Category: Spirituality

 

Reflection on the Gospel-22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Veronica Lawson RSM

(Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

After our lengthy detour into John 6 with its focus on Jesus as the Bread of Life and the Bread of Wisdom, we return to Mark’s gospel and a legal dispute about ritual purity. The parties to the dispute are Jesus, the Pharisees, and some of the scribes or teachers of the law. [It is worth noting that Mark’s non-Jewish readers, at a later time and in another place, need to be given detailed information about certain Jewish traditions]. At issue for the scribes and Pharisees in the story is the failure of Jesus’ disciples to respect their oral tradition, in this instance to perform ritual washings before eating. From their perspective, the disciples are not ‘walking’ according to the tradition of the elders.

For the Markan Jesus, ‘the command of God’ is paramount, not some distorted interpretation of it. He offers a hard-hitting counter-critique of their attitude to law. He calls them ‘hypocrites’ and informs them that the condemnation of the prophet Isaiah was intended for them. They have so distorted God’s law, substituting their own observances for the ‘commandment of God’ that their prayer amounts to nothing more than lip-service, their hearts are far from God, and their worship is worthless! For Jesus, there are criteria other than such observances for determining who is clean or unclean. He has already declared the leper clean (Mk 1:41-45). For Jesus, the ‘heart’ rather than the body is the locus of purity and impurity. For him as for all his people, the heart was the seat of the intellect and of morality as well as the emotions. In the kin-dom of God, therefore, one’s thoughts, desires, and intentions render one clean or unclean, not one’s attention to hygiene. The latter is desirable of course, but is peripheral in the grand scheme of things. It is worth applying the criteria provided at the end of the passage to discover whether or not our ‘hearts’ are near or distant from our God.

A word of caution! The real-life Pharisees of the first century were the respected teachers of God’s law. It is imperative that stories such as we find in today’s gospel are not used to pit Christianity over against Judaism. We have to keep reminding ourselves that time and again we are dealing with in-house debates between Jews.

Prayer, in the sense of union with God, is the most crucifying thing there is. One must do it for God’s sake; but one will not get any satisfaction out of it, in the sense of feeling “I am good at prayer”, “I have an infallible method”. That would be disastrous, since what we want to learn is precisely our own weakness, powerlessness, unworthiness. Nor ought one to expect a “sense of the supernatural”…And one should wish for no prayer, except precisely the prayer that God gives us – probably very distracted and unsatisfactory in every way!

On the other hand, the only way to pray is to pray; and the way to pray well is to pray much. If one has no time for this, then one must at least pray regularly. But the less one prays, the worse it goes. And if circumstances do not permit even regularity, then one must put up with the fact that when one does try to pray, one can’t pray—and our prayer will probably consist of telling this to God…The rule is simply: pray as you can, and do not try to pray as you can’t.

Abbot John Chapman (1865-1933) In Treasury of the Catholic Church compiled by Teresa de Bertodano (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1999)

Reflection on the Gospel – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Veronica Lawson RSM

John 6:41-51

Jesus was a Jew, as was John, the author of the gospel. It may seem strange, therefore, that John has the ‘Jews’ complaining about Jesus. It is strange indeed, and it has caused many a reader to wonder. John seems to use the designation ‘Jew’ as a code word for the opponents of Jesus. These opponents are almost exclusively Jewish leaders and not the ordinary people who followed Jesus. The designation does not include all the leaders of course: Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea stand out as leaders who came to accept him and to take risks on account of their faith.

The complaint of the ‘Jews’ relates to Jesus’ claim: ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven’. Jesus shares the world view of his contemporaries: God is in the heavens above, so that anything or anyone coming from God comes down from heaven. The problem for his adversaries is that Jesus is one of them: they know his father Joseph and his grandparents, so how can he be making such a claim? They make the mistake of thinking that is all there is to know about his origins. ‘Don’t complain’ is Jesus’ response to them. He goes on to tell them that there are dimensions of his being of which they know nothing. Yet they need to know, as do we. It is God who draws us to Jesus. Like the opponents of Jesus, we need to listen and to learn, to be taught by God. We need the bread of God’s teaching.

Jesus makes a future promise: the bread he offers is different from the bread the Israelites ate in the desert in that those who eat of the bread that Jesus offers will live forever. Furthermore, the bread that he will give for the life of the world is his flesh. This leads to further misunderstanding and the opportunity for Jesus to teach at a deeper level, as we shall see in next’s week’s reading. The eucharistic overtones in today’s reading are subtle but nonetheless present, as they were in the feeding story. John is writing some seventy years after the death of Jesus for communities that gathered every week for the breaking of the bread-in memory of him. Like the early Christians, we reflect on the mystery of eucharist. At the very least, we are invited to move beyond over-literal interpretations that can blind us to the deeper dimensions of our faith.

This Feast day is a Holy Day of Obligation on which Catholics over the age of reason are obliged to take part in the Celebration of the Eucharist.
There are three Masses on the day :
9.30am St Anne’s Church,
12.30pm OLMC Church
7.30pm St. Anne’s Church.

As part of our Year of Grace, you are invited to join the festivities of Gracefest. Beginning with the feast of the Assumption on Wednesday 15 August, Opening Mass 6.20pm St Patrick’s Cathedral. Gracefest will continue until the 19 August. Special performance by The Voice contestant, Fataik Veamatahau. The full details are in a booklet at the back of the church.

Reflection on the Gospel – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Veronica Lawson RSM

John 6:1-15

The gospel readings for the next five weeks are taken from John 6, a section of the gospel that focuses on food and related themes: on hungry people; on the need for food/bread; on food/bread as metaphors for life. Bread has been the staple food for millennia in bible lands. To be without bread is to lack the very basics of existence, and that is how it is for so many in our world. People in Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza, West Papua, Timor Leste, and so many African countries know what it means to be without the means of subsistence in a world of plenty. The present cycle of readings is timely. It confronts us with questions about our own lifestyle, our exploitation of earth’s precious resources, and our capacity to make a positive change in the lives of those whose access to the fruits of our earth is much more limited than ours.

In John’s account of the feeding of the 5000, the crowds keep following Jesus because they see the signs he works among the sick. The Johannine Jesus consistently tries to lead the people beyond a form of discipleship that is simply based on seeing ‘the signs’ that he works. The inadequacy of the crowd’s response on this occasion becomes clear towards the end of the reading.

The geographical setting of ‘the mountain’ evokes the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai. For the crowds, Jesus is the prophet like Moses who provides sustenance for the hungry in the wilderness of life. The temporal setting is Passover, ‘the feast of the Jews’, which recalls the passing over of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the desert and ultimately of the land where they could worship their God. This story is about the liberation that Jesus brings.

Jesus demonstrates to the crowds and to his disciples that the answer to the suffering of the people, their liberation, is to be found in their care for each other. If they will only take the time to sit down together, discover the riches in their midst, give thanks, and distribute what they have, they may find there is more than is needed to satisfy their own hunger. They must gather up the fragments, the ‘more-than-enough’ so that nothing will be lost: they are not the only ones who hunger.

They partially understand who he is and what he is trying to teach them, but their ultimate response is misdirected, even violent: they want to take him by force and make him king. He leaves them and returns to the mountain alone, the place of encounter with God. We so often seek spectacular solutions to our problems. It may be that we too need to sit down together on the grass, or wherever, and discover the wealth we have at our disposal to satisfy the hungers in our world.

Reflection on the Gospel – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Veronica Lawson RSM

Mark 5:21-43

In Mark’s gospel, we often find a story within a story. Some scholars refer to this technique as the making of a Markan sandwich, others as a framing device. In Mark 5:21-43, the frame consists of the two-part story of the desperately ill twelve year old daughter of Jairus, a synagogue official. Jairus falls at the feet of Jesus in an attitude of reverence and pleads with him to come and lay hands on her. Jesus is clearly known as a healer, one who can ‘save’ life. The passage closes with the young woman’s seeming death and restoration to life. In between, we have the story of an older woman, also seriously ill, possibly with a gynaecological problem: she has been haemorrhaging for twelve years.

The stories are linked in many ways, first by the repetition of the number twelve-a symbolic number in a Jewish context. Both the young Jewish woman and the older Jewish woman are in need of the saving power of God mediated through Jesus the healer. Later in the Markan story [7:24-30) a Gentile mother and daughter will beg for and receive that same saving power of God. Jairus’ daughter does not speak for herself. Like all young women of that culture, ill or not, she is dependent on the voice of her father. The older woman comes tentatively ‘from behind’. She speaks, but only to herself as she touches Jesus’ cloak and experiences healing in her body. She is finally shamed into telling all. Like Jairus, she falls at the feet of Jesus. Jairus refers to his little girl on the brink of adulthood as ‘my daughter’. Jesus addresses the older woman as ‘my daughter’.

Both women, the younger and the older, are daughters of Israel. Both are restored to health, one on account of her parents’ faith (the unnamed mother and the named father], the other because of her own faith. Jesus the healer has embraced and responded to the pain of a woman alone on the one hand and of a family (mother, father, and daughter) on the other.

Towards the end of the gospel (14:3-9), this Jesus who has brought healing to little children, to older women and younger women, to older men and younger men, to Jews and to Gentiles, will himself become the recipient of the healing ministry of an insightful woman who pours out healing ointment. He will recognise this action as a beautiful thing that she has done ‘in him’. For now, the stories recount ‘the beautiful thing’ he does in the lives of suffering humanity, irrespective of age or gender or status or ethnicity.

The  Rosary is prayed every Saturday morning at 9am in St Anne’s Church.
All Welcome.

Held at St Anne’s Church on Friday 6th July from 7-8pm.

All welcome

Reflection on the Gospel – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Veronica Lawson RSM

Mark 5:21-43

In Mark’s gospel, we often find a story within a story. Some scholars refer to this technique as the making of a Markan sandwich, others as a framing device. In Mark 5:21-43, the frame consists of the two-part story of the desperately ill twelve year old daughter of Jairus, a synagogue official. Jairus falls at the feet of Jesus in an attitude of reverence and pleads with him to come and lay hands on her. Jesus is clearly known as a healer, one who can ‘save’ life. The passage closes with the young woman’s seeming death and restoration to life. In between, we have the story of an older woman, also seriously ill, possibly with a gynaecological problem: she has been haemorrhaging for twelve years.

The stories are linked in many ways, first by the repetition of the number twelve-a symbolic number in a Jewish context. Both the young Jewish woman and the older Jewish woman are in need of the saving power of God mediated through Jesus the healer. Later in the Markan story [7:24-30) a Gentile mother and daughter will beg for and receive that same saving power of God. Jairus’ daughter does not speak for herself. Like all young women of that culture, ill or not, she is dependent on the voice of her father. The older woman comes tentatively ‘from behind’. She speaks, but only to herself as she touches Jesus’ cloak and experiences healing in her body. She is finally shamed into telling all. Like Jairus, she falls at the feet of Jesus. Jairus refers to his little girl on the brink of adulthood as ‘my daughter’. Jesus addresses the older woman as ‘my daughter’.

Both women, the younger and the older, are daughters of Israel. Both are restored to health, one on account of her parents’ faith (the unnamed mother and the named father], the other because of her own faith. Jesus the healer has embraced and responded to the pain of a woman alone on the one hand and of a family (mother, father, and daughter) on the other.

Towards the end of the gospel (14:3-9), this Jesus who has brought healing to little children, to older women and younger women, to older men and younger men, to Jews and to Gentiles, will himself become the recipient of the healing ministry of an insightful woman who pours out healing ointment. He will recognise this action as a beautiful thing that she has done ‘in him’. For now, the stories recount ‘the beautiful thing’ he does in the lives of suffering humanity, irrespective of age or gender or status or ethnicity.

Due to lack of attendance, the prayers of the church will not proceed on Wednesday nights.

Reflection on the Gospel – Birth of John the Baptist
Veronica Lawson RSM

Luke 1:5-17 (Vigil); Luke 1:57-66, 80 (Daytime)

What are you doing for the Year of Grace? I have heard that question time and again over the past few weeks. The response of a young woman friend stays with me: “I plan to be gracious all the time, even in the face of hostility, or perhaps especially in the face of hostility.” Her whole being spoke to me of graciousness. She plans to live in the spirit of today’s feast, the feast of the birth of a herald of grace.

The reading for the vigil tells of the angelic announcement of the birth of John the Baptist.  The gospel writer locates John in relation to time and place and lineage. He is born in the days of Herod of Judea. Both parents are named. Both are of priestly descent. Both are ‘righteous’ before God. They are elderly and childless. Their childless state is attributed to Elizabeth’s barrenness, as one might expect in a pre-scientific age.

Zechariah is performing his priestly service in the Jerusalem Temple when the angel appears to him and announces that his ‘prayer has been heard’. Elizabeth is to bear a son whose birth will bring ‘joy’ and ‘gladness’, not only to his parents, but to ‘many’. This child, who is to be named ‘John’, will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. His mission is to ‘turn’ people to God and to engender in them a state of preparedness. The urgency of his mission is conveyed by the reiteration of the notion of ‘make ready’ and ‘prepare’.

John’s name receives some prominence in the Lukan account of the announcement of birth and of the events following his birth. Contrary to the expectations of family and friends, this child is not to be named after his father. He is to have the name that God’s messenger has announced to Zechariah. The Hebrew form of John, from which the Greek of the gospel is derived, means literally ‘God [YHWH] has graced’ or ‘God [YHWH] has given grace’. Elizabeth will insist that the child is to be called ‘John’. Her intervention is juxtaposed with the narrator’s comment about God’s ‘great mercy’ towards her in giving her this child. Zechariah finds his lost voice at this moment and uses it to confirm Elizabeth’s word, implicitly demonstrating the grace of God at work in her.

God’s grace and mercy towards Jerusalem and its people are linked in Israel’s psalms: ‘You will rise up and have mercy on Zion, for it is time to grace it’ (Ps 102:13). John’s birth signals the outpouring of God’s grace and mercy on God’s people. ‘What then will this child be?’ is the people’s question concerning John. We have the benefit of an answer to that question from the lips of the Lukan Jesus:  ‘A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet (Luke 7:26).”

The Prayer Group invites everyone to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Ta Pinu Saturday 23rd June 2012 Ta Pinu Marian Centre Bacchus Marsh, Flanagans Drive Bacchus Marsh. Procession with the holy icon of Our Lady of Ta Pinu at 2.00pm, Solemn Mass at 2.30pm followed by the Presentation of children to Our Lady of Ta Pinu Concludes with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Prayer Group invites everyone to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Ta Pinu Saturday 23rd June 2012 Ta Pinu Marian Centre Bacchus Marsh, Flanagans Drive Bacchus Marsh. Procession with the holy icon of Our Lady of Ta Pinu at 2.00pm, Solemn Mass at 2.30pm followed by the Presentation of children to Our Lady of Ta Pinu Concludes with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Prayer of the Church will continue this Wednesday in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at 7pm and continue weekly. It is an opportunity to pray the “Prayer of the Church” which includes Psalms and readings from the Bible. This is the official prayer of the universal Church. All are welcome.