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SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Today the Church year draws to a close on a sombre note with a gospel scene from Good Friday. Christ is a spiritual leader who rules by truth and love. He is out to touch the hearts and minds of all people and claim their souls for God. His mission on earth is to unfold a vision of this new world, to announce the Good News that God counts us as family, regards us as his children and in return seeks our allegiance. Jesus is calling us to rise above the basic instincts of selfishness, bitterness and pride and to pledge our lives in his service, because it is God’s world although we might not think so now. The effort involved in rising above a worldly level of behaviour does not come easily and brings us no end of trouble and frustration. Today’s feast calls us to make room for Christ in our hearts by imitating his life however imperfectly. |
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THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Be alert at all times, praying that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. As Autumn leaves signal the end of another season and the approach of Winter, the Church, on this Sunday every November, invites us to pause momentarily for serious thought. It directs our attention to the end of the world, the last judgement and the Lord’s coming in glory. The readings aim to focus our minds on an overall view of life’s purpose so as to encourage us to live on a more spiritual level. We are on an earthly pilgrimage and at journey’s end we are hoping for an everlasting happiness, for a bright dawn to emerge out of our present darkness. It makes sense to pause and to do some spiritual stock-taking. We can all check what our relationship with God is like and where our hearts and values lie. Have we put our confidence in the way He has shown us? We are people with a glorious future so let’s not spoil it by refusing to live upright lives. |
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THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! We have all heard the saying “It’s the thought that counts, it’s the self giving in the gift which expresses love” and that is what Jesus is telling us in the story of the widow’s mite. What makes her gift valuable and important is not its size, but the heart and the sacrifice behind it. Her small gift is her all. In a way she is making an offering of her total life to God. While we are content to be guided by appearances, to judge people by what they possess and to value presents by how much they cost, Christ measures us in a totally different way. His searching eyes penetrate into our souls and reveal the inner motives and the hidden intentions behind our actions. He is concerned with the sacrifices we are making, how much of our lives are surrendered to him and whether we are taking his demands seriously. The hidden value of the widow’s offering teaches us that material goods are not the most important factor in the world. What God is looking for is our life. He wants our hearts and not our possessions. Learning to give generously to God is a difficult lesson to master and yet there is no true following of Christ without such self-denial. This gospel story invites us to live in a way that hurts and does not count the cost, for it is in giving that we receive. |
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THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him. To those willing to listen, Jesus goes straight to the heart of what constitutes true worship and spells out clearly the guidelines for good Christian living. He tells us God’s commandments can be reduced to two: love of God and love of our neighbour. This is the total and complete commitment of love that Jesus is talking about and calling upon us to practice. The biting question to be faced is whether the love of God is evident in the love we have for our neighbour. Take home-life for example: as the years pass it’s so easy to slip into the habit of taking our spouses for granted and failing to respect them as persons in their own right. The same can be true of the children; prized possessions, no doubt, but my property! Perhaps it’s time to become a bit more conscious of those we have ignored and failed to treat as people and to see the faces of those who desperately need our love. We show our love for God through definitive and deliberate works of love for the sick, the elderly and the lonely because we meet God in their lives. Christian love is about getting out of ourselves and reaching towards the needy. The Kingdom of God is continually proclaimed when the love of God and the love of neighbour are evident in the community. |
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THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Our Saviour Jesus Christ had abolished death and brought us life through the Gospel. The blind Bartimaeus is an example of what our faith and trust in Jesus ought to be. He has firm confidence in Jesus and is not put off by the abuse of the crowd. The fact that we have eyes does not mean that we always see what is most important in life. Eyes are of little use if we fail to see the hand of God at work in our lives. We all suffer from spiritual blindness and Jesus is letting us know that he can cure this illness and prevent us from groping around in darkness. There are so many ways in which we lack spiritual vision; hatred, pride and jealousy can prevent us from seeing goodness in our neighbours. Never being satisfied with what we have and always wanting more material goods is an indication that we are blinded by greed. We are all victims of some sort of blindness, but to become aware of it and to have the scales removed from our eyes we must be continually searching and praying for more light. Only prayer and trust in Jesus, who is the light of the world, can dispel such darkness and restore our true spiritual vision. |