Palestine was probably the most fought-over country in the world. It was not uncommon for people to hide their valuables in the ground before taking flight from the conflict zone. One day they hoped to return to reclaim their treasure. If they died in the meantime their treasured remained buried. The man who found the treasure was an ordinary honest farm labourer. The lesson of the parable suggests that true happiness can be found as we go about our day’s work.
Brother Lawrence, great saint and mystic, spent most of his working life in the kitchen surrounded by dirty dishes. He used to say, ‘I feel Jesus as close to me in the kitchen, as ever I did in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament.’ Whatever, our state in life – whether priest, Brother, Sister, housewife, tradesman or school teacher – God is never far away. If we live by the words of the ‘Our Father’ – ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ – we are on track to finding true happiness. There is no better formula for peace of mind and heart in this life, no better guarantee of glory in the next, than to live consciously aware that in our work we can find the hidden treasure. In doing God’s will, we gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
A legend tells how at the beginning of time God decided to hide himself within his own creation. As God was wondering where to hide himself, the angels gathered around him. ‘I want to hide myself in my creation,’ God told them. ‘I need to find a place that is not too easily discovered for it is in their search for me that my creatures will grow in spirit and understanding.’ ‘Why don’t you hide yourself deep in the earth?’ the first angel suggested. God pondered for a while and then replied, ‘No. It will not be long before they learn how to mine the earth and discover all the treasures that it contains. They will discover me too quickly and they will not have had enough time to do their growing.’ ‘Why don’t you hide yourself in the deepest ocean?’ a second angel suggested. God thought this over and then replied, ‘No. That won’t do either. Soon they will learn to dive to the deepest ocean bed before they have had enough time to do their growing.’ Finally, after many suggestions, one angel came up with a bright idea. ‘Why don’t you hide yourself within their hearts? They will never think of looking there.’ ‘That’s it,’ said God, delighted to have found the perfect hiding place.
And so it is that God hides deep within the human heart until a person has grown enough in spirit and in understanding to risk the great journey into the deep core of his being: there to discover the treasure of the divine indwelling. Men have climbed the highest mountains; they have dug deep into the earth; they have plumbed the depths of the ocean; they have even flown into space, all to no avail. If we discover God deep within us, we will have found a hidden treasure, a pearl of great price, our true worth. To believe that God dwells within us is a profound truth.
In one part of the Mass, as the priest mingles water with the wine, he prays… By the mingling of this water and wine, May we come to share in the divinity of Christ, Who humbled himself to share in our humanity… God can be found within a quiet and reflective heart.
Fr Bert Fulbrook sdb

OUR LENTEN CELEBRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

This Wednesday evening 5 April 2017  7.30pm at St Anne’s Church is an opportunity for us to admit our failings and be forgiven and restored to the best in ourselves. Several priests will be available.

From our parish Facebook page below:

Reflection on the Gospel-The Baptism of Jesus Year C, (Luke 3:15-16, 21-22)

Today’s feast marks the end of the Christmas Season and the beginning of Ordinary Time. Over the Christmas season, the liturgy invited us to reflect on and to experience the various comings of Christ in our world and to open ourselves to the action of God’s grace at work in our encounters with the living Christ. The readings from Luke’s gospel have taken us from the birth of Jesus to the story of his personal decision at age twelve to remain in God’s house, the Jerusalem Temple, listening to the teachers of the Law and astonishing them with his answers to their questions.

Now, as an adult and along with “all the people”, Jesus receives John’s water baptism. The crowds are wondering if John the Baptiser is the Christ or Messiah, God’s anointed one. John points the people away from himself and towards Jesus who “will baptise …with the Holy Spirit and fire”. Did Jesus also engage in a ministry of baptising the people “for the forgiveness of sins” or is John’s reference to Jesus’ activity of baptising with the Holy Spirit and fire a metaphor for the distinctive features of his future gospel ministry? In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s second volume, the presence of the Holy Spirit is marked by tongues of fire. Fire is a powerful symbol that functions as a threat on the one hand and as a source of energy and light on the other.

Jesus is God’s Chosen One, the Beloved, on whom God’s Spirit rests. In light of the first reading from Isaiah 42, the voice of God in the baptism scene commissions Jesus to bring forth justice, sensitively and without fanfare; to be a light to the peoples; to open the eyes of the blind and to set the captives free. Those baptised into Christ through the ages are baptised “with the Holy Spirit and fire” and are called to the same mission as Jesus and the same sensitive approach to the mission. The fire in our hearts sometimes flickers in the face of life’s challenges. We are sometimes guilty of crushing “the bruised reed” or extinguishing the flickering flame of hope. As we move into Ordinary Time with its often extraordinary demands, we might think about stirring the embers and fanning the flame of God’s love so that justice might prevail in our world and for our planet – justice without violence, if not without pain.

http://www.catholicreligiousaustralia.org/index.php/resources/gospel-reflections