Sunday Gospel

Saints are everywhere: Very often we find holiness in our next-door neighbours (Rejoice and Exult, 7, 2018). Pope Francis is making an important point: I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile. We are all called to be saints, but the official, canonised ones,

Matthew 22 assembles four conflict stories. They demonstrate the brilliant mind of Jesus and his sublime courage. The third story: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus said to them, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.’ ‘The second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The Ten Commandments are known as the Decalogue – i.e., Ten Words. The first three commandm

We are invited this week to make a joint oblation: To God and to society. Three parables in the Gospel of Matthew are followed by four conflict stories. The first one deals with the perennial issue of the relationship between Church and State: Tell us, Master, is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? (Matthew 22) The antagonists try to snooker Jesus: If he supports the payment of the highly unpopular poll tax, he will lose standing with the people. If he rejects payme

Death is definitive and confronting, but not the last word. In fact, death is a gateway to eternal, resurrected life: On this mountain, the Lord will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations, he will destroy death forever. That day, it will be said: See, this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation. The Lord is the one in whom we hoped (Isaiah 25). Through our death, we are invited to the greatest wedding of all – our marriage wit

Mark Twain (1835-1910) famously said: Ninety-Five Percent of my problems never happened. The mind is powerful, creating problems that don’t exist: There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving (eυχαριστία) (Philippians 4). Note Paul’s employment of the word Eucharist. The Church makes a breathtaking claim about the Eucharist: The entire spiritual good of the Church is contained in the Eucharist (CCC 1

Change is inevitable. We may like and embrace it. We may dislike it and try our best to avoid it. Change for change’s sake is not necessarily good, but change that improves our lot surely is a good thing. We hear this week of change that will benefit us. Moral change – conversion. Jesus instigates a debate with the chief priest and elders – the elite. I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you (Matthew 21). Tax

God speaks: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks (Isaiah 55). Thank God, God’s ways are not our ways: Obviously, God does not have our faults of selfishness, laziness, malice, lust and greed (Henry Wansborough, Universalis). The Parable of the Vineyard Workers reinforces the point: The landless poor would gather in the town square hoping to be hired as day labourers. As today in many Third-World countries, the poor do not sa

Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness: A man is forgiven 10,000 talents but fails to forgive 100 denarii. It is a classic case of hyperbole, employed by Jesus to wake us up. God forgives so generously, but do we? The mathematics is fun: 1 Denarius is the Daily Wage 1 Talent is 6,000 Denarius. Let’s say the daily wage in Australia is $350. So, 10,000 talents in today’s terms would be: $350 x 6,000 = $2,100,000 10,000 x $2,100,000 = $21Billion. There is no love without forgiv

There are five great discourses in Matthew’s Gospel: Sermon on the Mount (5-7) Missionary Instruction (10) Parables Plentiful (13) Community Life (18) End Times (22-24). Matthew develops the first ever rule of life for a Christian community in chapter 18. He does this using a symmetrical technique. Think of an arc, with two foundation stones, one on the left and one on the right, and a keystone at the top, stopping the structure from collapsing. The foundation stone on the le

From Paul’s most mature work: I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God (Romans 12). We are spirit, soul and body (1Thessalonians 5) – a profound unity. What we do in the body affects our inner life and vice versa. Pope St. John Paul II (1978-2005) developed the Theology of the Body, which opens up Paul’s invitation. George Weigel, papal biographer, claims that the ‘theology of the body is

The Lord Jesus Christ built his Church on a rock: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church (Matthew 16). Peter was the first pope. Pope Leo XIV is now the 267th successor of St. Peter. How has the Church survived and thrived for so long? Fidelity to the truth. Adaptability to change. Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) is indisputably the first truly modern pope: He is the earliest-born person captured on film, believe that or not. Elected in 1878, he systematically modern

St. Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941) believed that the world is passing through a time of intense spiritual crisis: A crisis of truth. A crisis of love. The rise of identity culture and politics surely highlights the issue: I naively identify as a pensioner. But the employee at Centrelink says, ‘Bad luck buddy, you were born in 1963 – you don’t qualify.’ What I take seriously is rightly rejected by the fella behind the counter. Truth be told. In our time, too, mercy and forgivene

We have the unusual pairing of God appearing to Elijah on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19) with Christ walking on water (Matthew 14). Why the pairing? God commands Elijah to ‘go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’ He soon discovers that God is not in the form of a mighty wind, an earthquake, a fire. No, rather God is in ‘a voice of silence.’ Too many translations weaken the expression into ‘a still, small voice of silence,’ something that can do no harm. But it must stan

St. Carlo Acutis (1991-2006) realised – from a very young age – that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. So convinced of this truth, that he set about documenting 136 Eucharistic miracles throughout the history of the Church. What is a Eucharistic miracle? The Church has taught, teaches and will continue to teach that when Christ said of the bread he held in his hands at the Last Supper, ‘This is my Body,’ that he meant what he said. The bread became, becomes, wil

The Lord comes to Solomon in a dream and asks him what he desires. Solomon responds: Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great? (1 Kings 3). Solomon is prudent, not prudish. The former comes from the Latin providens, meaning ‘seeing ahead.’ The latter from the French, meaning ‘shocked by someone’s behaviour.’ We need prudent men and women in every age, but especially now with the c

You: ‘I don’t know how to pray.’ Me: ‘Of course you don’t.’ You: ‘Seriously, I can’t pray.’ Me: Relax. Let Paul direct you: The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words (Romans 8). We are good people, but weak. Take this magnificent passage from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offe

Matthew has five great discourses. Chapter 13 is number three. It is ‘chock-a-block’ with parables. In my opinion, the ‘Parable of all Parables’ is the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-9), with its allegorical interpretation in Matthew 13:18-23. Brendan Byrne, Lifting the Burden (2004), wants us to be more perceptive and receptive: Where does the seed fall? What is the reception and response to the seed? What are the three failures and the three gains? The evil on

In the midst of the widespread rejection of his message, Jesus prays to his Father: I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth (Matthew 11). Jesus calls his Father ‘Abba.’ Jewish names for God include Lord, King, Shepherd, Rock, Fortress, Father. George T. Montague alerts us to something most important: The Talmud says that when a baby first begins to speak, his first words are Amma and Abba, both titles of intimacy by which he addresses his ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy.’ The fi

Modern life is replete with addictions. Alcohol takes its toll. Illicit drugs kill. Pornography is plentiful, accessible and destructive. Experts say that the gambling addiction is the hardest to break. One thing is certain: therapists will not be without work. Can we offer anything from our rich spiritual tradition? Well educated, formed in the Jewish faith, Saul of Tarsus undergoes an unexpected conversion, re-orientating him from persecuting Christians to the warm embrace

The experience of success is important. Joy is the word that comes to mind. However, it may be that the experience of failure is more important. Paul speaks in Romans of the mysterious failure and fall of Adam. We find it in Genesis 3, where God responds to failure, not by accusing, but by questioning Adam, with no less than four questions! The questions are designed to enable Adam and Eve to understand the experience of failure more deeply. This helps them to go forward with