Gender matters

 Friday 15 August 2025 

(The Assumption of Mary)

 ‘…For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed ..’ (Luke 1:48)

Source: Dormition of the Virgin Mary

AN OVERVIEW OF THE READINGS*

Revelation 11:19, 12:1-10

Psalm 45

1 Corinthians 15:20-27

Luke 1:39-56

The 15th August was, traditionally, an important date in the calendar in Catholic countries across Europe. Secular France still clings to tradition and marks the day with a public holiday.  The image of Mary being taken up - body and soul - into heaven is part of the wider catholic tradition even if the matter was not defined as dogma in the Roman Catholic church until 1950.  Among Eastern Orthodox Catholics the celebration is referred to as the 'Dormition' or falling asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  In the reformed traditions there is no mention of the matter as it is viewed as 'unscriptural' (though in some parts of the Anglican communion the feast day is marked on the calendar).

Why many of our churches are often empty

 Sunday 17 August 2025 

(Year C: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

 ‘…I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ..’ (Luke 12:49)

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS*

Jeremiah 38:4-10

Psalm 40

Hebrews 12:1-4

Luke 12:49-53

Religion never had a great press. Yet, contrary to the ‘death of religion’ claimants religion refuses to go away. Technology, science, economic growth, state coercion or the latest wave of ‘religiously’ motivated hatred and terrorism has succeeded in removing religious consciousness and belonging from the landscape.  

When you least expect it

Sunday 10 August 2025 

(Year C: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS*

Wisdom 18:6-9

Psalm 33

Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19

Luke 12:32-48

Something that makes life interesting if not excruciating is uncertainty.  Nobody can predict for sure what tomorrow will bring.  Suppose someone had predicted, for example, 40 years ago that:

• The Berlin Wall would be gone in a little over four years (and pretty much ‘without a shot’ being fired);
• The world trade system, 40 years later, would be in disarray as the White House slaps on tariffs at will and tears up previous agreements;

Needs vs wants

 Sunday 3 August 2025 

(Year C: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS*

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2:26

Psalm 90

Colossians 3:1-11

Luke 12:13-21

Recently, we stepped into a small 'clochán' on Inis Mór in the Aran Islands for a little while.  This was a womb-like space in which a monk dwelt and prayed for some of the day. He or she remained still in the now and in the here. No sound, no voice and not much light. The short experience left me wondering....

Risk it; Dare you

 ‘…Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ (Luke 11:9)

Sunday 27 July 2025 

(Year C: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS*


Genesis 18:20-32

Psalm 138

Colossians 2:12-14

Luke 11:1-13 

It is getting dark. You are on the other end of the city in a neighbourhood you are not familiar with. The GPS-Sat-Nav-google maps thing is not working here. Why does the Eircode on google maps not work anyway?  You have the address but have no idea exactly where you are and how to get to the address through a maze of endless roundabouts and similar looking housing estates with absolutely no signs at any junction (in other words, unless you happen to live there, you are somewhere on the western outskirts of Dublin!).

The Sacrament of the Present Moment

“…there is need of only one thing.’ (Luke 10:42)

Sunday 20 July 2025 

(Year C: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS


Genesis 18:1-10

Psalm 15

Colossians 1:24-28

Luke 10:38-42


(v. 38) ‘Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home’.

Remember that a short while ago Jesus was instructing his disciples about the inevitability of meeting hostility in some places and villages where they must wipe the dust from their shoes (Luke 10:11). This was not the case in the house of Martha. Note that Martha welcomed Jesus but Jesus was with others. Martha probably had a full house on her hands.

(v. 39) ‘She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying’.

Oh Oh! Does anyone have a sometimes ‘inactive’ spouse or partner? Or a teenage son or daughter? They might be sitting, like Mary, at the feet of a TV, a play station or smartphone!
(v. 40) ‘But Martha was distracted by her many tasks’.

Does anyone know of someone who is a go-go person? I mean the sort that sets an alarm clock early on a weekend morning; is involved in 9 different local community organisations and is scheduled to attend 4 meetings outside of work this coming week; is finishing a diploma; and has a perfect house and an almost perfect family? We get the picture.

(v.40 continued) ‘so she [Martha] came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?’

Sounds familiar? This is the story of the one who is running around minding her own children and the parents – his as well as her – while brothers and sisters are, shall we say, far away?
(v.40 continued) ‘Tell her then to help me.’

Martha did not need an assertiveness course. No please or would you but ‘tell her then to help me’. You know, parishes, families and workplaces are very like that except that for the most part we are less than blunt as Martha was.

(v.41) ‘But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things’.

He could have been speaking to you or me: ‘Tom,, Tom you are worried and distracted by many things’. I see thousands of people every day on train platforms, trains, buses, cars, footpaths, cycle lanes and at meetings or just sitting there or walking along – kind of worried some of the time and distracted by many things. Many things. Many things.

(v.42) ‘there is need of only one thing’.

Wow! Only one thing in life is essential. May I respectfully suggest, as a belated resolution for 2019, that you write your own obituary before others get to write it. The thing needed? Love! Easy? Not really. You see, worry – excessive worry – is the fruit of insecurity. Insecurity is the fruit of distrust and distrust is the fruit of closure and lack of relationship. Faith is relationship.

(v. 43) ‘Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’ I remember half thinking that I had chosen the better part nearly 40 years ago when I joined an enclosed religious order for a few years. The truth is that God has chosen us – all of us – in love and truth and beauty before we were even conceived. The best-chosen part has been assigned by God to us and everyone else and it was Jesus who chose to stay at Martha and to talk with Mary and Martha just as he calls you and me to this place on this Sunday morning to listen and talk with God and with one another. (that’s why I love the bit after service where we mingle and talk and commune and partake of delicious homemade cakes! There is a Martha around here and there is more than one of them!)

And what is the Gospel saying to us this Sunday? Let us ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts this morning and in the days to come to hear again the good news. Let us learn the art of welcoming and active service from Martha. Let us learn from Mary the art of loving listening in the midst of our business. Let us ask God to enable us to really listen. But, who or what should we listen to in the first place? We should listen to ourselves. There God is. We should listen to others. You know that the Voice of Love whispers to us every day in events, persons, conversations, emotions, thoughts, failures, joys and sorrows. Yes, even in suffering and maybe especially in suffering.

As one writer put it: ‘All that is asked of me is rapt attention, here, now, to others. And I’ll find the good life.’

Called to the feast

 “…For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt 22:14)

 

                                            pic: source here

(Year A: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 15^th October, 2023)

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

READINGS 

Isaiah 25:1-9

Psalm 23

Philippians 4:1-9

Matthew 22:1-14

(See also Luke 14:15-25)

&&&&&&

The story of the King and his wedding party offers a crude and even violent image of those invited but who refused and were cut off by the King. We would be entirely mistaken to think of this story as a story about a vengeful God who behaves like human kings.  In the course of human history, the ‘Kings’ of this world including dictators and manipulators resorted and resort to the threefold methods of bullying: (1) violence of word or deed; (2) threats; and (3) denial of any wrong-doing on the part of the bully (it is all the fault of the bullied, so it is insinuated by the bully).   Even if this Gospel story of a bully king who insists, threatens, bullies and takes revenge, the passage has resonance for us today. 

The  key point is that we have been invited to something wonderful. That wonderful treasure is hidden away from the appearances, forms and outward structures of the community of disciples. At the heart of weekly worship (above all but not exclusively in the Eucharist) and at the heart of daily witness is the Life that Jesus gives us. That Life is our light and our food and our joy in being able to go forward through the deep and dark valleys and bright and spacious uplands of life’s journey. 

We are not alone. Even at this time of huge difficulty and uncertainty when we cannot enjoy the fullness of community and communion we can turn to God in our hearts, in our homes and under God’s sky. Remember that the sky is blue behind those clouds!

The point of the Gospel story is that we are, all of us, invited to partake in something truly magnificent, life-affirming and life-giving. The problem is that we don’t know it because we have been too busy with our own puny plans and projects thinking that what is on offer is too remote or unrealistic to be worth the effort. If only we knew and tasted a little of what is on offer. 80% of life is about turning up, quipped the comedian Woodie Allen. Turning up is not enough, however, as one of the wedding guests found out in this story. Coming with the right attitude and receptivity (being ‘appropriately clothed for the occasion’) is an important ingredient of a successful enjoyment of what is on offer. ‘I find such and such a religious rite boring and irrelevant’ is sometimes heard on the lips of young and old. But, if we only took time out to realise that these short weekly earthly excursions to the local wedding feast are a form of aperitif for a Great Party later. And different Tables at the Eucharist, at home and in the workplace are linked.

The question is not ‘why go to mass every Sunday’ or ‘why should Holy Communion be the principal service every Sunday’. Rather, it should be ‘what a privilege to take a full part in the Eucharist. It is not only a sound catholic principle but it is a sound biblical value consistent with the patterns and habits of the early Christian community who met frequently to break Bread and Word, sing together and share their beliefs, hopes, stories and lives.

I think that, here in Europe, we have much to learn about party-going worship behaviour in some other continents of the world. The party can be so good that you don’t even want to go home too soon! Or, rather, the party doesn’t stop at the door of the place of worship.

For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7b-8).

And so we find ourselves in a troubled world this Sunday morning some two millennia later.  Might we listen again to the raw force and possibilities contained in the story we have just heard? What do we hear? How do we take this story with us in to this new week that beckons? We find ourselves this morning at a banquet of his Word and Body laid out by our Lord and Brother. Many of us are watching from home and cannot take part fully. Others are physically present under careful preparation and precautions. We hope to join them eventually.

But, this celebration does not belong to anyone in particular and we are, all of us, invited guests of the One who has given his life for us and continues to be present among us where two or three gather in his name.  Those of us who have the great privilege of being invited to and present at the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day – the day of resurrection celebrated weekly every Sunday by the disciples of Jesus since the first century – might reflect on what it is that we have been invited to and what it is that we are called to do not just this morning but for the week ahead.

As it says in Acts 2:42:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The party extends beyond Sundays.

According to some Jewish rabbinical saying, God will ask us only one question when we meet him after death: ‘Did you enjoy my creation?’