstrated on the cross. What he preached on the mount here in chapter five he practiced on Mount Calvary when he said, “forgive them father, they know not what they do.”

Jesus has been teaching what it means to be a disciple. So far, every word from his mouth seemed shocking, not because he was saying something blasphemous but because the core of his teachings stemmed from the transformation of every person; something that the Jewish Rabbis did not entirely subscribe to as they placed their laws and traditions over the human person.

The teachings of Jesus have been misinterpreted by many as a call to be ‘a doormat’. That would be a very poor and misinformed way of looking at the scriptures. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was the law of the ancient near east. It was adopted by cultures across the spectrum as a way of limiting revenge proportionately and not encouraging it.

Jesus acknowledges that evil and its agents (evil doers) exist. In saying this he is addressing and acknowledging that humankind expresses itself in evil and perhaps even unjust way. The Christian disciple is called not to react but to reflect the love of God to the evil doer and is called to do this by gently shaming the attacker with non-violence.

Jesus sites three examples of hate and injustice in his day that usually would have met with varied violent responses. To be slapped in the face was a form of disrespect, especially with the backhand. For Jesus, offering the other cheek was a subtle way in shaming the person who attacked you. At the heart of this action is the desire to reconcile. You can’t reconcile when you seek revenge. Freely offered, the turning of the other cheek works both ways; it humbles the attacker and cools the desire for revenge.

Jesus then gives the second example of nonviolent Christian resistance that guarantees a moral victory. A matter as insignificant as a coat has become a judicial dispute. Clearly the greed of the human person can reach the lowest limits. To such a person, Jesus advocates giving the cloak as well. The cloak was inner wear and removing it would embarrass the greed of the person, right there, in the middle of the courtroom. It would make for sensational headlines the next morning!

Finally, drawing from a Persian loanword, angareuein meaning, to compel, He highlights the image of the ‘pony service’ used by the Greco- Roman world in which men were forcibly conscripted to assist in any service demanded by the Romans. This was used as a tool of control over the colonized nation. Remember Simon of Cyrene who was compelled to carry the cross of Jesus?

Jesus wants the disciple to give more, be more, and do more. Difficult, yes but not impossible! The invitation of Jesus to His disciples could well be summarized in an ad campaign run Pepsi, in India, a few years ago. The line ran. ‘yeh dil maange more’. Translated it simply means, this heart asks for more. This is what the Lord wanted from our hearts; this is discipleship.

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Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Matthew 11:25-30

The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus goes back to the 11th century and presents the love of God symbolised by the heart of Jesus. This feast was first celebrated liturgically in France in 1670 as a consequence of the revelations to St Mary Margaret Alacoque.

In 1856, Pope Pius IX established the feast and added an octave which was later dropped during the 1955 liturgical reforms of the Church. Since 2002, this feast has also been celebrated as a day of prayer for the sanctification of priests, and in 2009 the ‘year of the priesthood’ began.

The heart is traditionally accepted as the seat of love. In celebrating Jesus’ Sacred Heart, we are celebrating the great love that Jesus had; a love that He received from His Father and for which He gave thanks for. It is this love that Jesus shares with us and willing walks to the cross out of love for us.

What is it that God revealed in the heart of Jesus? The heart of Jesus reveals a compassionate Saviour. The etymology of this word ‘compassion’ helps us understand the heart of Jesus. It comes from the Latin word ‘compassionem’, meaning ‘to suffer together’.

In the Gospel of today, Our Lord says, “come to me all you who labour and are heavy burdened.” Jesus directed His call to those who were burdened. He called those who sensed they must come to Him to relieve their need instead of living in self-sufficiency. But Jesus also showed His authority when He says, “come unto ME”. This invitation is unthinkable from the mouth of anyone else but God, and woe to the men who call people to themselves instead of to Jesus!

His invitation is not to some, it is to all. He does not set terms when he says, “come.” Come is an invitation but as he will also tell us, that the invitation needs a response that falls in line with such a loving invitation and it involves a wedding gown appropriate to the invitation. While the call is to all, it is a specific call to transformation.

Jesus also made a wonderful offer, inviting us to take “my yoke upon you and learn from Me.” We must come as disciples willing to learn, willing to be guided by His yoke and not merely to receive something.

Today, on this feast day, Jesus reveals His nature when He describes Himself as gentle and lowly of heart. It is His servant’s heart, displayed throughout His ministry that made him qualified to be the one who bears our burdens.

Finally, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an invitation not merely to adore His heart, but to live the revelation of a compassionate God.

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Faith

Mind your language – Thursday, 10th Week in ordinary time – Matthew 5:20-26

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/give-me-more/ 

For many, the spiritual life is about the strict avoidance of actions that have been laid down as sinful. Yet the avoidance of sinful actions begins with tackling it at the source of it all and not merely focusing on the act in itself. The late Fr Francis Ripoll, our professor at St Pius X College, the diocesan seminary in Mumbai, would often say, “the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.” It is the heart that Jesus desires to fix for therein lies God’s Positioning System (GPS) to heaven.

The Sermon on the Mount, as preached by Jesus, is a call to every disciple to choose to be different. The Greek word for ‘different’ would translate as Hagios or ‘holy.’ The Sermon on the Mount is a call to a different way of life, a holy way of life.

Over the next few days, we shall study the six hyper theses (5:21-47). Six times in all, Jesus will use the words, “you have heard it said…but I say to you.” For four hundred years before Christ, the prophetic voice had fallen silent and, in this time, there arose several religious groups who became de facto leaders of the religious faith. The scribes and the Pharisees (5:20) emerged out of such a context.

To the people of Israel, the scribes and the Pharisees were looked up as the preservers and transmitters of the Jewish faith in its orthodoxy. The lay man or woman would consider these groups of religious men as the models of faith. Christ does not see it that way. For him they have not just set the bar of faith and religious teachings low, they have reset the bars of faith to suit their convenience. Hence, he will say, “you have heard it said…” Even more, Christ expects the disciples not to bench mark their spiritual life lower than the religious establishment of his time but to exceed their ‘righteousness.’ This must have come as a shock to the disciples of Jesus who held the Pharisees and scribes in the highest esteem.

Too often, faith is (and conveniently so) measured by the standards of others. We look at the faults of religious men and women of our time and use that as the exit route for lowering our spiritual standards. Christ wants us to strive for the highest standard that should be held and not seek the lowest. The faults of your parish priest are his to bear before the judgment seat of God and not yours to seek as a way to diminish the demands of faith. The six hyper thesis that we will study are a call to ‘more;’ “you have heard it said …but I say to you,” and what Christ asks from us is always more.

The first in the series of what I call, “yeh dil mange more” is the examination of our hearts when it comes to anger. The law of Moses set clear judgments for murder. The original commandment is found in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17. Yet Jesus challenges us to deal with the problem of evil while it still resides as evil thoughts or feelings in our hearts, before it finds expression in the evil works of our hands or the evil words of our mouths

William Barclay notes that there were two Greek words for anger: thumos, which is a fiery kind of anger that flames up and then dies and orge, which is a smouldering anger, the kind of anger that a person nurtures and keeps alive. It is orge the kind of anger that we deliberately harbour in our hearts over long periods of time, that Jesus condemns here.

Jesus’ concern here is the real damage that we can inflict with words. When you think about it, none of these three behaviours (anger, calling a person “Raca”, or calling a person a fool) constitute murder, per se, but they are precursors of murderous behaviour; the kind of things that cause us to spiral out of control and commit murderous deeds

While children say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” that is a lie. Words have the capacity to wound us emotionally and spiritually, as surely as a knife has the capacity to wound us physically. Most of us still carry the emotional scars of words that someone said years ago. Jesus’ admonition about words of hate and anger are intended to prevent inflicting real injury. While we might regard words as insignificant, Jesus is warning us that God regards them as highly significant.

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Faith

The convenience of making inconvenient -Wednesday, 10th week in ordinary time – Matthew 5:17-19

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/revisiting-the-commandments-stepping-away-from-traditions/

A new preacher on the block always seems to generate interest, especially if the skill set is right. There are some who dwell with a hope, misguided as it may be, that if the walk looks rights the talk will be right. Yet as we know, walking the talk is not always what we get and those who judge a book by its cover will find page five hard to turn.

For the Jews, Jesus was the ‘new kid on the block.’ They called him Rabbi and some called him the devil himself. They approached him the way they chose to perceive him. Like in our time, there are those who map the path of following the faith according to what they perceive as right; some left, some right, some moderate and some not at all.

Yet, Jesus did not come to divide but to unite us. His prayer in the Gospel of John was, “that they may be one.” Even more, he did not come to show us ways to the father for he is the only way to father. While Christianity has room for expressions of the faith, the core of the faith cannot be expressed any differently than the way it was given to us by God.

Christ is emphatic, “I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets.” Perhaps those who heard him speak with authority assumed that he was here to meet their brand of faith. On the flip side there were those who could not swallow what he said. We know that they called his teachings ‘intolerable’ and perhaps tried to tarnish his name with their own whisper campaign.

When it comes to the core of the faith, Christ does not want us to “imagine,” for the faith is not up for any sort of interpretation except that which the Father has willed it to be. The law of God may seem inconvenient to some, it may be out of step for others, or even more, may appear imposed from above; whatever may be our imagination, Christ is clear, not one dot, not one stroke shall disappear from the law. 

Christ clarifies his position for the misguided, “no infringements are permitted! Think about it, if someone “infringed” on your property you would use the might of civil law to push back. We who don’t let an inch of our earthly property to be infringed on have a greater duty to fight back any infringements on the laws set by God, for they protect our heavenly home.

Not only are we to defend the faith vigorously from elements external and internal, we are also called to teach the truth of God in sincerity. In the Sermon in the Mount, Jesus is laying down the demands of discipleship. Discipleship has consequences and Jesus is clear that there will be some disciples who violate the laws of heaven and the teachings on discipleship; they will face the consequence of being “least in the kingdom.” Yet for those who keep them faithfully; every dot, every precept of Christ, will be called ‘great’.

The translation of this word ‘great,’ in Greek, is ‘maga.’ It is as if Jesus says, ‘I will shout out your name, I will proclaim your name to everyone for you have followed the laws of discipleship in the beatitudes and kept the Law of God to its letter.

Perhaps today would be a day to check how many dots and strokes in our lives have moved out of place and even more if we are teaching those around us to break the law of God because it is inconvenient to us.

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