29 September 2019

Amos 6:1, 4-7
1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16.19-31

A certain man had just been promoted in his job and this meant a lot of extra money for him. So he and his wife decided to celebrate. They invited a number of other well-off people to the celebration. Half way through the meal someone knocked on their door. The wife went out and found a poor man who asked for a cup of water and a slice of bread. She was very angry that he had disturbed their celebration and she told him in a very harsh voice to clear off as quickly as possible.

This story reminds us of today’s readings. They speak to us about the danger of wealth and power. It must be said immediately that Jesus is not against money. He knows we need it to live. What he is speaking very powerfully about is the danger of money if it is not used properly and so can enslave us.

In the first reading the prophet Amos challenges and warns the rich and powerful of Israel. Amos fears that the rich, comfortable lifestyle of the well-off will corrupt them and bring about their downfall as it indeed does when they are forced into exile. The bottom line is that they had become seduced by their wealth and had relied almost totally on it. They had become less and less reliant of God whilst becoming more caught up in all the things that money can buy. Greed leads us to place in money and the various forms of power flowing from it the trust which should only be in God. Amos is speaking to the wealthy who believe their riches will never fail to support their comforts. The attraction to the comforts and easy lifestyle which wealth provides desensitises the hearts of the rich who main worry may well be about the next exciting event or the newest gadget they can buy.

Jesus in the gospel continues the same theme. He is speaking directly to the Pharisees whom he knows to be lovers of money. Money can blind us to the needs of the poor. The readings invite us to change our way of seeing things. With money there is the danger of thinking we can buy anything we want as well as forgetting the poor. What Jesus is saying is that if we don’t put our trust in God, then no amount of wealth can save us or substitute for God.

Here lies the danger that the gospel warns us about. The sin of the rich man is not in his accumulation of wealth but his unconcern for the poor and suffering. He is so caught up in his rich and comfortable lifestyle that he can become very self-centred and turned in on his own needs and enjoyment. As one scripture scholar put it, ‘the sin of the rich man was not that he did wrong but that he did nothing’. Don’t we say in the Confiteor when we ask God for pardon: “What I have failed to do”?

The gospel story is more than a denouncing of riches and how wealth can keep us isolated and even contemptuous of the poor and needy who might be right outside our door.

Unusually for a parable someone in the story is given a name. Surprisingly it is not the rich man but the poor man. He is called Lazarus, the name which means “God will be good to me”. Usually it is the poor and needy who are anonymous in the world’s value system. Very often we know the names of the wealthy and powerful. But those who according to the standard of power and social prestige are the most important are anonymous before God. Power and wealth are of no importance to God. In fact those who are considered insignificant and nameless are the ones who have value for God in his kingdom.

The punch line of the parable is at the end. Both men die and the one who had nothing has all in heaven but the one who had everything has nothing but his thirst. The drama increases when the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him with water to quench his thirst. Next the rich man asks that Lazarus would go to his brothers to warn them so they would not also go to the place of torment. But he is told that they have Moses and the prophets. He agrees but if only someone came from the dead they would certainly believe and repent. Abraham tells him they would not even believe someone coming back from the dead because their hearts are so hardened. Isn’t this what happened when Jesus rose from the dead? Many Pharisees and Jews wouldn’t believe it. They were simply blind.

Where do I stand in all this? Where is my real trust – in God or in money and power only? I can still be poor and desire these and if I succeed I can become equally seduced by them. The Good News of course is that Jesus is giving us a ‘wake-up’ call before it is too late so that we do not suffer the same fate as the rich man. Perhaps we need to examine ourselves regarding our attitude to money and power and see whether the more we have leads us to think we need God less and less.

“Lord Jesus, open our eyes to the many ways we can be seduced by wealth. Free us from any wrong reliance on it that prevents us trusting more and more in you and sharing with the poor. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

 4th August 2019

Ecclesiastes 1.2, 2.21-23
Colossians 3.1-5, 9-11
Luke 12.13-21

A certain rich man, who had never married, inherited a large amount of money at the age of 79. He consulted a number of friends who were investment bankers to know where best to invest his money so that he could get the best return. They suggested a number of different options, different companies.  Despite all his money, he spent a lot of energy and time worrying about which would give him the most interest on his investment. Whilst he was doing this he died suddenly. Because he was always well off it never seemed to have occurred to him to share with people less well off.

The readings today focus on our priorities and attitudes in life. Nowhere in today’s readings or in the Bible does it say that having possessions is wrong. The question is what importance do we give them in our lives? The first reading today is from the Book of Ecclesiastes. When he says that ‘all is vanity’ he is using the word ‘vanity’ in the sense of ‘illusion’ or ‘mist’. He says that it is an illusion to think that wealth or possessions in themselves can give true happiness and especially if we put them in the place of God so that they become idols. We then act as if we are independent of God.

In the gospel Jesus refuses to get involved in a dispute regarding an inheritance between two brothers.  He takes the opportunity to warn people against avarice or greed of any kind. Greed can become an idol because it consists in putting our trust in something other than God. Jesus is not talking only about material possessions. He is talking about anything that can become an idol for us.  It might be drugs, drink, sex, work etc. Today computers and modern technology may take up so much of our time that we haven’t time to pray or go to Mass as we used to.

In the parable Jesus speaks about a man who is already rich. He wants to pull down his barns and build bigger ones. It is clear that the focus is on himself. He is self-centred. He doesn’t seem to consider the needs of those less well off. Jesus is saying that riches are a blessing when they are shared and a violation when they are stored up for personal identity or security.

Gandhi, the Indian leader, repeated many centuries later what the early Fathers or theologians of the Church had taught. “Even if it is not stolen, something is to be considered stolen if one keeps it without needing it. The rich possess a great abundance of superfluous things they do not really need and that therefore remain unused and are lost, whilst millions die of hunger because for them there is no food”. Gandhi says clearly what Jesus speaks about in the gospel today. Maybe it is a call for each of us to examine our conscience about what importance our possessions have in our lives. Do we use them for our own needs but also to help others in need?

The other fact about the man in the parable and the man in the story at the beginning was that both acted as if they were God, as if they had control over the length of their lives. No one has any guarantee about how long he/she will live. A friend of mine was always in perfect health and one day without warning at the age of 34 he died suddenly. Could a sudden death not happen to any of us?  

Basically the man in the parable was preoccupied with the success of his farming business that it consumed him. It caused him to have a wrong perspective of life. Instead of recognizing and living every moment of his life not knowing what the future would be he begins to plan a long life. So his success had led him to the point that God no longer played a primary and guiding role in his life.

Isn’t it so easy to be distracted by the things of this world? We must call on the Holy Spirit often to prevent this from happening to us. Let us pray to maintain a primary focus on the will of God and not allow success, good management, pleasure etc. to be the cause of neglecting His role in our lives.

The Good News of today’s readings is a gentle reminder that we are here on earth only for a short time and that our true home is in heaven as St.Paul says in the second reading. The real riches that we take with us to heaven are those we have given to the poor or whatever we have shared with others here on earth. Jesus is reminding us of this so that we might have the freedom that gives us a deep peace and joy now. Money can become devalued very quickly. It is the opposite with God. God never becomes devalued! In fact the opposite is true – the more we trust in him and follow his ways with the help of his Spirit the more peace and joy we will have now and later too.

Those who try their best to share with others and are conscious of their call to help those less well off enjoy much peace and joy in their lives.

“Lord Jesus, we thank you for the many ways you have blessed us with.  Every good gift comes from our Heavenly Father. Help us to use these gifts in a Christian manner for our own good and for others less well off when this is possible.  Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein SMA

28th July 2019

Genesis 18.20-32
Colossians 2.12-14
Luke 11.1-13

Once a bishop friend invited me to his family home for supper. His parents were still alive. I was very touched by the way he called his parents ‘Daddy and Mammy’. They in turn treated him simply as another child of theirs calling him by their nickname for him.

Maybe that is the most important thing to say about prayer, that we are addressing someone in a very childlike and trustful way. The Aramaic word that Jesus used was ‘Abba’ or ‘daddy’ just like the bishop addressed his own father. Perhaps prayer is a bit like that. The readings for this Sunday invite us to reflect on the dimension of prayer in the Christian life. Above all it is an attitude of trust in God our kind Father who is always ready to listen to his children but who doesn’t always give us what we want because it would not be best for us. St Luke delights in frequently presenting Jesus praying. In all the important moments of Jesus’ life, Luke never forgets to point this out.

Jesus in teaching us about prayer underlines the model of all prayers. It is not to be longwinded, drawn out – we may need to listen more than we normally do and give God a chance to speak to us.

Is this not telling us that first of all prayer is about a relationship – one between our loving heavenly Father and us his children? It is interesting to note that this model of how we ought to pray puts the focus first of all on God our loving Father. We start by calling God, “Father”, not just my father but our Father.

Of the 5 petitions in the Our Father today the first two focus on God. We are told to pray: ‘may your name be held holy’. For the Jews a name was the same as the person. Thus we are asked to adore, honour and glorify our Father in heaven. Before mentioning any of our requests, praise and adoration of God are foremost. Then, in praying ‘your kingdom come’ we are told the how this might be carried out in our lives. Working to bring about his kingdom is more than just words. It calls upon us to be peacemakers, to work against all injustices, to live the truth of God’s love and forgiveness in our lives. We are called to do this wherever we are, in our homes, with our families, in our workplaces etc.

The next three petitions allow us to pray for our own needs and those of others.

They represent all time: the present (give us this day our daily bread), the past (forgive our sins, that is, all we did that was contrary to God’s kingdom), and the future (do not put us to the test – that is ‘do not demand more of us than we are capable of doing).

So in asking our generous Father for our daily bread we are asking him to give us what is best for us – we may not get what we think is best for us. Or now may not be the best time to get it as God knows. Nigerians have a saying: ‘God’s time is best’. Not a bad motto when we come to pray. Of course, God may want to give us certain gifts but others may refuse to cooperate with God’s plan. Forgiveness is mentioned quite a number of times in the gospels and it is included here. It is the only petition with a condition attached. We promise God we will forgive others as he does us though this is not always easy. That is why in the second parable that follows, Jesus tells us that God’s best gift to us is the powerful Holy Spirit who enables us to do what God asks of us to bring about his kingdom and forgive others. Our Father knows that will power is not enough, we need Spirit power to live as God’s children and to act accordingly.  

The first of the little parables that follow the Lord’s Prayer tells us of the need to persevere in prayer and not to give up if at first we don’t receive what we ask for.

I knew a woman whose husband left her. She prayed daily for his return. Then one day he walked into her house again. This was after 19 years. She really persevered in prayer and believed God would answer her.

Jesus tells us that there are 2 conditions needed to have our prayers answered by God. In John’s Gospel chapter 14:13 he says:

–                  ‘whatever you ask for in my name (that is according to my will) I will do

–                  ‘so that the Father may be glorified in the Son’ (that it will give glory to God).

Many times we forget this and want God to respond to our demands without taking these into account.

Sometimes, of course, we try to bargain with God: ‘If my sick husband lives a few years longer, I will go to Mass daily and pray a daily rosary’. Yet God doesn’t think this is foolish. In the first reading we heard about Abraham bargaining with God. He trusted God enough to bargain all the way. It doesn’t mean we will always get what we want but it does show a great trust in God and I feel God appreciates this bargaining as we take him seriously as he does us.

Ultimately prayer is about a relationship of trust. We trust we have a loving Father who passionately cares for us. More than anything he hopes we will develop an ever greater intimacy with him and he asks us to work to bring about his kingdom. He takes all this so seriously that the best gift he can give us now is the Holy Spirit who can empower and enable us to respond to his invitation.

“Lord Jesus, thank you for teaching us how to pray by giving us the best model in the Our Father. May we say not only the words but also put them into practice in our daily lives. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

Sunday 21 July 2019

 Genesis 18:1-10
Colossians 1:24-28
Luke 10:38–42

One time there was a football competition organized in Paris and one of the African teams arrived to find that no accommodation had been arranged for them. Later the journalists in the daily newspapers in Paris were amazed that this did not constitute any problem. Being non-Africans they found it hard to understand. Fellow countrymen of the football players immediately put them up in their own homes without the slightest problem. Hospitality is so much part of African cultures that they saw it as very normal.

In the first reading today we read about Abraham welcoming three strangers with great hospitality. He doesn’t realise it then but in welcoming them he is welcoming God himself. Later on in the gospels Jesus will say, “whoever welcomes you welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the One who sent me”. It seems hospitality and welcome were the ground base of Jesus’ ministry. Where do we stand on this? How often do we advert to this in our daily lives wherever we find ourselves. Is not God’s welcome and hospitality revealed to us by others? How aware are we of this? Maybe a gift to pray for.

The gospel tells us of the welcome given by Martha and Mary to Jesus. Martha is the one who actually welcomes Jesus into her house and appears to be the cook and organiser. Jesus would have appreciated having a good meal after his journey. It was her way of welcoming Jesus. Mary on the other hand welcomes Jesus by sitting at his feet and listening to him. These are two different ways of welcoming someone. What Jesus meant by saying that “Mary had chosen the better part” was that at that particular moment that was the best response for her.  At another time she might need to take on the role of cook and organiser.

Here we touch on a deeper meaning in the incident. At the time of Jesus only men sat at the feet of the Rabbis or Teachers of the Law. It was not the place for women. The cultural roles would have been very strict as regards the role and place of women in society. So Jesus is emancipating or freeing women to be equally entitled to do this. Is he not the first real feminist? He is saying that God’s love and word is addressed to everyone, men and women alike.

Mary, and in fact every woman, has the right to listen to the Word of God. House tasks must not suppress that interest. This is a woman’s right which is still not recognised in many cultures even in our so-called developed countries. By his words and deeds Jesus liberates women from a concept which maintains them in a role with no other possibilities to develop themselves.

Jesus then is teaching us that an active life which leaves no time for prayer and listening to God will soon becomes dry and barren. On the other hand a relationship with God that does not bother with the neighbour is nothing but cult worship that may keep a person away from the realities of life.

How can we tell what our priorities are? The best way to recognize our actual priorities is to reflect on our normal behaviour. What gets most of our energy? These are our priorities. It’s the easiest thing in the world to get our priorities wrong. When the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago, learned that he had terminal cancer he said: ‘I came to realize that what consumes much of our daily life is trivial and insignificant.’ A period of non-doing is essential to nourish the soul. Action and contemplation are not meant to be contrasted. Both are necessary and have to be integrated into life.

According to Gandhi ‘prayer is not just asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is an admission of one’s weakness.’  Maybe the highest form of worship is silence. Because then we have a greater chance to hear God speaking to us. And is not listening a great form of hospitality? We all know when some people are speaking to us or we to them maybe they or us are not really practicing hospitality. We are preparing our replies or are elsewhere in our thoughts.

Ultimately really listening to God in prayer must lead to action. So the listening of Mary would have had little effect if it did not motivate her to action. Likewise if we are really listening to God in prayer it should motivate us too to action. It can be as simple as visiting someone in need in the area where we live.

At a superficial glance it might seem that Mary’s part was easier – all she had to do was sit there and listen – and Martha’s the harder. But on reflection we can see that at least sometimes Mary’s part is the harder of the two. It is not easy to set aside one’s own work and give one’s undivided attention to another person. But it is tremendously fruitful spiritually.

Is there not a Martha and Mary in each of us? As the Book of Ecclesiastes says: “there is a time for everything under heaven”. 

“Lord Jesus, give us the gift to truly listen to you speaking to us and at each moment may we be guided by the Spirit “to choose the better part”.  Amen.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

14th July 2019

 Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Colossians 1:15-20
Luke 10:25-37

In a certain city people were coming out of the church after Mass. Many saw a man lying at the side of the road bleeding. He had fallen from his bicycle as someone had tried to steal it from him. Nearly all kept walking by afraid of becoming involved. A young couple, both suffering from drug addiction, saw the man and immediately went and helped him, arranging to take him to the nearby hospital. Don’t we know in the gospel who acted in the way Christ invites us to respond?

Today’s gospel is about the essence of our religion: faith in God is expressed in concrete acts of love.

This gospel starts off with a lawyer trying to trap Jesus by asking him what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what was written in the law. He quotes the law stating ‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself’. But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus: “And who is my neighbour?’

Jesus instead of going into the details of the law and quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures tells the poignant story of the Good Samaritan. Very cleverly Jesus points out the difference between ‘knowing the law’ and ‘fulfilling the law’. For him the most important thing was not church worship but love. Church worship is important but if at times there is a clash between the two, then love has absolute priority.

In the Gospel parable the first to see the half-dead man is the Jewish priest. If the victim were a non-Jew or dead and the priest touched him he would have been defiled or ritually impure and would have had to go back to Jerusalem for purification. So he passed by on the other side. The Levite, (a member of the tribe involved in Temple worship) came next and followed the example of the priest. He also passed by on the other side. Next came a Samaritan trader who took care of the victim.

The Jewish listeners of Jesus would have been appalled that the hero of the story was not a Jew but a member of the hated Samaritans. For a long time there was ‘bad blood’ between these two peoples. This hated enemy is the one who shows compassion. He bandaged the wounds of the victim, then lifted him on his own animal meaning he had to walk himself and took him to an inn and cared for him. He paid the innkeeper and said he would pay whatever else was necessary on his way back. He really put himself out for the victim. The Samaritan was a carer. Carers are special people, they are the salt of the earth. They don’t care out of a sense of duty but because their heart will not allow them to do otherwise.

Jesus does not tell us in the story if the man robbed was a Jew or a non-Jew, whether he even believed in God. Was he a good or a bad person? The lawyer who asked the question at first focused on himself and on the need to justify himself.  He is prepared to debate the question of ‘who is my neighbour’ in an abstract way. But Jesus deals with his questions in a very concrete manner. He is not interested in a vague question like ‘who is my neighbour?’ The danger with that is we may limit neighbour to those we know and live close by, those with the same religious beliefs or skin colour. Jesus is telling us very clearly that what makes us neighbours is our generous attending to anyone in need. He is inviting us to go beyond labels or names like Christian, Catholic, Muslim, those who have AIDS, divorcees, and women who may have had an abortion. He is asking us to cross borders and boundaries we may have grown up with. There are very few of us who don’t have some prejudices. At times, don’t we all pass by on the other side? The sins of the priest and Levite were those of omission, not commission. The former may be our worst sins even if we don’t always think of them as such.

Do we recognise ourselves in the priest and the Levite? We can attend Sunday Mass, pray daily yet may not get involved with people in need especially if we can help. The story at the beginning is an indication of how we can make a distinction between loving God and loving our neighbour. As we read in 1 John 4.20 – Anyone who says ‘I love God and hates anyone is a liar, since not to love the person that he can see, cannot love God whom he has never seen’. This leaves no room for doubt.

In real life, Jesus lived out to the fullest what it means to be a Good Samaritan. As the second reading says: “He is the image of the unseen God”. His whole life was a concrete response to whoever the neighbour in need was – Jew, Samaritan, adulterous woman, prostitutes, Roman centurion, tax collectors, sinners etc. He still wants to be the Good Samaritan to each of us. He wants to bind up our wounds which may be our fears, our anxieties or whatever. It was costly for the Good Samaritan to look after the man who fell among robbers.  It actually cost Jesus his life to help us.

‘Who is my neighbour?’ asked the Samaritan. Jesus’ answer was: anyone in need of my help.  What kind of a neighbour am I?  And who am I willing to treat as my neighbour?

“Lord Jesus, praise you for being the Good Samaritan for us at all times if we allow you to help us.  May the Holy Spirit enable us to be Good Samaritans for those we meet and can help. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

7 July 2019

 Isaiah 66.10-14
Galatians 6.14-18
Luke 10.1-12, 17-20

Many years ago at the height of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, a Catholic priest went across the road to the local Protestant church to wish the minister and his congregation a happy Christmas. The minister received him warmly, reciprocated his greeting and later made a return visit. However, some of the elders of his church reacted angrily and took steps to have the minister removed from the parish. These two clergymen were only doing what Christ would want them to do – to be instruments of peace in a divided and troubled society.

In the gospel today when Jesus sends out the 72 disciples he says that their first words on entering a house were to be: ‘Peace to this house’. They were to be ambassadors of peace and goodwill. Of course, true peace must be based on justice.

Peace is not a negative thing. It is not just the absence of war or enmity. Peace is a positive thing. It implies openness, tolerance, friendship, goodwill, hospitality and reconciliation. Neither does it mean just a feeling of well-being but above all the peace between God and man / woman. Peace is especially a gift from God. God’s great gift is peace. It is a source of joy for all people. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says: “my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this my gift to you.”

In Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus gives us the Beatitudes, in verse 10:9 he says: Happy the peacemakers for they shall be children of God’. So peacemakers are those who reconcile and are reconciled. In Hebrew the word for peace is ‘Shalom’ which means to be complete or to experience wholeness. It does not mean the absence of difficulties or even suffering but deep down one is at peace. A God gifted peace ultimately means real liberation. We are at peace because we are free or detached from many things which could enslave us.

Working for peace means welcoming people who are close to us, those who annoy or disagree with us, even those who cause anguish within us. Shortly before Communion the priest invites us to offer each other a sign of peace. The hand that we reach out to our neighbour is the same hand with which we receive Jesus in Communion.

It is interesting that when Jesus sends out his 72 disciples he sends them out in pairs, meaning they cannot be effective ministers to others unless they are at peace and in communion with each other.   We are called into community. It is about living in right relationships with all others. 

Where are you and I in all this?  Do we pray to God for the gift of peace, not only for ourselves but also for others and for the world at large? Is there anyone we are not presently at peace with? Are we sharers of God’s gift of peace not only with those near us at Mass but also with others at all other times? Are we peacemakers in our world as the Beatitudes speak about?

In St. Luke’s gospel, ch.9 Jesus associates the 12 Apostles with his mission. In today’s gospel he associates 72 others. Little by little he will call on the help of more and more people to assist him. Today’s gospel is a gospel for all people, not just for priests and religious. Every baptised Christian and indeed all people of goodwill are invited by Jesus to work with him against all that is opposed to the kingdom of his Father which he came to establish on earth. Each one of us is called by God, depending on our particular vocation, to spread the Good News.

Jesus emphasises the importance of freedom for the disciples. ‘Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals’ (v.4), in other words do not trust your possessions, do not rely on them too much. He is not saying we should get rid of all we possess. But he is warning us against carrying too much baggage with us on our journey through life. Possessions may tempt to compromise us. If we truly believe that we are totally and unconditionally loved by God, and this is not as easy as it seems, then that is where we are invited to get our peace and joy from and no one can take away that conviction if we truly believe it. Then we can be free of the baggage we may have put too much trust in before – what others think of us, our possessions, our academic qualifications or our status in society etc.

At the end of the gospel the apostles return from their mission overjoyed at their success. But Jesus warns them that miracles are no guarantee that it is God’s work. He cautions them against putting too much emphasis on the successes of their pastoral ministry. If they are following the guidelines of Jesus sooner or later they will face opposition. People get tired of miracles as Jesus himself experienced.  Despite all people had seen they still crucified him. The real Good News as Jesus tells them is that ‘their names are written on heaven’. This is a totally free gift on God’s part. He offers it to us freely also.

“Lord Jesus, we may lose our possessions, our health, the good name we have but your love for us is total and constant. May we allow you to use us to bring about your kingdom here on earth.  Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA 

30 June 2019

1 Kings 19:16, 19-21
Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Luke 9: 51-62

On 23 October 1993, Jackie Hewitt, chairman of the Loyalist / Protestant Shankill Community council in Northern Ireland was driving back to Belfast from a town where he had been at a war memorial ceremony. He was listening to his car radio when the news came in that a bomb had gone off in his area in the Shankill Road. Three people were dead. Blinded by anger he thought to himself ‘that’s it, we need a bomb now in the Nationalist / Catholic area of the Falls Road. As he neared the city he heard another news flash on the radio saying that seven were now dead. And he thought to himself ‘we need two bombs on the Falls Road’. But when he got to the scene, and stood amidst the anger and grief of his community, his own thoughts haunted him’. “When I heard other people saying what I was thinking, it frightened me.” (A total of 10 people died in the explosion, including the bomber).

Over the subsequent years both Protestant and Catholic people came to realise that retaliation, revenge and violence are never the solution. Ultimately it was only the negotiation, courage and determination of people on both sides that brought about a peace deal. But it cost them a lot as their families and houses suffered due to hardliners on both sides.

In the gospel today the disciples of Jesus, James and John wanted to retaliate in a violent way to the refusal of the Samaritans to make them welcome as they were going to Jerusalem. They wanted Jesus to respond by calling down fire from heaven on the entire village. At that time Samaritans and Jews were hated enemies. Here we see the example of tribalism, of great prejudice. To follow Jesus’ teaching of non-violence and non-retaliation requires exceptional strength and a strange kind of love. Evil must be resisted but not by doing further evil. The perfect example for us is Jesus on the cross. The Jewish leaders, the Roman soldiers and others present hurled their abuse and hatred at Jesus but instead of retaliating in like manner he broke the cycle of violence and returned love for hatred.

Are we prejudiced in any way? How do we respond? Do we hold grudges and try to retaliate by like attitudes or actions? Or do we ask for the grace which Jesus won for us on the cross to return love for hatred. It is far from easy. That is why the help of the Holy Spirit is so necessary.

The other key point in the gospel today is the total commitment of Jesus. We are told that Jesus ‘resolutely took the road to Jerusalem’. Jerusalem is the place where Jesus’ journey will meet its goal and completion: his Passion, Resurrection and Ascension. Going up to Jerusalem with determination and commitment expresses the free decision of Jesus to surrender faithfully to the will of the Father and never to give up despite the cost.

In one sense each of us who claims to be a disciple of Jesus has to journey to his/her own Jerusalem. It is a journey to be faithful to whatever commitment we have made in life – be it marriage, priesthood, the religious life or a vocation to the lay state etc. Each of us will meet certain obstacles along the way, certain temptations to face.

The gospel today is a clear call to each of us from Jesus to be his disciple. To be a real disciple of Jesus is not easy especially in today’s world where there are so many voices calling us. It costs to be a true disciple of Jesus.

There is a call to do what we choose without reference to God; there is the voice of pleasure, of making money even if it means bending the rules and being dishonest.  We may justify this by saying ‘after all, aren’t many others doing the same thing? Then there is the call to have the latest technological gadgets. These in themselves can be very good.  But the danger is becoming enslaved by them. Yet Jesus has a dream for each one of us. He sees our capacity to accept the cost of discipleship, our ability to be faithful despite our occasional failures. He will be with us every step of the way. He knows how hard it is since he has gone the way before us.

St. Paul writes in the second reading today: ‘When Christ freed us he meant us to remain free. Stand firm then and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery’. Some may feel free now of the Church and its calls saying they were enslaved by its rules. Yet cannot many instead become enslaved by all the modern world offers with its consumerism and materialism? We may have tried to live by the world’s value system and found it wanting.  It is never too late to turn to Jesus. He is waiting to welcome us with open arms. But since he created us and loves us he is trying to warn us against seeking our security only in what is temporary and passing.

In the first reading we see the total commitment of Elisha who gave up all to follow the prophet.

The three incidents in today’s gospel are not telling us that we have to give up all we possess but that our only real security is Jesus. Neither is Jesus saying that we cannot attend the funerals of our parents or loved ones or that we cannot say goodbye to our family and friends. It is a Semitic or Jewish way of saying that our call to discipleship is not a part-time affair but that it calls for commitment and determination to be faithful. Our relationship with Jesus must be total. Having his values or attitudes should determine how we live our lives.

All this is not easy. At times it is quite difficult especially when we are tempted to seek happiness elsewhere or act selfishly. Why not pray to Jesus to give us the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the things or relationships in our lives that cannot give us the peace and joy we seek? With this freedom hopefully we will become more sensitive to the needs of others also and care for them. Being a friend of Jesus demands we are truly centred on him, on others and not just on ourselves.

“Lord Jesus, free us of all that would prevent us from being your disciples, your friends and living as such”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

16 June 2019

Proverbs 8.22-31
Romans 5.1-5
John 16.12-15

Recently I was at a meeting during which one woman said to another, ‘After all these years of marriage I think I will never fully understand my husband. What he did recently really surprised me. I never knew he could be so creative’. No doubt men say similar things about their wives. I remember my good father shaking his head from time to time as he saw some aspect of my mother’s personality that was new to him.

Isn’t this really the experience of each of us? No matter how long we live with another in a family or in a community, people will continue to surprise us by new ‘revelations’ of their personality. If this is so true for us on the human level should we be surprised if God is like that, continually revealing himself to us in new ways. My father would have said to me more than once: ‘you know your mother is a great mystery to me at times’. If that is true of us humans how much more true is it of God?

Mystery in the religious sense means that we cannot know everything about God. But we can know more and more about God than we did at an earlier stage as he progressively reveals himself to us. Our God is a revealing God. There are many things that parents cannot tell a 6-year-old child. Yet 10 years later they know he is now ready to hear them. The parents are not being difficult. They are being wise. Is it not even more true of God who is Wisdom itself?

We can tie ourselves into all kind of knots if we try to give a mathematical explanation of how there are Three Persons in the One God. Various examples were given to help us explain this. Like in a catechism class the teacher would light three matches at the one time and say: ‘Look, only one flame etc” – meaning three persons in the one nature of God. It is much better to show from Scripture what God has already revealed to us about himself.

In today’s gospel Jesus says to the disciples: ‘I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. When the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth’.

Now that Jesus has gone back to his Father he has given us the powerful Holy Spirit who will make known to us and to successive generations the meaning of what Jesus revealed when on earth to his apostles. There would have been little point in Jesus speaking about ‘cloning or genetic engineering’ to his disciples. But now the Spirit is with us to help us give a Christian response to this reality of the 21st century.

What then are some of the things we can say about the Blessed Trinity that have been revealed to us already?

God is not a loner, someone so far away in the heavens that we cannot dialogue with him. Also, using human language, God is a community of love, totally focused outwards toward the other and towards all others. In the gospels, Jesus does not focus on himself. He tells us a number of times in the gospels – ‘I have come not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me’. He also says that the Holy Spirit will reveal all things to us. Thus Jesus focuses on the Father and the Holy Spirit. When the Father’s voice is heard on the mountain and at the baptism of Jesus at the river Jordan he refers to the Son: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him”. So the focus of the Father is the Son. Jesus himself tells us that the Spirit will not focus on himself but will reveal to us more and more who the Father and Jesus are. God therefore is always concerned for the other. When Jesus came he lived out the same dynamic. He never worked a miracle for himself. He was concerned only to show God’s loving concern for us by healing, forgiving, feeding the crowds etc. Jesus’ focus was on others and their greatest needs.

In the gospel Jesus has announced the kingdom and love of the Father. Jesus came as a life-giver, his message is life-giving. Its demands, which the Spirit will make known to us, are always new and surprising. The Spirit is always at work in us to develop our potential and he invites us to work to make the world a better place to live in by having the attitudes of Jesus. This is the work of the Trinity inviting us.

Jesus shows us the way to the Father, and says the Spirit will be with us on our journey. The Spirit will sometimes lead us in ways we have not foreseen. I know a Frenchwoman who after the death of her husband decided to work as a lay missionary in Africa. So the Spirit blows where it wills. The Spirit may lead us paths we have not foreseen. This can make us afraid and distrustful. We would prefer to be settled, to live with the security of the known, of the tried and trusted. But the same Spirit empowers us with courage and hope. If we cling to our own paltry security how will we be in solidarity with all those in need: the poor and needy, prisoners, those with AIDS, unemployed, the stranger among us [asylum seekers, refugees, those in Reception Centres…] etc. Convinced that the Most Holy Trinity wants us to participate in its life of love and service let us be people of hope in our world today. Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

“Lord Jesus, help us return to the source of hope, You, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Help us to believe the words of St.Paul that hope in you will not disappoint us because ‘your love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that you have given to us. Amen”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

2 June 2019

Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:17-23
Luke 24.46-53

Some years ago I had occasion to visit a married couple, friends of mine, during a time of great sadness for them. The husband’s brother and his wife had been tragically killed in a car accident three months earlier leaving behind them two very young children, now orphaned. My friends decided to look after the children. When I met the two small children during that visit I could not help feeling very sad at the thought of their being orphans at such a young age and having to start life without their real parents.

The one thing we cannot say about today’s feast, the Ascension of the Lord, is that the apostles felt themselves orphaned at the departure of Jesus. In no way did they consider themselves orphans, so that they felt abandoned by Jesus when he ascended to heaven. In fact the end of the gospel tells us that the opposite is true. We just heard ‘Now as Jesus blessed them he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. They worshipped him and went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continuously in the Temple praising God.’  This is hardly the description of people thinking of themselves orphans.

The Ascension is not a farewell feast; it does not lament the absence of Jesus. Rather it celebrates the new way Christ became present to his people through the gift of his Spirit. For sure, Christ went away from us so that we no longer experience his physical presence but he is closer to us now than he ever was before.  When Jesus was on earth he was limited like us in space and time. This is no longer true of him. He is, so to speak, out and about.  He is present to us in an equally powerful but different manner. We can turn to him in any place, in any situation knowing he is there for us. It is important to realise that the apostles and disciples never regretted the departure of Jesus after his Ascension.

Our first reading reminds us: ‘you will be my witnesses …even to the ends of the earth’.

So today’s Solemnity, like that of Pentecost are feasts of Christian maturity.  They are a call to continue Jesus’ mission in today’s world and the difficulties we face there. The power of the Spirit is with us. In Acts today and also in the gospel Jesus warned his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, the promise of the Father.  It is as if Jesus is saying to the disciples: ‘please don’t claim to be working on my behalf as my witnesses unless you wait for, receive and live out of the power of the Spirit. If not you will fail’.

We must not look up to heaven lamenting the absence of the Lord like the disciples did in the first reading today. We must face here on earth what God asks us to do and keep our feet firmly on the ground. We must set out to bring his gospel, his Good News to the ends of the earth. This is why any attempt to keep Christians in an attitude of dependency and immaturity without real responsibilities and voice in the Church is contrary to the meaning of the feast we are celebrating today. The Second Vatican Council strongly emphasized this. Pope Francis is constantly alluding to this in his statements and actions.

And it is happening. In comparison to when I was growing up when the priest did everything, now we have lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, laity as members of Parish Pastoral Councils etc.  In some countries because of the absence of priests, the laity do even more, like conducting funeral services, preparing people to be baptised and confirmed etc. This needs to happen here in our Church in Ireland! This may not be enough for some who feel the Church is moving too slowly in this direction.  But we need to pray more and more to the Spirit to lead us into the way of all truth. We need to pray that we will have the courage to let go of traditional practices which no longer serve our witnessing to Jesus.  Will we have the courage to follow the lead of the Spirit, painful as this may be if it is not what we would like to see happening but seems the best way forward?

Rather than seeing the Ascension just as the departure of Jesus, we should see it as the sending of the Church on mission (in place of Jesus). 

Rather than seeing the Church as an orphan as a result of the Ascension of Jesus it needs to be seen as being given adult status by God, as being given responsibility to witness to Jesus Christ through the power of his Spirit.

As St. Paul tells us there are a variety of gifts that is a variety of ways of being Church, be it as laity, priests or religious. 

No one group is called to dominate the others since we are all brothers and sisters of our one heavenly Father who uses each of us in different ways.  If we want to compete with each other let it be in the area of service to the poor, forgiveness of our enemies, love of all God’s children no matter how we refer to them or to which ethnic or religious group they belong. Here in Ireland we need to ‘welcome the stranger’ just as many of our forebears sought a welcome in America, Australia, England and other parts.

Lord Jesus, we believe that you have ascended to be with your Father and that the real meaning of today’s feast is that each of us, your Church, is called to be your witnesses throughout the world. Give us your powerful Holy Spirit to enable us to be effective witnesses of your loving concern for all.

Adapted from a sermon of Fr Jim Kirstein, SMA

19 May 2019

Acts 14.21-27 
Revelation 21.1-5
John 13.31-35

A young woman was about to get married when it was discovered that her brother had been diagnosed as having severe kidney problems. Without a speedy transplant he would die. Having consulted her boyfriend and family she decided to donate one of her kidneys to her brother. A number of her friends and relatives advised her not to do this. Some said that it might cause her problems later on especially when it came to having children.  Also that it was a great risk and that being quite young she mightn’t live as long as she might do if she had two kidneys. But she was adamant.  ‘I love my brother and am prepared to take the risk’. As a result of her self-sacrificing love her brother is still alive.

This young woman put into practice what Jesus commands us all to do in today’s gospel: ‘I give you a new commandment: Love one another just as I have loved you’. What is really new in this commandment?  The Old Testament already had the commandment to love: ‘you must love your neighbour as yourself’.  So is there any difference?  Yes, there is: it is in the measuring standard of love.  Whereas the Old Testament says ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’, Jesus – in the New Testament – adds to it: … ‘just as I love you, you also must love one another’.  So in the Old Testament the measuring standard is the love of oneself. In the New Testament (the time after Jesus when he made a new covenant or a new testament with us), the measuring standard for the love of neighbour is the love of Jesus himself. This puts the love of neighbour in a totally different class.  Behind this new commandment is the love of Jesus himself.  His love is the model and the measure of how we should love our neighbour. And at the same time it is the most typical characteristic of a disciple of Jesus.

What is typical of this love of Jesus? Firstly, it is a serving love. Jesus himself said ‘I came not to be served but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many’.  Jesus summed up his whole life’s attitude in the humble act of washing his disciples’ feet, in serving, in stooping down.  He stoops down to all that is weak especially the poor, the hungry, the sick, those whom society marginalises.  He showed the attitude a true disciple of his must have in relation to women, to different ethnic or religious groups or to those whose skin colour is different etc.  Jesus’ command to love is quite simple but very demanding.

Jesus’ love is a merciful, forgiving love, something which Pope Francis is emphasizing in a big way during this Jubilee Year of Mercy.  He is not someone who came to seek revenge ‘Father, forgive them they do not know what they are doing’, he said on the cross as he prayed for his enemies. He came to witness to us who our Heavenly Father really is. He is not a God who seeks revenge when we sin, not a God who wants to punish us or send us to hell. Our own choices decide that – not God’s desire. God asks us to respond to his incredible love for us, not out of fear but because of gratitude by loving others.

The love of Jesus is a constant, dedicated love. He is not a moody God who one day is in good form and at another time is in bad humour, seeking to chastise us for our wrong doing. 

Jesus’ love was a total lifelong commitment to love, service and forgiveness even when the going got very difficult. I know a man whose wife has Alzheimer’s disease who gave up his job in order to be constantly there at the service of his wife’s needs. It is a very demanding life for him now.  But it reflects the true love that Jesus himself lived. This man – who does not profess belief in God – is living a godly life, a life of service and love.  Going to Church, to Mass, praying rosaries, attending novenas are no guarantee of being a true disciple of Jesus unless they lead us to practise the kind of love Jesus himself lived whilst on earth.

Hopefully most of us do this daily in our family lives, in our homes even if we fail from time to time. The most important question is: is what I am doing now, in this relationship, in this work, in this leisure time an expression of the love Jesus asks me to live out daily? Or do my actions witness to a lack of love, a focus on my own selfishness etc. Jesus is not trying to frighten us or threaten us with punishment but he is saying that we and those we relate to will only have real peace and joy here and now by living his command to love.  Putting it as simply as possible:  ‘If you want to be truly happy here and now seek and work for the happiness and the peace of others. If you want to be unhappy, seek your own happiness and peace only’.

“Lord Jesus, it is not always easy to love as you did. It is hard to forgive those who hurt us. It is easier to be selfish at the expense of others. Help us to realise that we cannot do it alone. Give us your Holy Spirit and help us call more and more on this Holy Spirit to bring about your kingdom here on earth.  Amen”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

12 May 2019
Vocations Sunday

Acts 13:14, 43-52
Revelation 7:9, 14-17
John 10. 27- 30

A certain young man was studying at the university as he had a great desire to become a teacher. After he qualified he had great joy and satisfaction in his chosen vocation. What saddened him was that he met some classmates who told him they had no great love of teaching. They did it because it was a well paid job.

Today is traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday when the Church asks us to pray especially for vocations to the priesthood. Perhaps the need to do this has never been greater. We need priests whose hearts are in it, who are truly good shepherds to the people God has entrusted to them. I feel that I am particularly blessed by God because I really enjoy being a priest and all that this involves.

Parents are asked to be shepherds of the family God has given them. It is the same for teachers, farmers, fishermen, doctors, lawyers, etc. Is our primary concern to care for and help others to a better quality of life? If we are in it just for our own good then no matter what title one has one is not a shepherd with the heart of Jesus.

Sometimes it may cost a great amount if we try to listen to what we believe we are called to do and put it into practice. In the gospel today Jesus is speaking to the Jews and he says ‘the sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me’. This does not just apply to priests but to all who want to be real disciples of Jesus. The theme of the Good Shepherd unfolds against a background of conflict and the threat of death as is clearly seen in the verses that follow today’s Gospel.

Down through the ages up to our own time many trying to really listen to the voice of God and put it into practice suffered in one way or another. It makes demands on us. We see people who try to be faithful in marriage despite difficult relationships, others who withstand the pressure to have an abortion, others again who refuse to give or take bribes etc. This is in no way a condemnation of anyone who may have given into temptation on any level. In fact, haven’t we all at some stage or other?

In our world today there are many voices calling out to be heard. Either on television or radio, by advertising, on the Internet, pressure from well meaning friends, peer pressure etc. There is also the voice of God calling us. Which voices will we listen to? ‘My sheep hear my voice’, says Jesus. Many religious leaders of his time refused to listen to him. They thought they were honouring God by killing Jesus and that they were saving religion by multiplying sacrifices, commandments, prohibitions etc. Isn’t it much safer and more secure to follow the law and tradition slavishly instead of risking to follow Jesus, who spoke about love, service, forgiveness, compassion etc being the core of true religion?

A friend of mine has a fish tank in which he has some small fish. He also keeps some canaries in a big cage. The fish and the birds belong to him. But in a sense he belongs to the fish and birds. If he doesn’t care for them they die. But I know he takes great care to feed them daily and clean their tank and cage from time to time. So they live longer and he gets great pleasure from them as Jesus does from us. Jesus says in the gospel that the sheep that belong to him listen to his voice. So in belonging to Jesus, he belongs to us and we know from experience that our belonging to him means that he does all he can to care and love us if we allow him. Very often we don’t. We stray away to follow other voices. Yet he keeps inviting us back to the true path that alone gives real peace and joy. This is the Good News.

To whom do we as Christians belong? It is not enough simply to say that we belong to Jesus. What we do and think will give us a good idea. Are we regular in going to Sunday Mass, to some daily prayer? Are we forgiving to those who may have hurt us or to those who think differently to us? Do we pray to put our trust in him and allow ourselves to be guided by his will?

He says also in this very short gospel: ‘I give them eternal life’, which doesn’t just mean life after death. Rather it involves the beginning of eternal life now – that is, a quality of life which gives peace, freedom, joy, but will also involve suffering and trial if we follow the Good Shepherd. It is especially about our relationship with God which begins here and continues into eternity.

In spite of our weaknesses Jesus gives us the great promise that as his brothers and sisters no one can steal us from him because the Father who is greater than anyone will not allow this.

Like any true shepherd Jesus will pull put all the stops to love and care for us. He does this especially through the friends and other disciples he gives us to care for us now.

‘Lord Jesus, true Shepherd of your flock, thank you for sharing this vocation with each of us. May your Spirit enable us to be true life givers and carers of your flock, those you have entrusted especially to us. In particular grant that God’s call to our young people to priesthood and religious life may not be drowned out by other voices or the lure of material wealth. Amen’.

Read the Message of Pope Francis for Vocations Sunday 2016

5 May 2019

Acts 5:27- 32, 40- 41
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19

Two men who were very good friends for a long time had a serious disagreement and stopped talking to each other. Three months later one of them phoned the other and admitted the major fault had been his and invited the other to a meal which was accepted. His friend forgave him totally and they had a great reunion.
Today we hear about the forgiveness of Jesus in relation to Peter and the other disciples despite their betrayal of him and their infidelity. In fact, he calls them ‘friends’.

The disciples had been out fishing all night and caught nothing. It was obviously dark. Now Jesus the Light of the world appears on the shore and having been told they had caught nothing suggested they cast their nets again and they catch a huge number of fish. Obviously he did not withhold his forgiveness and compassion from them despite their infidelity and betrayal of him. We see that Jesus was concerned to save them from the embarrassment of returning home to tell their families they had failed to catch anything. Also it was during their normal work that he appeared to them. This is important for us to know. Jesus does not try to embarrass us when we betray him by our sins and he is concerned and cares for us that our daily tasks would go well. He is with us if only we are aware of this. We also see the concern of Jesus in providing a meal for them. They had worked hard all night without success and were probably cold and tired so he calls to them and says ‘Come and have breakfast’. He invites us to the Eucharistic meal always too.

When the disciples came ashore after the miraculous catch of fish they found a charcoal fire ready with fish cooking on it. You may remember that it was around a charcoal fire when Peter was warming himself that he betrayed Jesus 3 times. Now Jesus is telling Peter that he is fully forgiven for his betrayals but before Jesus can allow him to shepherd the flock he wants to hear directly from Peter if he loves him.

Jesus asks Peter 3 times ‘Do you love me?’ This threefold question and answer do not imply that Jesus has doubts about Peter but that Peter’s love for Jesus is sincere and that he has the devoted love for Jesus, which is at the heart of all true discipleship. Jesus wants to hear the reply from Peter himself.  Jesus then tells Peter to feed his lambs (the weaker members of the community), to feed his sheep (the stronger ones) and to care for all of them.  This is the role of the shepherd.

This is a very important exchange because it reveals to us what the essence of Christianity is. Is it not true to say that Christianity is a person, Jesus Christ and so it is about our relationship with him and all that involves?  So why do I go to Mass on Sunday or why do I try and keep the commandments? Is it because I think I may go hell or that God will punish me, which is untrue?   Or is it because of my relationship with Jesus?  If so who is the Jesus I relate to? Who really is Jesus for me?  How well do I know him?  Can I have a deep relationship with someone if I do not know him/her very well? How do I deepen any relationship?  Is it not by spending time with the person and getting to know him/her?

That is why Jesus came – to offer us a deep personal relationship with him. He wants us to be his friends as he says in John’s gospel. Firstly he reveals himself to the 7 disciples. He is constantly trying to reveal himself to us in the ordinary events of each day, through our friends, in prayer etc.

If we can see Jesus in this light as someone doing all he can to invite us into his friendship then we might want to be his disciples not because of any law but simply because we would like to.  Christianity was never meant to be a religion of fear and threats of punishment if we didn’t measure up. It was meant to be a relationship between Jesus and us and, between God whom Jesus revealed and us.  The Laws and Commandments were given to help us avoid trouble. So if I kill and get caught I may be hanged or electrocuted so God says – Don’t kill.  If I steal and am caught I may end up in prison, etc.

It is by living according to the value system of Jesus, attending Mass, by personal prayer, celebrating the sacraments and reading scripture that we deepen our relationship with Jesus. Jesus invited the disciples to a meal after the catch of fish.  If we could only understand and accept how passionately and unconditionally Jesus loves us then the more we would respond out of love and not fear. His death on the cross sums up this love. But it isn’t easy.  Peter was told by Jesus at the end of today’s gospel that he would suffer if he tried to be faithful to him.

‘Lord Jesus, thank you for your invitation to us to a deep, personal friendship with you. With the help of your Holy Spirit, help us to be more aware of this and to respond generously. Help us to forgive others as you forgive us always if we ask you. Amen’.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

Sunday 28 April 2019

Acts 5:16
Revelation 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19
John 20:19- 31

Divine Mercy Sunday

A certain man asked his friend how he could be sure that his wife loved him. His friend replied that she had always been faithful to him, looked after him and the three children they had with great love and care especially when they were sick or in any trouble. Besides did she not have a big scar on her left arm when she pulled the youngest child away from a pot of boiling water on the cooker he had started to overturn and she was badly burned.

In today’s gospel Jesus appeared to the disciples and showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. He does this to help the apostles recognise him. It is the same Jesus now as he was before his death. They are also proof of his love as was that of the woman with the scar. He also showed them to Thomas and allowed him to touch them. He is telling us that it is alright to go to God in our woundedness, ours sins and shortcomings – that we are assured of a total welcome. We don’t have to pretend that we are otherwise; we can go as we are. Jesus appreciates honesty.

The end of the gospel passage today states: ’There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life through his name’.

Faith or belief is not just about believing in things we do not see. Faith is about taking a risk and making commitments, even if what lies ahead is unclear, even if we are not sure. This is what Jesus was challenging Thomas about. He was inviting Thomas to believe him even though he did not see him. Moreover, he is inviting Thomas to commit his life to him and this will involve risk. Thomas did not want to believe only on hearsay. Did he not just want to experience Jesus for himself rather than taking the word of others only?

In following Jesus we often find ourselves doubting, questioning, hesitating, even challenging Him. John is expressing an insight about our human nature. But our faith calls us to go deeper. Even before the death of Jesus most of his followers had left him. Whilst he was performing miracles and signs they had what they needed as proof but as he nears his Passion and death on the cross nearly everyone abandons him. Their conditions for following Jesus – the signs – were no longer evident. So they simply stopped following him. 

In John’s gospel the word faith or belief occurs about 98 times and it is never a static noun but always an active verb. It means a close following of Jesus, a commitment of our lives to him even when the signs are not too clear. Basically it is about trust – will we trust Jesus, will we be faithful in following him when our conditions are not met but allow him to act as he knows best, not always understanding why he acts this way?

This was basically the problem of Thomas. We read that he set up his own conditions for believing in Jesus. “Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands, and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe”. Then when the compassionate, understanding Risen Jesus Christ appears again, we see his sensitivity to the doubts of Thomas. There is no condemnation on the part of Jesus, simply kindness and gentleness.

This is our God – he knows that in life difficulties will come our way, sometimes causing us to doubt God’s love and care for us. But today’s gospel is a litany of God’s incredible understanding and sensitivity to where we are at. First, he appears to the disciples locked in a room for fear of the Jews. His first words are not those of condemnation but of consolation – he offers them Peace and this fills them with joy. In fact, three times in this gospel passage he says ‘Peace be with you’. Not only are they locked in a room but also they are locked into their fears. They are in a sense paralysed by fear. Jesus becomes a life-giver to them. Joy replaces fear.

In what way do we allow our fears to dominate our lives? I suppose each of us is in a different space but I know many people who are locked into situations they feel imprisoned in – it may be a non life-giving relationship, a drink problem, fear of people, fear of the future, fear of dying etc. etc. Jesus came to free each of us. He may not always come directly but if we ask him in faith and trust, he will use others to help us have the same freedom and peace his frightened disciples had after he appeared to them in the Upper Room.

He also breathes on them and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit for their life’s work. We too have received that same Spirit. We each have a call from God to be bringers of joy and peace as well as being channels of God’s forgiveness to others. Knowing how difficult it is to do this always, we each are given the Holy Spirit also. But do we pray as often as we might for the gift of this Spirit – to allow the Spirit to energise and empower us daily?

Jesus was truly a life-giver to his disciples in this gospel passage. So where do we go for life? Who or what is life-giving for me?

“Lord Jesus, give us a monumental increase of faith, trust and love in you. Help us to be a bringer of joy, peace and forgiveness to others with the powerful help of the Holy Spirit. Amen”.

Fr Jim Kirstein, SMA

21 April 2019 – Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34, 37-43
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9
(Gospel for the Easter Vigil, Luke 24: 1-12)

Many years ago I knew a young married couple, very happily married. Then after 15 years of marriage the husband died suddenly. Sadly they had had no children. For the woman life all but ended with her husband’s unexpected death. She said to me once at that time that the sun would never shine again for her in her life. She didn’t see any point in living. She was totally devastated. This went on for about 4 years. Being the quiet retiring person she was, she had depended very much on her husband and after his death, she felt totally alone. Others helped her for awhile but then they had to look after their own families. With the help of a few close friends and her faith in God, she gradually started to live again. In fact, because her husband was no longer there to depend on, she had to develop talents she never knew she had. Bit by bit she grew in self-confidence and now this woman thinks nothing of travelling to the far end of the world alone where before she would hardly go a 100 kilometers. She had matured out of all recognition and the sun certainly shines again for her in her life. I know that it was her faith in God and the support of a few friends, which made all the difference. But it took time.

Perhaps Easter Sunday is something like that. Up to the moment of the Resurrection, after the terrible death of Jesus on Good Friday, the disciples of Jesus were devastated. The one they had leaned on was gone. They never imagined Jesus would be taken prisoner and crucified. In that instant their dreams evaporated like that of the woman when her husband died suddenly. The disciples experienced a dreadful loss and no doubt were shattered, their hopes taken away in those short few days. They were also afraid for their lives and half expected to be caught and punished by the religious leaders who plotted the death of Jesus and had him crucified. For them too at that terrible time, they never expected the sun to shine for them again in their lives.

Now in today’s gospel, a woman no less, Mary of Magdala reports to Peter and John that the tomb is empty. In nearly all the Resurrection accounts, it is the women who first experience the Risen Jesus. Women at that time as in many places still today were looked down upon. This may be why the disciples did not believe them. It seems that the proclamation of life of the Risen Jesus starts with the very people who were marginalised and who count for little in society. In any case the curiosity of the 2 is awakened and they run to the tomb. Peter sees the linen cloths on the ground in an empty tomb. He did no more than merely ascertain the facts. However, it is said of John that he ‘saw and he believed’ even though his own faith was not yet perfect because the full impact of the vision of faith of the Scriptures had not yet dawned on him. It took Thomas even some days to surrender and accept – very consoling for us. To discover fully how rich faith is, takes time and growth and God in incredibly understanding and patient.

Maybe we all stand condemned in some way by the woman interviewed on an international radio programme. Because of modern technology, after an operation she was able to see for the first time in her life at the age of 54 and her comments in that radio interview were. “I cannot understand how all of you who were born with the gift of sight can be so unmoved by the beauty of life. You seem to take it all for granted – the beauty of a flower, so many marvelous colours, the dimples on the hands of a new born baby, the serenity in the faces of old people who are content with life, etc. etc.”

I feel she is correct – faith is like a new way of seeing. The resurrection does make a difference. If we believe, our eyes are opened to enormous possibilities. Jesus was in a tomb for 3 days and then burst free from its darkness and the stone that imprisoned him.

For me, that is my experience of resurrection. Whilst the empty tomb has its importance I know that I have experienced much freedom because of the gift of faith in the resurrection of Jesus that God gives me. So anywhere I see love in action in life I see the power of the Risen Jesus at work. Mary Magdalene went in the dark and found an empty tomb. Since Jesus was not there it was indeed darkness, but later in meeting Jesus a new light dawned for her and all other believers.

The resurrection doesn’t mean that we gloss over pain, suffering and difficult daily life situations, but it does give us a new vista or outlook on life. It gives us the freedom to face the dark side of life, and even death with confidence knowing that Jesus broke the bonds of human limitation and slavery in our lives. Jesus is alive and if we really have experienced the joy of the Risen Jesus in our daily lives we don’t have to wait until we die to experience resurrection now – deep joy, peace and serenity because of Jesus, now alive and out and about. In the first reading today Peter says that he and the disciples are now witnesses of all they saw Jesus doing even if for a few days they were paralysed by his death and seeming failure. If you and I have experienced the Risen Jesus at work in our lives we are like the woman who lost her husband suddenly. If we are faithful despite the great difficulty of these times of loss, Jesus is there with us then and he will surely help us experience the sun shining again. Not only that we will begin to develop talents and gifts we never knew we had because fear gives way to trust. This empowers us to break free of former limitations.

“Thank you Lord Jesus for the gift of our faith in your resurrection. May we be witnesses of gospel joy and peace to others still searching and doubting. Amen”.    

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

Palm Sunday – 14 April 2019

Isaiah 50.4-7
Philippians 2.6-11
Luke 22.14–23.56

A few years ago during a popular television show here in Ireland, the host had invited two people, one a woman who was very severely physically impaired, suffering from cancer, muscle wastage and almost blind. Having visited the National Marian Shrine in Knock, Ireland and attending a Mass including a blessing for the sick she got up and claimed to be miraculously cured.  Another a man with a terrible addiction to gambling who had tried very hard to overcome this and failed went to Medjugorje and claimed he was miraculously cured of his addiction.  Some people in the audience accepted the two had experienced a miracle. Some others who were humanists and another who was an atheist said there were very good natural explanations or scientific reasons to explain the so-called miracles. It appears that one either believes through faith or one doesn’t.

The focus of today’s celebration and indeed for all the readings of Holy Week is on Jesus, the faithful one.

During all this week we are celebrating his fidelity not only when he was being praised and honoured as a king but also during the terrible times of suffering and crucifixion. The first reading today is from the prophet Isaiah. He foretells the mysterious One who is to come whom we know now as Jesus, by saying ‘I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked at my beard, my face I did not shield from blows and spitting.  The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.  I have set my face like steel knowing that I shall not be put to shame’.  This was exactly what Jesus did. He trusted that his father would strengthen him to be faithful to the end especially when suffering. The Good News is that God our Father will strengthen us also.

For many people the idea that God could empty himself and be obedient to death on a cross, having previously suffered terribly, just doesn’t seem possible because of their idea of who God is. The couple on the TV had suffered greatly and yet believed that God still loved and cared for them and strengthened them in their struggles and sufferings.

In the accounts of the Passion of Jesus what the Gospel writers focus on is not the scourging, the whips, the nails, the physical pain – hardly any of that. The gospel writers emphasise that Jesus is alone, misunderstood, lonely, isolated, without little support. What is emphasized is his suffering, the agony of a heart that is extra sensitive, gentle, loving, understanding, warm, inviting, hungry to embrace everyone. But which instead finds itself misunderstood, alone, hated, brutalized, facing death. That’s the point that has been too often missed both in spirituality and popular devotion.

We might also reflect on the inner state of Jesus as he went through his Passion and Death.  How did he feel interiorly? All alone, rejected and abandoned etc? That is not to deny his terrible physical sufferings.

The liturgy of Holy Week is telling us of the incredible love of a God who will never give up on us no matter if having praised him in good times we will forget his love in hard times.  It is very important to note that nowhere in any of the gospel readings of this week does Jesus condemn anyone. Neither does he condemn you and me. The ultimate proof of this is that whilst hanging, in terrible agony on the cross, Jesus prays: ‘Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing’.

These days on TV we can see the cycle of violence between the Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq and between Palestinians and Jews in Israel getting worse and worse. And it will get far worse unless they follow the example of Jesus. This is far from easy. On the cross Jesus broke the cycle of violence. Instead of taking revenge on those killing him and returning hatred for hatred he returned forgiveness and love. Jesus did not act out of a power stance or with any superior force but met bitterness with gentleness, hatred with love, rejection by accepting the others in their anger. How hard for us to imitate.

For me, to follow Jesus faithfully is not easy. It is much easier to go to Mass, pray the rosary or say novenas. All these are very good. But Jesus asks us above all to follow his example by living daily with the same attitudes that he lived by. This is the way that leads to real peace and joy.

As we listened to the gospel account today which of the characters did we identify with most – Jesus, Peter, Judas, Pilate, the Scribes and Pharisees, the fickle crowd?

“Lord Jesus, thank you for breaking the cycle of violence that you were confronted with. Give us the Holy Spirit to follow your example and to be always faithful in following you. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

7 April 2019

Isaiah 43.16-21
Philippians 3.8-14
John 8.1-11

I once met a woman who told me that the biggest crisis in her married life was the time she found out that her husband was unfaithful to her.  He was having an affair with another woman for over a year. She was shattered and consulted a close friend who asked her one question.  “Do you really love your husband still in spite of this?” When she answered that she did, her friend said she should confront her husband and tell him she was prepared to accept him back if that was how she felt. She did and now many years later the marriage is working well. But at that time it wasn’t easy and many would not have been surprised if she had refused to forgive her husband and had not given him another chance.

She reminds me of today’s gospel that is primarily about who God is and how he treats us. Like the woman in the story Jesus gives the woman caught in adultery another chance. Instead of sending her to her death, Jesus sends her to life. Jesus is telling us as clearly as he can who God is and how he acts towards each one of us. We feel that if we do good we will earn or merit a heavenly reward and if we consistently do bad God will punish us. What Jesus is saying is ‘If I look on you with God’s gaze of love, with God’s forgiving attitude then you are totally and freely loved and forgiven’. It is God who decides all this. We cannot make God’s love and forgiveness depend on our worthiness or goodness. What a misunderstanding of how God relates to us. Unfortunately it is not our human experience. Many people often want to exact revenge or punish those who hurt or wrong them. Not so God – it is so far from the God Jesus is witnessing to. Of course that does not mean if God loves me like that I can sin merrily. In fact it is the very opposite – realising how very much God loves me so unconditionally I will try to respond by trying to please him. I will pray to be able to do the same to others as God does to me. Just as the woman in the story who forgave her husband. He later told a friend that having been forgiven by his wife he would spend the rest of his life responding to her marvelous love for him even though he didn’t deserve this because of his actions.

The first reading from Isaiah briefly recalls Israel’s past and tells them that ‘God is doing a new deed’. Our God is not a God who keeps reminding us of our past sins.  His focus is much more on what he can still accomplish in our lives from now on no matter what our past has been.  It is as if he is saying to us – ‘you haven’t seen anything yet!’

So a group of Scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught committing adultery.  It is interesting to note that the man had not been brought along and Jesus immediately sees the double standards at play. Jesus’ gesture is one of forgiveness of the sinner but also a rejection of the cruelty toward the woman and the double standards towards women and men. In their eyes: the woman, because she is a woman, sins seriously, while the man’s sin is seen as less serious. Jesus sees the inconsistency and tenderly tells the woman who has sinned to ‘go away and don’t sin any more’. The other double standard and inconsistency that Jesus is condemning is also our own constant practice ourselves. Don’t we often criticise others whilst ignoring our own sinful behavior, sometimes the very thing we condemn in others? Jesus here rejects the practice of all of us who say one thing and do another. If we are very honest with ourselves we all know that inside each of us are many thoughts and desires that we would not want others to know about. We don’t necessarily put them all into practice but we could. And do we not in some areas of our lives?

When the Scribes and Pharisees persisted with their question to Jesus trying to trap him, he refuses to get involved in a debate about what the law allowed or not. He knew what the Law of Moses taught just as they did, so he refused to play word games with them. Instead he simply tells them that those without sin should cast the first stone.  Immediately the accusers become excusers. They were very quick to accuse the woman as well as humiliating her, but now they are equally as quick to excuse themselves when they hear the words of Jesus. In fact the only person in the scene who had a right to condemn her, Jesus, had not the slightest interest in doing so.  And when all had left Jesus is left alone with the woman. As St. Augustine puts it, only misery and mercy remained.

Jesus does something for the woman that goes beyond the law.  The law condemns, Jesus forgives. He shows how God deals with sinful people, that is, with each of us. He changes our view of God.  At the same time he asks us to change our view of sinful people.  Each one of us, no matter what our sins are, has the capacity to change. Our sins are not the sum total of who we are.  They are parts of who we are, for sure.  But God can do a new deed for and in all of us if we allow him.

“Lord Jesus, thank you for showing to us again in this gospel that you have no interest in condemning us.  You do not deny that we sin but you constantly give us new opportunities to change. Help us by your Holy Spirit to be ever ready to excuse others for their failings as you do ours. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

31 March 2019

Joshua 5.9-12
2 Cor 5.17- 21
Luke 15. 1-3, 11-32

Some time ago, a father was asked by his third son, 19 years old, for a loan of his car to go to a nearby town with his friends for a disco. He promised his father that he would drive very carefully and wouldn’t drink. In the past he had sometimes come home drunk. However, this time he was true to his word regarding the drink but the car, a Mercedes, was very powerful and he wanted to show off to the friends and drove at speed whilst they cheered him on. Suddenly the car went out of control. Luckily, none of them was seriously injured but the car was totally destroyed. On his way home in a taxi he was scared to meet his father as he expected the worst, especially as his mother and siblings had warned the father not to give him the car. To his amazement the father threw his arms around him and hugged him warmly, telling him whilst they could never replace him they could always replace the car.

Today’s Parable of the Prodigal Son is probably the best-loved parable told by Jesus. In it the younger son is given his share of the inheritance but quickly squanders it on a live of sinful pleasure. Having spent all his money he suddenly found himself without friends. His own pain made him realise the pain he had caused to his father. We are told that he came to his senses, which could be described as the moment of grace. It was a brave decision and took courage to carry it out.

The journey back was a sad, lonely, and fearful one. Isn’t it easy to come back home when you are a hero laden with trophies and glory? But the prodigal son had no trophies to show to his father with which to earn his praise, welcome and love. He was coming home empty-handed. Worse, he was coming home laden with shame and disgrace.

Everything was out of his hands.  Supposing his father didn’t accept him back. What would he do then? He knew he deserved to be punished. Yet, it was the last thing he needed. He didn’t have a good time. Maybe he had a lot of pleasure but certainly no joy. He had suffered a lot – hunger, remorse, degradation of soul, and the sense of betrayal. Each sin brought a sure, swift penalty along with it. To sin is to suffer. He didn’t need more punishment.

What happened? When the father saw his son coming towards him, his heart went out to him and the next minute they were in each other’s arms. The father didn’t just accept him back. He welcomed him back. All was forgiven.

The biggest discovery the son made was that he was loved in his sins. The father never stopped loving him. It doesn’t do that much good to be loved in one’s goodness. But it is an extraordinary experience to be loved in one’s sinfulness. This is what grace is all about. Those who have experienced this type of love, like Saint Augustine, know something about the heart of God.

We could never have known God’s incredible love and forgiveness for each of us if Jesus hadn’t come to reveal and model it. God’s forgiveness is not a cold, half-hearted forgiveness but a warm and heartfelt one. God just doesn’t only forgive us; he loves us and lets us know it. The story doesn’t give us a licence to sin. But for those of us who have sinned and maybe badly this story is a very great consolation. Our past can be overcome. We can make a fresh start. This is the great lesson of the parable.

God is extravagant. He is extravagant in his love and mercy towards us.  He comes to meet us as we are, sinners, often so undeserving of his love. Yet he comes to us to lead us to a terrific feast in heaven, the foretaste of which is the Eucharist. Jesus is trying to help us to a different way of looking at God. For the most part we have been brought up with the idea of a profit and loss God.  That is, if we are good we will be rewarded and if we do bad we will be punished.  This is difficult to reconcile with today’s parable.

Jesus met the elder son in the Pharisees and lawgivers of his day, many of whom were locked into their own conviction that they were right and knew the way to earn God’s acceptance and a place in his kingdom. They thought they had rights over God and guarded him jealously. Jesus understands these people too and tried his very best to get them to come to know God as he really is but they were too set in their ways and finally got rid of him because he was too subversive, according to their way of thinking.

Which of the two sons in the parable do I identify most with, the younger son or the older one?  Maybe there is part of each in me? The most important question of all is this: Who is the God I believe in?  Is it the prodigal father Jesus describes for us today?  Do we fail to see the sheer gratuitousness of God’s love and so fail to understand the gospel message?  St. Paul invites us to be ambassadors of the newness of the message of Jesus, of a God who has a feast prepared for us. Will we be ambassadors of this good news or ambassadors of a false God of fear and sanctions?

“Lord Jesus, help us to accept fully the great Good News that God is as you describe him in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Help us to spread this message by the way we live our lives as Christians. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

24 March 2019

Exodus 3.1-8, 13-15
1 Cor 10.1-6, 10-12
Luke 13.1-9

Some time ago a woman said to her friend that she felt God was punishing her for past actions. She had undergone an abortion and also an extra-marital affair as well as having stolen some money.  Six months earlier her husband was tragically killed in a car accident and a few months previous to that her only son died after a short illness due to cancer. She was convinced that God was now taking revenge by punishing her for these past sins.

Sad to say there are many Christians as well as people of other religions who believe this. It is certainly a very false understanding of who God is. We usually see Lent as a time of penance, with the focus on fasting, which can indeed be helpful. But it is better to view it as a call to repentance as Jesus does in today’s gospel. The real meaning of this word ‘repentance’ is not so much a turning away from sin to virtue or going from bad to good. It is much more correct to see it, as the gospels tell us today, as a ‘new way of looking at who God is, at life, at reality’. The gospels – the Good News of Jesus – were given to us to free us from a narrow and oppressive view of sin and its consequences. And especially to come to know God as Jesus revealed him [a loving God], not a false idea of God as the woman in the story had.

The two events that Jesus uses in today’s gospel underline an important aspect of his message: there are no connections between sin and the misfortunes that may happen to us, whether their cause is human (Pilate, Luke 13.1) or accidental (verse 4).  By this statement Jesus goes against a very common concept of his time and perhaps ours also according to which diseases, misfortune and poverty are the consequences of sins committed by people in those situations. Thus, in addition to their harsh lives, the poor and sick are burdened by a painful sense of guilt. Sin carries its own inbuilt punishment; it is not of God’s doing.

The Good News is that Jesus came to free us from all the things that enslave us, like concepts such as this. Thinking like this can prevent us from facing the real causes of poverty and other evils by attributing them to some type of fatalism – that we are totally at the mercy of events and cannot do anything to overcome our situation. This is like the statement ones hears from some fundamentalist groups: ‘the devil caused me to steal or commit adultery etc. What a wonderful escape route for me instead of accepting my responsibility for my sin!! These attitudes also present erroneous images of the God of love and life.

Putting it very clearly, sinning is a failure to bear fruit according to our talents and possibilities, as Jesus states in the little parable that follows (v. 6-9). God is waiting for our good deeds and is very patient. Jesus in fact turns the question around by asking another of his hearers.  “Is the real miracle not so much about those who have been struck down but rather that you have escaped?”  So he follows this by the little parable describing God’s incredible patience which passes all understanding. God keeps on coming into our lives looking for fruit and when he doesn’t find any he keeps on giving us more opportunities and time.  As St. Peter says, “Think of God’s patience as your opportunity to be saved.”

In the second reading St. Paul gives us an important principle for interpreting the Old Testament: what is narrated here is not merely something belonging to the past: instead it conveys a message for us now. The first reading from the Book of Exodus describes the moment when God entrusts Moses with the liberation of his people. God gives him that mission because he heard the cry of his oppressed people enslaved in Egypt and he wants to lead them into the freedom of the Promised Land where they can build a just society.

God is revealing himself as being with us in our struggles, in our pain. He is not the God who punishes, rather he does everything to help us to be free, most especially in using humans like Moses, like you and me to bring about his reign here on earth, a reign of justice, love and peace.

If then we see repentance as a call to look at life and others as God, as Jesus does will we not be amazed that God is totally on our side, especially in times of tragedy and suffering?  He asks us to bear fruit by focusing ourselves on how best to help others to have a better life, a life unburdened from guilt and whatever materially, spiritually or psychologically still keeps us enslaved, keeps us unfree.

“Lord Jesus, help us repent in the sense you ask us to.  Open our eyes to come to know God, your Father and ours too, as God really is –a God whose last desire is to punish us.  Rather help us accept him totally as a father who seeks, by using others and us to free people from all that enslaves them.  Jesus, Emmanuel, the God who is always with us and for us, increase our faith, our trust in this total reality. Amen”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

10 March 2019

Deuteronomy 26.4-10
Romans 10.8-13
Luke 4.1-13

A young Irishwoman I know had a very good job with a large company.  She decided to leave the company and go to Ethiopia, a country suffering from severe famine. She said she felt the call of God to work with these unfortunate people. She wanted to be in solidarity with them. It meant leaving her home, family, country to risk all to be with these people. Of course her family and friends thought she was crazy and tried to get her to change her mind but she was determined to go. When she got there she had to live a very difficult lifestyle. Little clean water, at times not enough to eat. Several times she was tempted to return home and live the much easier and enjoyable life she was used to. But she stayed and was faithful to her commitment despite all the hardships involved.

This young woman reminds me very much of the gospel today. Jesus too left heaven and all that involved to be with us. He decided to enter into solidarity with us. He chose to take on a very difficult lifestyle.  It meant depriving himself of all the comforts and happiness he could have had whilst on earth if he acted out of his power as God. But as St. Paul says in the Letter to the Philippians, ‘Jesus emptied himself to take on the condition of a servant and being as all humans are, he emptied himself even more, even accepting death on a cross.’

In today’s Gospel Jesus is tempted just as we are, even though he was filled with the Spirit.  The devil comes and tempts him in three ways; the same ways men and women are always tempted.  First, the devil tempted Jesus and us too to quench our senses and be filled sensually as if this will make us happy – the temptation to drugs, sex, drink, maybe pornography etc.  Secondly the devil tries to seduce Jesus and us by the idea of having power over others. Here it can be political power, ecclesiastical power, employer power, parent power, teacher power etc. Thirdly, the devil entices us to take God’s love and faithfulness for granted and to test his merciful love and protection.

Ultimately the devil is trying to make Jesus forget he is, as a human being like us, totally dependent on his father to care for him. He is tempted to act from a power stance and not from the will of God. The devil tries to tempt Jesus to cheat on his humanity and satisfy his hunger and to use his power to deny his Incarnation – that he really human and will not call on God power when the going gets tough. Just as the young woman in the story was tempted to go back to an easier way of life when life in Ethiopia was very tough, Jesus is being tempted not to accept fully his human condition and all the limitation that that involves.  He wants to be in total solidarity with us, allowing himself to be tempted as we are and struggling to overcome the temptation, not to seek a quick fix. This was especially so in the Garden of Gethsemene when he was tempted not to go though with his Passion and death because he foresaw the terrible suffering and rejection it would involve.

What the devil is tempting Jesus to do is to take the road of instant gratification, a short-cut to immediate satisfaction. Jesus knew that this does not usually lead to long term peace and joy.

We must remember too that Jesus never worked a miracle for himself.  It was always for the sake of others. Jesus is tempted to go beyond human limitation and use his divinity to make his life easier.

In the first reading the Israelites are encouraged to remember how God brought them out of Egypt and freed them from oppression. But it took time and they had much suffering before they eventually escaped. The gospel tells us that it is a great temptation to forget we are God’s children, that he cares for us. We can be tempted especially in time of prosperity to forget God and act as if we don’t need God. Jesus was always very much aware of being a child of his heavenly Father and it was his constant awareness of that reality that determined how he would live his life.

The example of the gospel is clear: in his life Jesus proclaimed the primacy of God and his kingdom.  We cannot use our gifts and talents for our own personal prestige or to dominate others politically, materially or spiritually. The attitude of Jesus must be our own and that of the Church. Its message and its power are not to serve itself but to serve God and his chosen ones, the poor.

As we begin our Lenten pilgrimage let us remember that Lent is not an end in itself, it leads by way of the cross to the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus and to his sending us the Holy Spirit. Rather than asking what we should give up for Lent maybe better ask what temptation we should not give into.  The Good News is that Jesus knows from his own personal experience what it is to be tempted and the struggle to overcome temptation.  He will not abandon us no matter how often we fail as long as we keep on trying relying on his Holy Spirit for help.

“Lord Jesus, it is never easy to overcome temptation. Help us not to rely on ourselves but to pray often for the gift of the Holy Spirit to be with us. Amen.”

Fr Jim Kirstein, SMA

10 February 2019

Isaiah 6.1-8
1 Cor 15.1-11
Luke 5.1-11

A certain man was called by the General Manager of a big company to be told that he was to be appointed assistant general manager.  However, instead of being delighted with this good news, he said that he did not consider himself worthy of this, as he had not continued his education after high school. Besides he had to be honest and say he had spent a month in prison when younger for drunk and disorderly conduct. The General Manager assured him that these did not affect the decision of the Board of Directors.

We could call this 5^th Sunday, “Good Excuse” Sunday. In each of the three readings Isaiah, Paul and Peter feel they have very good excuses for not accepting God’s call. None of them feels worthy or capable enough. Isaiah’s reply is “What a wretched state I am in, I am a man of unclean lips”. Paul says that he hardly deserves the name of apostle, being the least of the apostles at a time when nobody even himself remotely expected this.  Peter tells Jesus after the miraculous catch of fish: “Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man”. Each one knows that he is in the presence of the Holy One and believe that they are totally unworthy of God’s choice of them. They experience what we might call ‘Spiritual Inferiority’

This, of course, is the whole point of today’s readings. God chooses us because He is good and not because we are worthy.  Jesus does not deny what Peter says about being a sinful man but he calls him nevertheless in the hope that Peter will realise that the work Jesus is entrusting to him could never be accomplished by man or woman without the powerful help of God’s Spirit. It will take Peter, as it does all of us, a whole lifetime to realise how totally we need God’s help.  So here Simon as he was then called gets a new name, Peter, a new job and a new image and all three take time to complete their transformation. At baptism is it any different for us?

This is indeed Good News for each of us this Sunday.  In that we are baptised we too, like Peter, are called to witness to God in the world.  We may immediately reply that we are not worthy and that we are sinners, maybe even great ones –another case of spiritual inferiority !!   But God considers us worthy and that is all that counts.  It is not Isaiah, Paul and Peter who choose God.  It is the very opposite and that is what matters.  Maybe we don’t want to be called.  Maybe we can see the demands involved.  We might prefer to opt out. If that is our choice then God will leave us free to do if we wish. But we will never have the deep peace and joy we seek if we search for it in other places apart from God.

God sees the marvelous potential in each of us.  Some of the great saints, like Teresa of Avila, Charles de Foucauld etc lived mediocre or in the case of the latter very sinful lives early on. But God then touched them and they responded. Do we not pray in the part of Eucharistic Prayer ll after the consecration ‘we thank you Lord for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and minister to you’  If God considers us worthy who are we to object?  We each have different roles to play in God’s desire to bring about his kingdom of truth, peace, justice and forgiveness here on earth be it as parents, children, priests, religious etc. 

Peter had worked hard all night and caught nothing.  Jesus asked him to try again.  He could have objected saying he was exhausted or that there were no fish where they had failed to catch any.  However, he responded to Jesus and tried again. Look at the result.  Sometimes we too may get tired of trying to be good Christians. We may get bored, disillusioned with what we sometimes see going on in the church.  We may want to give up on ourselves or on others who disappoint or even betray us. To all of us Jesus says, ‘try again’.  I am with you. I count you worthy. You have great potential.  But we must like Isaiah, Paul and Peter realise deeply that we cannot succeed alone.  Like Peter we may fish all night in darkness, but Jesus invites us to call on his help. He is the Light of the World and he will make our efforts fruitful in his own way and in his own time.

In the gospel today Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom (verses 1-3) and fishing, the daily work of these people (verses 4-7) are interrelated.  It is an important lesson for us. The gospel must be proclaimed on the basis of people’s lives – yours and mine. Ordinary lives. Ultimately of course it is only out of our own personal understanding of who God is that we will witness to here and now. If we think God is out to punish us and send us to hell which is totally false then that is the God we will reveal to others. If my experience of God is of someone who loves me passionately and unconditionally, chooses me to work for him despite my failings and sins, knowing that I am forgiven, a loved saved sinner, then that is the God I will witness to.

“Lord Jesus, we thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you. We might easily want to say, ‘depart from me Lord. I am a sinner’. But realising that the power comes from your Spirit and not from us we can confidently face life, assured of your love for us knowing that we are always held in your loving embrace. Are we not your children?  Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

3 February 2019

Jeremiah 1.4-5,17-19
1 Cor 12.31-13.13
Luke 4.21-30

A young woman had been with her boyfriend for some years and then one day she told him that she was leaving him. He was very upset and asked why. Her answer was that she found him too unpredictable. Some days he would be in very good form and then suddenly for no apparent reason he would become moody.  She felt that she couldn’t continue the relationship as it was causing her too much stress.

In the gospel today we find the people of the town of Jesus, Nazareth, like that. At first they are astonished at the gracious words that came from his lips. Soon they start complaining as they know him well, one of their own. They wonder where he learned all his wisdom and how he was able to work miracles in nearby towns. Was this jealousy, envy or what?  Rather quickly they get very angry with him and even want to kill him. Later on he would experience something similar. On Palm Sunday people put branches in his path and sang, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’. A few days later some of this same crowd cried out, ‘crucify him, crucify him’.

We should rejoice that our God is not a God who is moody like the young man above. Our God is always a loving God whose only interest is our good, our peace, and our joy. A good prayer to make might well be ‘Thank you Lord for you being you’ that is, a God who is unchangeable, who is not moody, a God on whom I can rely totally all the time because he simply is LOVE. Isn’t that real Good News in the gospel today? That God loves us totally and unconditionally whether we are virtuous or sinning. That is why in the second reading St. Paul reminds us about the true nature of love and therefore who God is. Instead of reading the text as ‘Love is always patient, kind’ and so on we can put in the name of Jesus in place of the word ‘love’. Maybe we may get a clearer understanding of who God is.

At the end of the gospel passage the crowd forced Jesus out of the town to a hill  (eventually the same scenario at Calvary – it was outside the town of Jerusalem and on a hill where Jesus was executed). They wanted to get rid of him because he spoke the truth; challenged them to become aware of their prejudices which blinded them to the truth.  They asked him to work the same miracles for them as he worked elsewhere.  Here we have a classic example of wanting to manipulate God and saying we will only accept him if he corresponds to our desires, our needs. But God knows well if they would not be good for us and so his answer then is ‘no’ but are we open to hearing this?

At the end of the gospel Jesus walks through the crowd and they can do nothing about it. Sad to say Jesus may walk right through us too and we may fail to see him because of our prejudices. The Jesus of Nazareth was too human for his townspeople. How could God come in such an ordinary person such as a carpenter? That was how God came then and how he still comes. If we fail to see him in ordinary events, in ordinary people today we may never see him in our lives and he may have walked right through our midst and we may have failed to be aware of it.

“Lord Jesus, open our eyes to the many ordinary people and ways through which you come to us daily. Help us to become aware of our prejudices that prevent us being open to the new ways that you use to visit us. Teach us how to love better, how to love more. Thank you above all for you being you – never moody but always loving, compassionate, forgiving. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

Sunday 27 January 2019

Neh 8:2-6, 8-10
I Cor 12:12-30
Lk 1:1-4, 4:14-21

Some years ago I was travelling by plane from Ireland to England. Next to me was a young man. When I asked him what his work was, he replied that he was connecting with a plane in London to fly to the USA where he was going to study for some years. After that he would get a good job, work very hard, make lots of money, marry and raise a family. He had a programme marked out for himself and he intended to carry it out.

Today’s gospel from Luke speaks of the Messianic Programme of Jesus Christ.

He states quite clearly what his objectives are. He will commit himself to a programme of liberation on all levels. He wishes to bring good news to the poor by telling them that they don’t have to accept that poverty is their lot and that they are condemned to it for life. In most countries especially in the Southern Hemisphere the Church is trying to put this into practice by working to empower the poor, involving them in projects that will raise their dignity and give them a sense of self worth.

Jesus also wants captives to be freed, not just people in prison but people imprisoned by fear, enslaved by drink, drugs, money, status, prejudices, self-destructive attitudes, a wrong image of God and what real religion is about, etc. In what way are we captives? Where do we need liberation or freedom? Do we ask the Lord to show us and to give us the Holy Spirit to respond?

Prior to this vision given by Jesus he had spent a long time in the desert guided by the Holy Spirit. Obviously he had pondered and prayed about his vocation. Having clarified it for himself he returns from the desert and under the influence of the same Spirit reveals his program to Israel. It is interesting that he doesn’t pull it out of a hat. He quotes from the prophet Isaiah what God had been revealing to Israel over the centuries. God’s preferential option is for the poor and the marginalised, those who have little status in society.  

It is as though he is giving us a key to understand what he is about with his choice of this text. We all know the importance of keys. We use them all the time. If we lose a key to an important place like our house, we are locked out. Or if we lose our car keys when away from home it can cause great difficulty for us. We also speak of keynote addresses which give the central thrust of a meeting etc. So Jesus today is giving his keynote address for his life’s work.

In fact, he is offering us a choice and it is a rather radical one. In our world today very often we are judged by what we do, have, wear or possess, be it money, power, academic degrees, property etc. Jesus is inviting us to think differently. He is not denying that money, a degree, etc are important but he challenging us as to the importance of all these things in our lives. Ultimately he is offering us a program for liberation and social justice. How will we respond?

I often wonder how my young travel companion has got on since we met on that plane all those years ago. Did he ask God for help? Jesus is going to depend on the Holy Spirit to carry out his programme. He says it clearly: “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me.” Jesus also needs us. The Good News is that Jesus is inviting you and me to participate in his vision for life. We all have been anointed with the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation. We are the anointed ones of Jesus. When we go forth from the Eucharist we are missioned to participate in the program of Jesus. The secret of life according to Jesus is that the more you focus on the good of others including the needy, poor, marginalised etc the happier you will be. But this is a very hard lesson to learn when the advertising world is spending billions to get us to accumulate more and more implying that this will give us lasting happiness.  We can be those who are blind, blind when we chose possessions instead of also sharing and helping our brothers and sisters in need.  

Yet so many wonderful people, hopefully ourselves, try to follow the program of Jesus as outlined today. When he ended up his statement he said ‘this text is being fulfilled today even as you listen’. And it is by so many in many places. These past weeks with the disastrous earthquake in Iraq we see many countries already responding with help. We hear of ‘prisoner support groups’, people contributing so charitably to International Aid Agencies. We hear of young people and not so young too going to famine stricken countries – surely there is the Spirit at work through the generosity of these people.

“Lord Jesus we thank you for the invitation to work with you to help those most in need be it in our own areas or abroad. May each of us be generous in responding to our baptism calling when we were anointed by the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

20 January 2019

Isaiah 62.1-5
1 Cor 12.4-11
John 2.1-11

Some time ago I celebrated the wedding Mass of a young couple, friends of mine. Both the Eucharist and the reception afterwards were joyous affairs. The young couple were very much in love and one could easily sense that they were determined to enjoy their wedding day. They intended the same for all the invited guests. And their mood seemed to have caught on. As far as I could see everyone enjoyed the day also.

In taking up the theme of a wedding in the gospel today, John the evangelist presents not only Jesus’ first miracle but he calls it a ‘sign’, as he does all the other miracles in his gospel. For John the miracle of Cana is a sign that points beyond itself to a much deeper meaning. This is the new creation and we share it. Jesus is replacing the old Jewish religious rites with the new wine which is himself. It is the best wine that is saved until now. Like the multiplication of the loaves and fishes there is a superabundance of wine. Not a stingy or small amount as humans might give out but God’s lavish generosity. It is saying that our God is a God of life, life that is abundant, still more and more abundant, life that we call eternal. It begins now according to St. John.

This event, the wedding at Cana is very meaningful. The God of Jesus does not usually reveal himself on a mountaintop or in a church in imposing majesty, but instead at a wedding, and in the company of friends. God is preparing us his people for a new covenant. Jesus is the bridegroom and he is inviting us to the wedding. This new relationship of God with his people is as different as wine is from water.

John tells us that Jesus asks the servants to fill six stone jars which were used for the Jewish ‘rites of purification’. Water and purification rites are referring to certain religious practices of Jesus’ day. From that time on religion will no longer be based on the law and constant washings or ablutions or on the observance of precepts undertaken out of fear of punishment and guilt.

This is precisely what John is saying here. The God that Jesus came to reveal is a very different God to the idea that the people of the time had of God. That was a God to be feared and obeyed lest they be punished. Jesus is telling us that God is not a God of fear and punishment as sadly so many people still believe. Also the God of Jesus is not a God distant from us and delighting in sacrifices of animals but Someone very close to his people, just as he would be present still at a wedding feast. He is a God who is that close to us sharing our joys and concerns. Of course the wedding feast is meant to be a joyful affair but later on in the life of a couple there will be difficulties. God will still be very close to them, concerned for them, supporting and encouraging them through their relatives and friends.

A relative of mine, a young man and his bride-to-be were sitting down in his father’s house one day when I went for a visit. They were preparing for their wedding. They were making a list of all the important things for the wedding Mass and the reception afterwards. One thing they didn’t bother writing down was to have water available at the reception. It was so ordinary that it was taken for granted that it would be there and so wasn’t worth mentioning in the list they were making. It is the same in today’s gospel. The 6 water jars that were there were so ordinary and part of every day life that they hardly merited a second glance. The guests would have automatically washed their hands in order to be purified. Yet these so ordinary water jars were chosen by Jesus to be the containers of the abundance of new wine. It seems to have been a pattern in the life and teaching of Jesus. He used very ordinary things like water jars, like flour, leaven, a farmer sowing seed, hens with chickens under their wings protecting them etc. to be the means of getting across his message. Do we fail to see that the same dynamic is still used by God? Today in the gospel it is a wedding feast, another time it will be fishermen at work etc. Where do we see God present in our ordinary daily experiences? God still comes to us throughout each day in very ordinary ways if we can become aware of this. He is very close to us, delighting in our celebrations and times of joy and very concerned when we are suffering or struggling.

If Jesus can change something like water into wine as a sign of his love for the young couple and in response to the sensitivity of Mary who noticed the lack of wine, can he not change us too into the kind of people that we are called to be? Do we believe this? Do we offer ourselves to him for this transformation or change? After all, isn’t this what we celebrate each time at the Transformation or Consecration of the Mass? We believe that God through his Holy Spirit changes parts of creation like bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Do we pray that God can do the same with other parts of creation, you and me, to be better persons, better members of his family? Can he not use us to work together to make the world where we are a better place? St. Paul in the 2^nd reading reminds us that the Holy Spirit gives us a variety of gifts to bring this about. Do we pray to the Holy Spirit for these?

“Lord Jesus, as you changed water into wine at Cana we offer ourselves to you believing that you have the power to change and transform us too in ways that are best for us and for others. Amen.”

Fr Jim Kirstein SMA, Cork

13 January 2019

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

Some Christian traditions finish their ‘Christmas season’ with the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January). We in the Catholic Church however conlude the celebration of Christmas with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This feast is the beginning of the making known of Jesus to Israel and the rest of the world. Today we remember and celebrate the end of His “hidden life” and the start of his public ministry – to preach, to teach and to heal.

But in seeking to be baptised Jesus is associating himself with sinners. In today’s Gospel passage we read of the reaction of John to this (who scandalised by it) but nonetheless Jesus insisted that John should baptise him. Through his baptism in the Jordan Jesus was confirmed as a Son; so too we through baptism are also assured that we too are children of God (cf. Romans 8:15-17).

Just as Jesus was confirmed as the Beloved Son, so too each one of us – through our Baptism – are confirmed as beloved sons and daughters of God. Many Christians fail to realise the great power that has been given them – the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Each of us, through baptism, have been called and chosen to make God’s Light shine in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. It is an awesome responsibility but as St Augustine wrote: ‘Jesus did not say succeed, but strive’.

Gregory of Nanianzus wrote: “Christ is baptised, let us descend with him that we may also ascend with him.”

Lord God, thank you for the gift of my baptism. Enlightened by Christ may I share that Light with all others I meet on my pilgrim journey. Amen.

6 January 2016

A Light for All

 Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:2-3; 5-6
Mt 2:1-12

I had a priest friend working in Ghana. He loved nature especially birdwatching, taking great delight in seeing the lovely different colored birds one finds in Africa. Once he decided to take a few days vacation and went into a large forest area near where he was working to observe the different kinds of birds. He took some food and drink. But after a number of hours of looking up into the trees he realized he was lost. However, he felt he could find his way out again. Two days later he was still lost and now having used up all the water he had he started to get dehydrated. So he then resigned himself to die. The next morning, and being very weak he was seen by a local Ghanaian hunter who chanced to pass by that way and in no time had guided him out of the forest to safety. He knows that this man saved his life by pointing the way out of the forest to him.

Many people in our world today are searching for a way out of difficulty and seek people to help them this achieve this, whatever name you call this person, be it a psychologist, a spiritual director, a guide, a soul friend etc.

In the gospel today we have the Wise Men who come from the East. They are searchers for the truth and discovered a star that they felt could guide them to what they were seeking. Eventually it did. Amazingly, they just found a small helpless infant in a manger with his parents and they had the humility to accept that this child was the answer to their search.

What is the star that guides you in your way through life?

Many people will seek to follow the star of power, money, fame, popularity etc. and for a time they may seem to have found that it works, but sooner of later they don’t have the deep peace and happiness that following Jesus gives us. But is it easy to say that for me Jesus is the guiding star in my life, that he is the light shining up the darkness of my life.

How real is Jesus for you and me?

Does he really make all the difference? (Personal witness).

The star guided the Magi or Wise Men to Jesus but, on the way, they encountered Herod who sought to destroy Jesus if he found him.

Who or what is Herod for me?

Is there a person, a relationship, some worldly ambition, some tendency to sin in my life that may lead me away from finding Jesus and allowing him to be truly the guiding star of all I do.

If there is something or someone why not talk to Jesus and ask him to help us overcome the difficulty.

Having met Herod and the Jewish leaders the text seems to suggest that the star disappeared. But once they leave that situation (Herod) it appears again and guides them to Jesus.

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, God seems to disappear from our lives. Even if we try to be faithful, Jesus seems far away. Remember Joseph and Mary lost Jesus for 3 days on their visit to Jerusalem. Such a similar situation in my own life might well be an invitation to be faithful to Jesus in good times and also in difficult times. It could be an opportunity to ask God’s help that I will remain faithful at this challenging time.

The Wise Men offer their gifts to the child Jesus convinced that he is the one they were searching for. The Wise Men who came from afar were not Jews. They are outsiders in that sense.

Today’s feast, the Epiphany means showing or manifestation, is the feast of God telling us that he wants to be known and loved by all peoples, regardless of colour, race or language.

The Wise Men, having found the child, pay him homage. The account ends in a beautiful way.

Having learned of Herod’s wicked intentions which were revealed to them in a dream, they “left for their own country by ‘a different way’”. We can assume that their having found Jesus had transformed their lives, because in the Bible a change of path symbolizes conversion. Must not this be the outcome of our encountering the Lord: a transformation of our lives, the capacity to take another way that is truly life-giving. The Good News is that God will reveal this to us if we ask in faith. It is free.

“Lord Jesus, we believe that you are the Way, the only star that can guide us safely in life to that peace and joy that each of us seeks. May our daily lives be a manifestation, an Epiphany to others that you alone are worth seeking for and following. May we too like the Wise Men be searchers for what is truly life-giving, You alone. May our lives witness to this to others by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Fr Jim Kirstein SMA, Blackrock Road, Cork

30 December 2018

1 Sam 1:20-22; 24-28
1 John 3:1-2; 21-24
Luke: 2:41-52

Inspiration for Family Life…

“The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.”

Christmas is referred to as the great family feast.  It is a time for family reunions, for family reconciliation, time for family sharing.  It is indeed a special time for children, for parents, for families.

What we are really celebrating of course is the birthday of Jesus… the birth of our Saviour. God fulfils all the hopes of the past with the entry of his Son into our world. God gives Himself to the world. God becomes one of us in order to restore all humanity to Himself. This is awesome. And yet it is simple.

How does God come into our world?  As a baby.  He is born in Bethlehem.  He enters into the family of Mary and Joseph.  Today we celebrate the Feast of this Holy Family.  We celebrate the mystery of the child Jesus living with his parents.

That family too, like so many families today, has its own crises to deal with.  Even at His birth there were problems – no place for him at the Inn. The Gospel recounts the threat from Herod and the necessary exile of the family until the threat is gone. But there were other difficulties too – the warning about suffering that would be the lot of the child later was given by Simeon at the Presentation in the Temple – and when the child was twelve we find his distraught parents searching for their missing son. Today – in this country with a rising growth rate within the EU – we have families put out of their homes; rising homelessness, families divided for different reasons – unemployment, deminishing resources, arguments, abuse of alcohol and other drugs, emigration…

The images we saw in recent years on TV of people –  [women, babies, young children and men] being rescued by Irish Navy and other ships or arriving in rickety boats at European ports, walking the roads in southern Europe – these should help us think about what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph as they were forced to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, finding no welcome and then, after the birth of Jesus, having to flee south to a foreign land to escape the evil intentions of Herod. The image of a glowing fire at Christmas and every one dressed up and feeling happy – that is the complete opposite to the reality of that first Christmas. Today, many people, despite their own family problems, can draw hope, consolation and inspiration from the family of Nazareth.

Let us pray for all families, giving thanks to God first of all for the family from which we come.

Let us also pray for families in difficulties of varying sorts. Above all let us pray for them that, even though there problems can appear insurmountable, they do not to lose hope in the presence of God with them.

25 December – Mass during the day

Isaiah 52.7-10
Hebrews 1.1-6
John 1.1-5, 9-14

A teacher decided to take her class of 10 year olds to visit the crib and she asked them to bring a little Christmas gift for the baby Jesus. At the crib they put in their gifts next to Jesus. One boy gave a whistle, another a bag of peanuts, a little girl put in a small doll and the next little boy put in a small statue of the Sacred Heart. The teacher was curious and asked him why. He replied that he thought it would be good for Jesus to see what he would be like when he grew up!!

It is true for most of us that we like to know what’s coming next, especially as the New Year is so near now. The gospel we just read is like that. It is called the prologue or the introduction to the gospel of John and he gives us an idea of what is to come later in the gospel. But it also speaks to us of our human situation now. It is a gospel of hope and promise.

The first verse tells us very simply, recalling the opening of the Book of Genesis when God created the world. It says that ‘in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

The Word is another name for Jesus. The verse says straight out that Jesus is God and towards the end of the gospel in Chapter 20:30-31 John says that the purpose of writing the gospel was that so we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

You might say we all know this. Do we really? My brother and many of my childhood friends no longer believe Jesus is God. And even for us, it is easy to say I believe that Jesus is God but how real is that in my life? When John says we are asked to believe that Jesus is God he is using the verb ‘to believe’ or the phrase ‘to have faith in Jesus’ in a special sense. He uses the verb ‘to believe’ or faith 94 times in his gospel and it always means ‘to be a true disciple of Jesus, to follow him closely, to do his will, to have a deep friendship with Jesus. So, is that true of you and me? God knows that only by doing this can we really be happy and he will do everything possible to help us develop our friendship with Jesus.

Next he says that Jesus the light shines in the darkness, a darkness which could not overcome it. This is telling us that in Jesus, the light of the World, there will be a struggle with the powers of darkness in his life but that he will be victorious over darkness, sin and death. Is this not true of you and me too? Don’t we know our own inner struggle against sin and the temptations that face us daily? The whole life of Jesus was involved in this struggle and he is reminding us here that if we really ‘believe’ in the sense I have just explained we too will struggle against sin and evil in our own lives. Jesus, delighted with our efforts to please him will give us the courage that we too will finally succeed with him at our side, even if we fail from time to time.

The next part in the prologue tells us the amazing fact that his own people, the Chosen People of God, for the most part would not accept him. But whoever did were empowered to become children of God. The mystery for me is why some people in the same family accept Jesus and others don’t. I know one family which has 2 famous priests in the family whilst the third claims to be an atheist. He is anything but a bad or a wicked person but he says that in all honesty he cannot accept Jesus as God. How grateful are we for the gift of our faith, how often do we thank God for it? Personally I don’t know how I could survive in life without my experience of having Jesus as my close friend. Why he would choose me is another mystery but he does and that is all that counts.

The other main aspect of today’s gospel is that The Word or Jesus became flesh. This incredible statement means that Jesus chose to empty himself to be as we are except that he didn’t sin. This means that God loves us so much he wants to be with us, just like two lovers always want to be close to each other. God is the great Lover of humankind and he desires to stay close to us. Though I ask myself why when I see the way we treat him. Often ignoring him, refusing to do his will, going our own way and then when we realise our sins or failings we turn back and there He is so full of joy that we are back that he delights in showing us mercy. God doesn’t give up on us. He is Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Today’s feast is speaking to us again of Jesus who is God, He who comes as the Light to show us the way in the darkness of this world and in spite of having to struggle is victorious. He invites us to join him in the struggle against the evil in our world. He desires greatly that we would accept his offer of friendship unlike many who refuse this. He became as we are so that he knows us from the inside, our struggles, our difficulties and our joys too. And finally he wants us to have the enduring love that he has for his Father so that here and now we may already start experiencing the deep peace and joy he came to bring us at Christmas.

“Lord Jesus. Why did you bother to come and live amongst us when you see how we treat you, often ignoring you or doing our own thing and yet you never give up on us. May we continue to be ever more grateful for your incredible choice of us and your unending love for us. May we be like the shepherds and the Wise Men so that may we continually adore, praise and thank you and offer you the gift you most desire from us, a deep, personal friendship with you.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

9 December 2018

Baruch 5:1-9
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Luke 3:1-6

When I was in University I was very blessed to have another seminarian as a study partner for our history course. He was a brilliant student who was of great help to me. Later I learned he had left the seminary after 4 years there. When I met him on my return to Africa, I was amazed when he said to me that he no longer believed in Jesus Christ. He said that the life of Jesus was no more than a myth or a piece of fiction without any basis in history.

It was to counter such attitudes that Luke in today’s gospel situates Jesus in the historical set-up of his time. He says that Jesus was born in a certain place, in a certain time, a real human being. To emphasise this he names the important people of his time: Tiberias Caesar the emperor, Pontius Pilate the governor of Judea, other political leaders and finally the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. Surely one would have expected God to seek the help of someone among these mighty of the earth to spread his Good News of salvation, but nothing of the sort. On the contrary, the word of the Lord came to a very simple man, a hermit in the desert, a man without any political power or religious authority. It is interesting that John was in the wilderness, a quiet place, plenty of time for reflection.  He possessed none of the world’s goods to fill up his life so he was really empty to receive the word of God.

Is there not a strong parallel in the life of Nelson Mandela? For many years he was condemned to prison in South Africa, often in solitary confinement. He was very badly treated by his white prison guards. Who would have blamed him after all the harsh treatment and humiliations he received if he had become a bitter man, ready to seek revenge when released? Like John he was in the wilderness, for him that of prison, none of the world’s material goods to fill up his life, plenty of time for reflection.  Obviously the word of God came to him too. This man came out of prison and became a tremendous symbol of reconciliation and forgiveness, trying to overcome all the evil of the apartheid system in South Africa and bringing whites, blacks and coloured peoples together. And he remained so till his death, two years ago yesterday.

God’s word still comes to the humble people who renew others by act of kindness, to people who lower the mountains of selfishness by their selfless serving of others especially the poor, to those who fill up the valleys of hatred and injustice by their work for justice and peace and to those who commit themselves to try and safeguard the environment, the ozone layer, the ecological system of the earth so as to hand on a better world to those coming after them.  We may not think they are important people by the world’s standards but by God’s standards they are and he will use us also if we allow him.  Are we not all called to have the same vocation as John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord by communicating the Spirit of Christ and his message of hope, love, freedom and peace to others?  To help people fill up with peace and joy their valleys of pain and make their rough paths smoother.  A word of affirmation and encouragement can work wonders. People like you and me here this morning are called by God as John was. How do you and I respond?

God is surely the God of surprises. His ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts as the prophet Isaiah says. He comes to all those people who like John welcome the Word of God into their lives. He is still coming into our world and perhaps in a totally different way than people imagine. Each of us is invited to hear the word of God today wherever we find ourselves. John the Baptist heard the word of God in the wilderness, Nelson Mandela in the silence of his prison cell. Yet our cities and towns are often such busy places and our lives are often so hectic. We do really need some quiet time so that we can hear God speaking to us. Do we try and do this ourselves? Some people at Advent try and find some time each day to listen to the word of God so that they may prepare spiritually as well as materially for Christ’s coming at Christmas. How will you and I prepare?

We are told that John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Repentance meaning a totally new way of following Jesus and seeing what the Good News is really about – a total liberation on all levels of our being. Above all repentance means looking at life with the eyes of God. Do we pray daily to God for this kind of repentance since it is a pure gift from God and freely available?

Rest assured that in Jesus God did not appear in his humanity in a superficial and hasty way, as a president or a pope might pay a fleeting visit to a slum area so as to be with the poor for a couple of hours. He came to live amongst us once and forever.  He became the centre of history and nothing or no one can change that reality.  He is the God of today and will be the God of tomorrow too. When we look in this way at the coming of God we again can become people of hope.

“Lord Jesus, help us to prepare for your coming this Christmas by breaking down in us the walls of pride and selfishness between God, ourselves and others. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

2 December 2015 

Jeremiah 33:14 – 16
1 Thessalonians 3:12 – 4:2
Luke 21:25 – 28, 34 – 36

Some years ago I visited my niece who was pregnant at the time and expecting her first baby. When I asked her how she felt she said that she had two conflicting feelings. One was a great hope that all would go well so that she would have a healthy baby, the other a certain fear that something might go wrong. 

Today we meet these two poles of hope and fear in the readings of this First Sunday of Advent. The first reading recounts the very tense and terrifying situation of the exile. Jeremiah tells the people: keep dreaming of a better future, we will be saved, God will not abandon us. Jeremiah refers prophetically to the coming of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. In the second reading in similar insecure situations Paul encourages the people of Thessalonika, where a small minority of Christians live in uncertainty and tension as they were expecting the Lord to return. ‘Do not fear, the Lord will make you strong and increase your love for each other.’  Their task was to live in such a way that God would be pleased until Jesus returned. Just as it is for us. But since the actual time of the Lord’s coming was unknown Paul advises them not to lose focus but to stay alert less they get sidetracked. So the emphasis here is Hope.

The images from the gospel of Luke are strong stuff. This might be seen as the other pole of today’s readings, Fear. The end time is announced with violence. Yet today’s description in the gospel could be true of many places today which are experiencing all sorts of calamities: the violence in Syria, Iraq, Paris, landslides in Mexico, Myanmar…  The gospel seems to say that it  will be a very difficult and fearful situation. People will be struck with terror. These kinds of images and text have often been used in the past to put fear into people’s hearts. If we weren’t living a good life when the end time appears, Jesus coming on the clouds would judge and condemn sinners. Maybe at best one landed in purgatory thus escaping eternal punishment. This made many people experience their faith as oppressive and frightening rather than liberating. This is, of course, a very wrong misunderstanding of the reading of Luke and this ‘end time’ kind of literature.

The impression given could be that of a vengeful, condemning God yet if we read the gospels Jesus spent his time encouraging people, giving them hope not trying to cause fear in their hearts. Why would today’s message by Jesus in the gospel be any different?

Jesus is saying that I need – right now – to be awake and alert to what I can become, what I can make of my life. Each of us is on a journey, a pilgrimage through life. So what is more important than knowing where I am going and where my destination is.

My niece took great care to eat the right kind of food during her pregnancy, to avoid all drink and smoking, to get enough rest etc. She was very alert to what was the best preparation. Likewise what we want to be in life will influence what we do and will guide our choices. If I want to be an engineer, a teacher, a nurse, an architect, then I will have to take certain steps and make certain decisions. If on the other hand I want to be a monk or a hermit, I will have to make quite different decisions and choices.

Thus instead of trying to cause fear in our hearts, Jesus in the gospel is encouraging us. He is saying that you are called to greatness. Jesus calls us to be vigilant so we may reach the freedom, peace and joy now, not just when we die. In saying ‘watch yourselves or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery, drunkenness and the cares of life’ he is inviting us to avoid all that could destroy what is best in us and that we would fail to develop our potential as humans, as Christians. So if through our way of living we get AIDS or become alcoholics, drug addicts or our health is destroyed by workaholism etc we will ourselves have chosen a living hell right now and Jesus loves us too much to see us descend to these depths. He says in the gospel, if you take my advice and allow me to guide you in trying to be alert to what I say, you will have true peace and joy, and will experience more and more the liberation I came to offer.  Then you will be free to help others, to live in right relationships with others, to make a positive contribution to making this world a better place.

Today is the First Sunday of Advent when we try to prepare again for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. The danger would be to get sidelined into material preparations for the feast instead of preparing also spiritually.

Today’s readings are not to cause fear in our hearts, but to allow hope to take over more and more in the place of fear.  Jesus is encouraging us to do this by staying alert and avoid foolish, non life-giving behaviour.

‘Lord Jesus, open our eyes and hearts to prepare in a special way for your coming more and more into our hearts this Christmas and indeed always. Amen.’  

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

18 November 2018

Daniel 12.1-3
Hebrews 10.11-14
Mark 13.24-32

Some time ago an elderly friend of mine said to me that he was afraid of dying. ‘I am not sure when I meet my God if the books will be balanced in my favour or not’, he said. There are so many people like him who think that their performance on this earth will determine whether they will be found worthy of entering heaven or not. Sad to say so many people approach their final years as believers with this fear.  They pick a few texts like those of today which determine their attitude.

Interestingly enough today’s texts are not mainly about causing fear about when the world will end. The only thing for sure is that Jesus will come at the end of time to gather his chosen ones. As St. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2.4 “God wants everyone to be saved and to reach full knowledge of the truth”. If we take the total preaching of Jesus we will see that ultimately only God can give us his totally free, unmerited gift of salvation. We can of course refuse to accept God’s free gift by turning away from God. We can choose to reject God’s friendship. The one thing that is sure is that Jesus will come again at the end of time and will send his messengers to gather his chosen ones. We can be sure we are among his chosen ones if we try our best, despite our weaknesses.

Today’s readings can so easily be misinterpreted because it is a type of writing we are not familiar with, but which are familiar to our Jewish sisters and brothers. This kind of writing is called ‘apocalyptic’ coming from a Greek word meaning to unveil or reveal. So apocalyptic writers are trying to reveal to believers what has up to then remained hidden.They wish to reveal God’s secret. This kind of writing uses vivid visions to explain and once one knows the key to these images it is quite simple then. They are not to be taken literally. And history is always written after the events. Apocalyptic writers give the impression they are writing about things to come but in fact are writing about present events. So about that time, the enemies of Rome, the dreaded Parthians were attacking the frontiers of the empire. Within 40 years the terrible earthquakes took place including the famous one resulting in the volcanic destruction of Vesuvius. These events are what the images refer to. Finally the great temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. This would have been unthinkable for the Jews of Jesus’ time and in fact the present chapter of Mark opens with the disciples amazed and obviously very impressed by the size and magnificence of the Temple building. Jesus tells them that the seeming indestructible temple, the centre of worship for the Jews would be destroyed. Maybe this is the whole point of today’s readings. The temple represented for the Jewish people the power and privilege of any system, religious or otherwise. It is a risk which is permanent.  Religion and religious traditions can become so fixed long after they outlive their usefulness that vested interests may get rid of anyone who tries to change or even suggest change. This is what Jesus tried to do.  In place of what was dead and not life-giving, like many aspects of the Sabbath or temple worship he wanted to offer a life-giving alternative. But it was too much for the religious leaders. To think about other possibilities is always risky. Better stay with the tried and trusted even when it is no longer life-giving.  Is this why people leave the church? 

Will we have the courage to look at our own religious practices and attitudes, either as individuals or as a group and see if they have not outlived their usefulness? Are there not many ‘traditions’ in our daily lives – and in our Church – that we need to let go of? Was this not one of the underlying issues at recent Synods in Rome? Jesus tells us today that nothing is permanent apart from the truth and that that will manifest itself differently for different ages. So what are the signs of the times in our lives, in my life and yours?  What is not life-giving? The Good News today is that Jesus came to liberate us from all forms of enslavement, religious or otherwise. If we believe we are saved by his totally free choice of us then we will have the freedom to respond to the new initiatives of the Holy Spirit. As creatures of habit, this is not at all easy for us.

Finally, the gospel invites us to let go of all foolish attempts at predicting the time or date of the Second Coming of Jesus. In the gospel today he says that not even he as a human being knows – only the Father alone knows. A bit like speculations in Ireland about the date of the next election. Only the Taoiseach [Prime Minister] knows that! These pictorial words today of Jesus’ Second Coming give us neither a map of eternity or a timetable for the future. But the one thing we must retain is that Jesus did foretell that he would come again.

As we wait for Jesus to come again, may we work to build not so much stone temples but communities of love, of service, of sharing, of forgiveness. Then it won’t really matter when Jesus comes again. He will find us ready since we are doing his work. May the Lord give us the Holy Spirit to help us to focus on priorities and build a better world for our children and grandchildren, not forgetting the environment.  Amen.

Edited from an original homily of Fr Jim Kirstein, SMA

11 November 2018

1 Kings 17:10-16
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12.38-44

Coming up to elections in the past it was often seen that those seeking to be elected attended lots of Masses on the Sundays leading up to the vote. In one rural parish a candidate went to 6 Masses over the weekend, with Holy Communion each time seeking to impress the voters that he was a holy man and deserved to be elected. Later it was discovered that he had had a number of mistresses but he wanted to show a public image that he thought would be acceptable.

In the gospel today the Scribes are concerned about their public image too. They wear long robes; want to be seen in the front seats of the synagogues, to have the places of honour at banquets, to make a show of lengthy prayers and to swallow the property of widows. Jesus is quite severe in criticising them because they are living a life of pretence, living a lie.

Are things any different today? Don’t we live in the world of image, the world of advertising where packaging very often is more important than what the package contains? Many politicians, film stars, rich and so called important people in public life; not forgetting some church leaders too, can be slaves to their public image. Wearing designer clothes only, wanting to be seen in public places, at big public gatherings in the company of famous people, undergoing cosmetic surgery may be examples. We may even try to impress our friends by our achievements, the house we live in, the car we have… Do you remember the amount of press coverage that Pope Francis received when he refused to use the Mercedes reserved for the Pope and instead got into an ordinary Ford car? And he still uses it! Are we totally free of this ‘image building’ ourselves? The Italians have a lovely phrase for it: the bella figura! Is there not a bit of the Scribe in us all? Jesus wants us to be free of this type of slavery.  That is why he tries to unmask it whenever he meets it.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once filmed in Calcutta among the very poor wearing an old cardigan and an old pair of sandals.  Two weeks later she was filmed on TV again, this time visiting the Queen of England at Buckingham Palace.  The Queen was obviously delighted to see her and greeted her warmly and they spent a long time chatting to each other. At one stage the TV cameras showed Mother Teresa wearing the same old cardigan and pair of sandals. She clearly had not put on a show to impress the Queen of England.  Her obvious goodness showed through and she was content to be herself without any packaging.

But Jesus doesn’t just criticise the Scribes for their public pretence; no, he wants to teach his disciples what is most important in the sight of God and so he draws their attention to a poor widow who put all she had to live on, two small coins into the Temple treasury. Her contribution had practically no value in itself but what Jesus remarked on was that it was all she had to live on. She gave her all to God quietly, without drawing any attention to herself. This was in total contrast to the Scribes parading themselves in public to impress others. A widow at the time of Jesus had no visible means of support. She couldn’t go out and get a job like now since that was not possible, so in giving her all she trusted God totally that somehow or other she would be taken care of. So she was a woman of great generosity and trust in God’s providence. In a sense Jesus is speaking about Himself.  He held nothing back from God, from us. He gave his all to God, for us. That is indeed Good News. It cost a lot for the widow to give all. It cost a lot for Jesus to give all. What does it cost us to give ourselves to God and others? We may not have much money to spare, but what of our time, our care and concern for others? Do we spend time with people whom we find boring, unattractive, people from whom there is no gain financially or emotionally?  

What set the widow’s offering apart was not just its proportion to her means; there was something in her character that lifted the gift out of routine into the realm of sacrifice. No gift of love is too small, and nothing escapes the notice of God from whom no secrets are hidden.

The readings today tell of two stories of generosity.  Both concern two very poor people: two widows. We wonder how someone who was as poor as the widow in the gospel was able to perform such an act of spontaneous goodness. One needs to have been faithful over many years to the practice of generosity to have had a heart like hers. It is not achieved by a few great deeds but by a lot of little ones.

To be confronted by the call of Jesus, whatever the plight of the world or the Church, is to discover that which needs to be done within our reach. Despair of the world or of the Church is a dishonourable escape route leading to nowhere. I would even suggest it is a lazy way to go. Jesus would have none of it. Like the widow he gave all that he had, one life among many. Yet behind and within his life lay the total love of God for each one of us. All the life, death and resurrection of Jesus show what can be achieved, not out of abundance, but out of the very little each may seem to have.

 “Lord Jesus, in the gospel today, you present us with a choice. To be a slave to what others think of us and all the games we may choose to play to gain their approval or to be like the poor widow, quietly giving of ourselves generously to God and to others in gratitude to a God who gave his all for us? Help us to choose your way by the power of the Spirit. Amen”.

Fr Jim Kirstein, SMA

Sunday 21 October 2018
Is 53:10-11
Heb 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45

In his Message for Mission Sunday 2018, Pope Francis tells us that Christian Families are Missionary Families. It is the theme he chose for this Mission Sunday.

We are all part of many different types of families:

– family that is the human race;
– the family of God;
– our diocesan and parish families;
– and each one of us is part of a particular family: with grandparents, parents, siblings,        nephews and nieces and so on.

This Mission Sunday we celebrate the work of thousands of people who serve God’s family in a particular way – our missionaries. Thousands of missionaries down the centuries have left this land to preach God’s message of love to the nations. Today we celebrate their faith and the faith of the communities all over the world who can trace their foundation back to the sacrifice of Irish missionaries who came to announce the Good News.

In today’s Gospel, the sons of Zebedeee ask Jesus to give them special places in heaven for their following him. But Jesus answers them by telling them that those who want to follow him should not seek reward but should want to serve. This is what we celebrate every Mission Sunday: the service our missionaries do on our behalf.

But each one of us here today as at Mass are also missionaries: we are missionaries because of our baptism as Christians. But of course the vast majority of Irish people cannot leave their homes and families and be missionaries in foreign lands. No! But we can be missionaries by our support for those who have gone on our behalf.

St Thérèse of Lisieux, Patroness of the Missions, never left France. She left her family to join a Convent and, aged 24, she died there. Yet she is the Patroness of the Missions. We can do the same. Offer our prayers to God for our missionaries and the people they serve all over the world.

But we can be missionaries in Ireland too! How we live our life at home can give us many opportunities to act in a missionary way. How? By prayer. By how we interact with other people. And how we care for God’s creation around us. More and more, we realise that how we live our life has an impact on others. Our wasting of food, overuse of plastics, wasting water etc. etc. – all these and many other things – are causing hunger and death in other lands, far from Ireland.

Ireland has more missionaries per capita than any other country in the world but things and times are changing rapidly. In a few short years we have seen the collapse of faith in a huge swathe of our population. Many people of faith have become disillusioned with the world of today and the role of the Church. But your faith has never failed. Like a ship on the ocean, it may have met squalls and storms but you have never abandoned the faith passed on to us by our ancestors who endured great sufferings in their time. Today, you are a light in a world of much darkness but it is always better to light a candle than to curse that darkness.

The work of preaching the Gospel continues; there are still people yet to hear the Good News. And our environment needs people of faith who realise that we are not an island; that what we say and do has its influence on others. Despite what we see around us – in the world, in the Church – the message of Jesus – to love and to serve – remains the only true way to peace in the world and prosperity for all humankind.

In Africa, Asia, parts of south America Masses are being celebrated by priests, in other places there is no priest so the Sunday Service of the Word is been led by Religious Sisters or local lay people, trained to give this service to their fellow parishioners. Please pray for all of them and the communities they serve. Please support today’s collection which will go to help the neediest parts of the missions.

Thank you for your support of the missions and particularly Irish missionaries down the years. They are your representatives in Africa and elsewhere. But today you can be a missionary in Ireland by your actions and prayers.

Thank you for all you have done, for what you are now doing and what you will do in the future so that God’s kingdom may come, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Martin Kavanagh SMA

14 October 2018

Wisdom 7:7-11
Hebrews 4:12 – 13
Mark 10:17 – 30

Once I was flying to Nigeria via London Heathrow. Next to me was a young man who told me that he was on his way to the USA. There he hoped to get a job. His ambition was to make lots of money and if possible to become wealthy. In that way he felt he would be very happy and could achieve whatever he wanted in life.

Many people today set great value on having or acquiring wealth. Bookshops are full of books on how to get rich quickly. Many people, many Catholics, buy lottery tickets in the hope of becoming rich. And provided I keep the commandments and I am a morally good person, what’s wrong with being rich?

The gospel today speaks to us about the danger of this attitude. A rich man comes up to Jesus, kneels at his feet and sincerely asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. He is full of enthusiasm and Jesus looks at him with kindness and with love. In answer to Jesus’ statement about keeping the commandments and he names some, the rich man says that he has kept them faithfully since his earliest days.  Maybe he expects Jesus to affirm and congratulate him for this. We admire the man. Are we are like him having done our best to keep the commandments too and tried to live morally good lives? Maybe we have attended retreats or belong to a prayer group. Perhaps we feel God has blessed us much.

Then Jesus gently challenges the young man. “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you have. Give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me”. The rich man went away sad for he had many possessions. Jesus has a way of looking at people. The eyes of Christ penetrate our hearts so that he sees what we lack. The second reading notes that ‘everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of God’. God knows what are the things that hold us back from giving ourselves fully and completely to God. God knows our resistances. The first commandment tells us that we must love the Lord our God with all our hearts and there are no exceptions to this. That is what is asked of anyone wanting to be a true disciple of Jesus.

The danger with the rich man was that he saw his keeping of the commandments and living a morally good life as an indication of his own personal achievement. Like many good Christians the young man wanted God on his terms. Jesus takes discipleship out of the area of personal achievement. Jesus is telling him and us that it is more than that. We cannot just have God on our terms. We must hear what God wants of us

Somehow one has the impression the emphasis was on himself and his own individual perfection. He kept the rules, he was free from sin. He loved God not unconditionally but on his own terms. He was truly shocked at the words of Jesus. His wealth meant more to him that his being perfect or gaining true life.

Jesus was also telling the rich man that his wealth was not something to be just owned but to be shared, most especially with the poor. True religion and discipleship of Jesus must involve concern and caring for others. The man’s religion seemed to be a private matter between him and God. Jesus tells him it is far more. We cannot love God unless we love our brother and sister in need.

Money, of course, is not the only thing which can keep us from God. I am not fully a disciple of Jesus – whether I am keeping the commandments or not – if there is any thing or person in my life that I am not prepared to let go of. The man was really being asked to let go of something to which he was deeply attached. In the case of many it may not be money or material goods. It may be a person, a wrong relationship, a lover, something I own, a place, my health, my reputation etc.

But letting go of all selfish attachments requires a decision. And decisions do not come easily.  We pray, we struggle, we weep, we go back and forth. We weigh things. To surrender to Jesus can be very difficult and at times seemingly impossible. But God is compassionate and knows our struggles.

The disciples with Jesus were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves: ‘who can be saved?’ Jesus looked on them and said ‘For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God’. Unless we are utterly dependent on God’s Spirit, we cannot surrender fully to Jesus.  Do we ask often for help with a heart that really needs it?

It is important though to realise that in asking us to let go of our possessions whatever they may be, Jesus is inviting us to a deeper peace and joy, to a quality of life which we all seek now.  By letting go we will find something far better and more rewarding takes it place. Jesus guarantees this.

“Lord Jesus, help us to be aware of the true nature of discipleship and give us the Spirit to surrender fully to you as you show us.  Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

7 October 2018

Genesis 2: 18-24 – Hebrews 2: 9-11 – Mark 10: 2-16

Once I worked in a certain African country. In a rather remote area we had a small chapel and about a hundred Catholics. Among them was a couple married for over 40 years. She was the only wife he had in spite of the tradition which allowed him more. It was an amazing fact that he didn’t take more than one wife because they were childless. There had been tremendous pressure on him over the years to divorce his wife or to take another wife. But he was adamant that he would never divorce his wife even though it would have been easy to do so. In our modern culture today this would have been accepted as rather normal. He always replied ‘I love her and I will always be faithful to her’. But it was almost unthinkable given the culture he lived in that he remained faithful to the one wife. Their childlessness was always the woman’s fault. Women had little standing and hardly any rights.

In the gospel today the Pharisees are out to trap Jesus on the question of divorce. The law handed down by Moses allowed it in certain cases. If Jesus declared otherwise he would have been seen as going against the Mosaic Law. Equally dangerous for Jesus was the fact that Herod had taken his brother Phillip’s wife Herodius so Jesus could be seen in some way of accusing Herod for this. We know that John the Baptist was beheaded for condemning Herod’s decision.

It is interesting to notice the way the question to Jesus was put. ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife’, not is it against the law for a woman to divorce here husband. Divorce was a very real issue for the Jews at the time of Jesus as indeed it is today in many Christian churches. For the Jews there were two schools of thought regarding divorce. One had a much stricter interpretation than the other. The rabbis from this school of thought would have said that adultery alone was the only reason for divorce. In the other school of thought the Rabbis were much more liberal and lenient saying that the man could divorce his wife for almost any reason even to the extent of saying he could divorce her if she burned his dinner or if he found another woman more attractive than his wife!

Jesus widens out the discussion recalling the creation story in Genesis, where it is said that man and woman are created equal by God and have complementary roles. Jesus says that women are not things. They do not belong to men as a bit of furniture or as a garment does. Marriage is the union of equal beings. This is the first account of creation in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. Today’s Genesis text comes from chapter 2 which can be misinterpreted to mean that as woman came from man, she is to be his helpmate and is therefore inferior to man. Both man and woman are made in God’s image and likeness.

Jesus tells us quite clearly that divorce is not part of God’s plan. God’s dream is that a man and woman who married are called to mirror the fidelity of God towards us. A married couple is asked to reflect the covenant love of God for his people, a God who never fails in this promise of fidelity to us. He will never abandon us. But God knows as Jesus knew that we do not live in an ideal world. We are not ideal people. It is very important to have ideals before us and to live by them. But being human and sinners we will fail despite our most noble intentions. We are dishonest if we think otherwise. Any couple married for a long time will say that it takes a lot of ‘I do’s’ for a man and woman to become husband and wife, it takes a lot of dying to self. We all know from experience that there will be a lot of mistakes and compromises called for. But God’s grace, his Spirit is always there to empower us if we call on it. Who doesn’t make mistakes from time to time? This is equally true of priesthood and religious life. It is a process and a lifetime’s work.

The Church must proclaim the ideal of fidelity in marriage. This is God’s dream for us but it can happen and does that two partners in marriage may be unable to sustain their relationship so that their marriage no longer functions. It has become impossible to live in peace with each other without destroying each other. Here again the Church has to echo the gospel. And this is the GOOD NEWS of today’s Gospel. It has to proclaim the message of God’s mercy, of his liberating forgiveness. Pope Francis constantly returns to this theme: God’s infinite mercy. Are we heeding either of them – God or Pope? The gospel gives every person a future. There is no human failure so great that it is completely hopeless and no longer open to God’s mercy. God is the God of the second chance and the third and so on. Do we not all know this from our experience? Is a relationship that does not work out the only exception? Not according to God.

“Lord Jesus, may we never condemn people whose marriages have ended in divorce. Let us remember our own failings and delight in the reality that you are a God of incredible forgiveness and understanding. Amen”            

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

30 September 2018

Numbers 11: 25-29
James 5: 1-6
Mark 9: 38-48

A certain man who had been brought up thinking that only the Catholic Church possessed the truth and was the only group used by God to witness to him. He was involved in a car accident in a foreign country where the great majority of people were not Christians. At the scene of the accident some Muslims and Animists took him to hospital in their own poor form of transport. It meant they had to leave their farm work. Furthermore some stayed with him the three days he was in the hospital, bringing him food and caring for him until they could contact his embassy which then arranged to get him back to his own country. For that man it was a great conversion experience. He realised that these people had never asked if he were Christian, Muslim or Animist, whether he was divorced or not, did he even go to church. He was entirely convinced that God worked through these uneducated and poor people in a way he would never have believed. Jesus sells his salvation very cheaply in the gospel today. He says that no one who gives a cup of water to another in his name, since we all belong to God, will lose his reward. How much more will the Lord reward those who cared for that man who had the accident even if not claiming to do it in the name of Jesus?

Is there not a temptation in every religion and even within religions to elitism and exclusivity? It is a very dangerous trend and one which we need to be aware of and understand. In today’s gospel John the beloved disciple clearly succumbs to this temptation. “We saw a man”, he complains, “who was not one of us casting our devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him”. Jesus told him that he should not stop such people. “No one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me.” And he gives a very important principle. ’Anyone who is not against us is for us’.

Jesus gives us many examples from his own life confirming this. He asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water when he sat down tired by the well. The Samaritans were the hated enemies of the Jews because they were seen as heretics and destined for damnation. It would have been unthinkable for a Jew to speak to a pagan Samaritan. Above all to a woman who was alone and therefore of doubtful reputation. But Jesus came to show us that God was the father of all of us and welcomes everyone irrespective of labels. Jesus showed this in many encounters with other so-called sinners – prostitutes, public sinners, people who didn’t attend the Sabbath synagogue worship etc.

The message of Jesus in the gospel and also in the first reading frees us from the feeling that we are the only ones representing him in this world. God is just not interested in labels: Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist etc. He is underlining the great truth that the essence of following Jesus is found in the way we live love. Very simple, but how very demanding. Labels are no guarantee of whether we allow God to work through us or not. Love alone counts. A simple Taize chant puts it this way: “Where there is love, there is God.” The basis of Jesus’ ministry was hospitality and welcome. He was not in the slightest prejudiced. What of us?

The real challenge of the gospel is whether we accept that the Spirit of God today works wherever he wishes and through whomsoever he wishes. It is necessary to remember that the truth is always bigger than anyone’s understanding of it. No one can possibly grasp all truth. We simply must be open to the Spirit’s working in our world. This call for tolerance is not a lazy acceptance of anything that goes. It does mean respecting the freedom of conscience of another as the documents of the Second Vatican Council tell us. But if groups put forward doctrines calculated to destroy morality and to remove the foundations from all civilized and Christian society then they are to be combated.

The call is for each one of us to be faithful to the call God gives us.

Jesus warns us to beware of leading others astray, especially the little ones. ‘Little ones’ here is not confined to children but those who may be weak in the faith, people struggling to respond to God and failing often or just simply those regarded as weak physically, spiritually or morally. Jesus is very harsh on those who might scandalise them. There are two ways of doing this. First, obviously scandalising others by bad example. Living in a way which really leads others to do the same or weaken their attempts to live good lives. Any group can do this, be they non-believers or believers including priests and religious. Secondly, we can be obstacles to others by making demands on them that even God wouldn’t make. Do we place too many obstacles in the way of people receiving Holy Communion? Is the role of women in the Church too limited? We can give scandal when we are over demanding and judgemental of those who still struggle to reach a lower level of commitment even if it is the best they can do. The effect is often to make such people lose heart and give up.

‘Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see the many ways you work through different peoples and religious groups. Wherever there is love and goodness surely your Spirit is at work. Amen’.            

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

23 September 2018

Wisdom 2:12, 17 – 20
James 3:16 – 4.3
Mark 9.30 – 37
 

When working in Philippines I  met a man who was introduced to me as Architect Chambo.  After that I met many different people. Some were called Engineer X or Accountant Y. Nearly all the others who were ordinary workers were introduced simply by their names without any title. In that country the title obviously meant a lot to most of these people. It would have given them a certain status. They certainly would have been seen as the important people in the society. Some would have expected preferential treatment. Sometimes they would call the unemployed to do menial jobs for them while paying them very little.

A lot of people tend to define and evaluate people in terms of the job they do. Hence, if they learn that a person is a doctor, their estimation of that person goes up. But in learning that a person is an ordinary worker their estimation stays earthbound. This is unfair and rather silly. There’s something more important than the job, namely the kind of human being behind the job.

The mistake that the apostles made was to put the job or position first. In their eyes the one who was greatest was the one who had the highest position. They obviously thought that Jesus would set up an earthly kingdom and so each wanted to get the top position in his kingdom.  But Jesus told them that that his kingdom was not about seeking honour and glory for oneself, but about serving others. In fact, he was very direct when he told them: ‘if anyone wants to be first, they must make themselves last of all and servant of all’. Jesus was really saying in the gospel that it’s not what I do but what I am that is important.  One’s self-worth should not depend on the work one does. It’s possible to possess an attitude of self-worth and accomplishment regardless of what one does for a living.

I remember hearing that in a certain office many years ago where there were 4 clerks and two typists, one of the typists asked the 4 clerks in turn to take a typewriter up to the next floor but each in turn refused saying it was a job for the office boy and not for them. They felt it was too menial a job for them. Obviously the felt that it would demean them in the sight of the others.

In the second reading we hear that wherever there is jealousy and ambition of the wrong kind there one finds disharmony and disunity and all kinds of harmful things being done. False ambition is very damaging to the unity of a community. It springs from jealousy and selfishness. And it can result in all kinds of ugly behaviour.

In the gospel today we heard of Jesus going through Galilee with his disciples instructing them. He was telling them that the Son of Man would be delivered into the hands of men; that they would put him to death and after three days he would rise again. But they did not want to hear that kind of talk. Their minds and ears were closed to it. Yet is not this a very human reaction? Are we much different ourselves? Very often we hear only what we want to hear. Which of us, indeed anyone, understands the mystery of suffering, of hurting, and dying? Especially when it involves the innocent. Even with our faith, even with the promise of rising from the dead, a rising which we believe has been fulfilled in Jesus it is good for us to be honest and say that many, perhaps most of us, still struggle why we have to suffer, especially some more than others. The writer C.S.Lewis wrote in his book The Problem of Pain “God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pain”.

Today’s gospel reading makes us wonder what on earth possessed Jesus to chooses the ones he did to become his disciples? Self-seeking calculation had them quarrelling about which of them was the greatest. They are truly small time glory seekers. The scene is not edifying. They were driven by selfishness and false ambition. Jesus did not abolish ambition. Rather he defined it. For the ambition to rule others he substituted the ambition to serve others. Where do we stand in all of this? What kind of ambition motivates us?

We are still amazed at the kind of fragile and flawed human beings that Jesus chose to be his disciples. Before the resurrection they were generally of weak quality.  Yet after the resurrection what an incredible change. They proclaim a most profound message and established a faith-community that has spread throughout the world down through the present day.  Does it not show what is possible for each one of us if we call upon the Holy Spirit to help us?

Today we see the various people that God still calls to do his work.  We don’t mean only priests and religious. What more precious task could be entrusted to a human being that bringing another into the world and introducing them to God? What of so many who look after ageing relatives, those who visit people in hospitals, prisons and those living alone who need help etc? Any humble loving service done for another is greatly appreciated and rewarded by God. It also allows us to do whatever we can to make the world a better place to live in.

“Lord Jesus, help us not to judge others by titles or by the money they earn etc. but to serve others in humble loving service as you did. When pain and suffering come our way, help us to trust that you will see us safely through the pains, sufferings and tragedies of life.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

16 September 2018

Isaiah 50: 4 – 9
James 2: 14 – 18
Mark 8: 27 – 35

In a certain town a young girl came rushing home to her family and almost out of breath with excitement said that the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the local church had blood flowing from the heart. Before long many others had heard of this and soon the church was so full of curious people that others could not get in. The Sunday Masses were filled to overflowing. Then they discovered that a leak from the roof had fallen on the red paint of the heart of the statue and caused what seemed to be blood to flow. Once this became known the church emptied almost as quickly as it has filled up. The following Sunday the church was only a quarter full for each Mass!

Today’s gospel is important because it highlights the fact of how many people expect God to act. It seems that they are more comfortable with a God of signs and miracles because, after all, God is God, isn’t this true? A God who nearly always comes to us in very ordinary ways and is present to us in the events and people of our daily lives isn’t too exciting. Yet that is the way God chooses to reveal himself to us nearly all the time if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Today’s gospel incident is the Central Point of Mark’s gospel. It is the acknowledgement that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.  However, the apostles like the rest of the Jews were expecting a political figure, an all-conquering Messiah who would rid the Jews of their oppressors.  But Jesus refused to bow to their expectations. Jesus reveals who God really is and what God is about, a gentle, non-violent, compassionate, suffering Messiah.   

Just before this episode Jesus had healed a blind person. Jesus now asks the very important question ‘Who do people say I am?  What have they been saying about me and how have you described me to them? What witness were you giving to them of me? In answer to Jesus’ question Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, replies ‘You are the Christ, that is the Messiah.  Peter obviously feels really good about his reply and delighted when Jesus praises him. But as soon as Jesus talks about suffering greatly, being rejected and put to death, even though Jesus adds he will rise again from the dead after three days, Peter refuses to accept this. So Jesus says to him: ‘Get behind me ‘Satan’, that is, ‘do not be an obstacle’ in my way, which is what the word ‘Satan’ means. Included in that remark by Jesus is his desire to forgive Peter. He knows that Peter can take up his position again and be a true follower of Jesus. Jesus rejects the stance of Peter, not the person.  He is saying that he still trusts Peter. At that time neither Peter nor the others could accept, let alone think that Jesus could suffer.

What is our image of God? Who is God, who is Jesus for me/us personally? We may prefer to have a God of bleeding statues or of extraordinary signs but Jesus is saying to us very clearly that this is not who God is. Jesus came first of all to reveal who God is and then to show us how to respond. Jesus as man learned this lesson the hard way. During his short public life people saw his miracles yet still rejected him.

He tells Peter very clearly that Jesus that God is a God of unconditional love for us and that all true love involves suffering, because love is more concerned with the other’s happiness than with one’s own. True discipleship is seen when we are faithful to God in times of suffering. Jesus led by example and his total love for each of us was shown by his terrible suffering and death on the cross. People got rid of Jesus. His demands to love were too much.

Who is Jesus for me personally? No matter what we like to think, Jesus reveals God as God is.  So he is challenging us to go deep to the roots of our faith by making this faith truly personal. Jesus reveals to us that if we are to accept him as our Lord, we must accept his way of suffering, whenever it comes in our life.  Following him involves commitment and determination. Not easy.

So when I see a woman pushing around her husband in a wheel chair because he is paralysed and she is faithful to him now in this difficult time of his life or see a man taking care of his wife who has Alzheimer’s disease or a family accepting and loving their son as he is dying of AIDs etc. etc.  am I not seeing Jesus the Christ still in action in our world? Is not this what discipleship truly means and reveals to others who God is too whether they see and accept it or not. God is always with us to strengthen us and give us courage during these difficult times. 

‘Lord, help us not to be seeking a God of the extraordinary but help us see you revealing yourself to us still in the goodness, the suffering of others in daily life situations. Where there is love, surely you are there. Amen.’

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

9 September 2018

Isaiah 35:4-7
James 2:1-5
Mark 7:31-37

One time I was watching a football match on television. On either side of me were two priest friends, both of whom were smoking. During the match I was most uncomfortable breathing in all their smoke. Both of them had been advised to give up or at least reduce their smoking habit. But they didn’t. Some time later the younger of the two, aged about 50, got a slight heart attack. The doctor who treated him offered him a choice, to give up smoking or die within 6 months. That shocked him and he immediately did what he thought he could never have done. He stopped smoking. At that moment the doctor’s warning opened his ears to hear in a way he didn’t hear before. Sad to say the other priest didn’t pay any attention to what his friend decided to do and he died not too long afterwards of a massive heart attack. By the way this is not an anti-smoking campaign on my part. Though those with ears to hear – listen.

In the gospel today Jesus meets a man who is deaf and also has an impediment in his speech. It is his friends who bring him to Jesus. We note the sensitivity of Jesus. He takes the man apart in order to cure him. We see the gentleness of Jesus in dealing with the man in a very personal and caring way. He doesn’t want to embarrass him or treat him as a case. He treats him as another human being in need of respect and gentleness because of his situation.

But more than a physical healing Jesus allows him to go back into society freed to participate in all social and religious activities. The fact is that at the time of Jesus deafness and the inability to speak were seen as punishments from God. So in healing him Jesus gives him back his religious and social rights and so the man ceases to be marginalised.

In the text neither the man nor his friends get a name suggesting that the man stands for all of us who need to have our ears opened by God to hear what keeps us enslaved so as free us from things that harm us. As a community open to and really hearing the word of God we must show solidarity with those who suffer physically and socially. Today an obvious situation would be how we treat immigrants, asylum seekers, people with various diseases. Very often they are rejected. The gospel text then is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah which says that ‘the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped’

In the gospel text we see too that Jesus has crossed the borders from the land of the Jews into what is known as pagan territory to bring the Good News to non-Jews, saying that God wishes to heal and care for all peoples irrespective of religious or other labels. This is an invitation to us to cross the borders to those who do not belong to us socially or religiously, like immigrants, refugees or people of other faiths [e.g. Islam] or indeed those who do not believe at all.

Jesus has gone back to his heavenly Father and he leaves the work of opening the ears of the blind and opening the tongues of the deaf to us. He is not asking us for success stories but rather he asks how we help others to hear by our compassionate listening, by our respectful attitudes. How do we speak to others? Is our manner of speech if in a courteous way not an invitation to others who may be aggressive and angry etc to learn a different way of speaking and addressing others?

Finally Jesus said to the deaf man who had also a speech impediment ‘ Ephphatha’ that is ‘Be opened’.

Is he not addressing the same words to us? An invitation also to us.

‘Be opened’ – to the goodness of other people, the innocence of babies, the gentleness of the old, the beauties of creation, the knowing smile or people in love, the so many gifts we receive from God daily.

‘Be opened’ to the unspoken cry for friendship of another, to the call of a lonely person living nearby, the call to share what is surplus to me and no longer needed instead of leaving them in my cupboard when I may never use them again.

Can I practicalise the ‘Be opened’ invitation of Jesus?

We all know that we ourselves and others will be the better for it.

For sure the deaf man with the impediment stands for each of us, woman and man. God speaks to us daily through others in so many ways. Do we hear what he is saying and are our lips continually free from negative comments and other impediments so as to use them to praise and thank God continuously and to encourage others who are down and to try to be positive in our words towards all?

“Lord Jesus, you alone can open the ears of our hearts and free the tongues of our spirits to glorify and praise you by being sensitive as Jesus was to those needing our kindness in whatever form you reveal this to us. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

12^th August, 2015

1 Kings 19.4-8
Ephesians 4.30 – 5.2
John 6.41-51

After the fall of communism in Romania it was found that there were a number of orphanages in which handicapped children were living in atrocious conditions. It was clear that they had been given the minimum of food to keep them alive but no loving care. When these orphanages were taken over by UN sponsored agencies and the children treated lovingly and with dignity it was amazing how quickly they developed. Obviously loving concern was their greatest need apart from better food.

So where do we get the nourishment we need for a happy life? Many people in our world still have a great deal of money and some are certainly not happy, though we all agree money is very necessary for living. Today’s advertising world is trying to convince us that if we have different commodities, like a lovely house, a new car, nice clothes etc we will be happy. Sad to say this is no guarantee of a deep peace. Why is it that some with all these turn to drugs, sex, drink etc? What do they find lacking? Maybe they think that in these they will find lasting nourishment for their lives? We know that if addictions take hold how terribly sad it is.

In the gospel today Jesus is offering himself to us as the bread of life, the true nourishment that will nourish us on all levels of our being.  Is that true for you and me?  A well-known writer once said that Christianity had failed. Another replied that Christianity had not failed but it had not been fully tried. I believe this is true. Many try to follow Jesus, not because the Church says so or God might punish them if they don’t. No, they try to follow Jesus and accept his ways and values because he asks them to but also because it has given them a deep peace and joy. Twice in John’s gospel he reminds us that in him alone, that is by having his value system, will we have the deep peace and the joy we all yearn for. But it isn’t easy to follow Jesus closely. Others will say ‘why not enjoy life etc?  But how?

The Jews in the gospel today complain about Jesus when he says that he is the ‘living bread that comes down from heaven’. I think I can understand their problem. They know the family of Jesus and his background so it is quite a claim on the part of Jesus. But he asks them to let go of prejudices and rational questioning alone. He simply says. “Look at my lifestyle, what I have done, the miracles, a great welcome for and forgiveness of sinners etc. Do these speak to you of someone who works for God or not?”

Maybe you and I are like that sometimes. We have questions about Jesus and who he is. Also like Elijah in the first reading we may find at times that life is very difficult and feel like throwing in the towel. There is nothing wrong with that. Didn’t Jesus himself in the Garden of Gethsemane reach a very low point too?  But with God’s help he got through it. So will we.

God doesn’t ask us to understand totally how he can be the Son of God, who has come down from heaven. He asks us to believe, to accept. This is also why we accept Jesus as Saviour.  Simply stated, it is a call to believe, to have faith in Jesus. Jesus says in the gospel: ‘Everybody who believes has eternal life’. Do we pray for a living faith in the living Lord Jesus? It is a grace from God, as Jesus tells us that no one can come to him unless he is drawn by the Father who sent him’. If we ask for this from God he cannot refuse us.

Jesus says ‘I am the living bread that comes down from heaven’. The one sent by God is a human being who belongs to our history, our world. Maybe the unbelief of the Jewish leaders is still amongst us. Do we prefer to believe in a God who belongs to another world only? So if you are blessed to be in a good relationship, with good emotional support, live in a happy relationship in a family, in a religious community or with others, there is the living bread coming down from heaven to us still. Let us not confine God to Holy Communion at Sunday Mass. Since the Resurrection, Jesus is out and about in so many different ways. May he give us, through his Holy Spirit, the eyes to see this in our daily lives. And remember that since communion in the body of Jesus makes us brothers and sisters of everyone; we have to create a community of equals among ourselves, forgiving each other, loving and serving each other. In so doing we are giving life to one another. St. Paul in the second reading advises us how to behave.

The Eucharist is a whole way of life. No matter how often we receive Holy Communion, unless we listen to the Word of God and allow our lives to be transformed, going to Mass does not lead to the transformation of our lives as it should.

Whilst the connection between right living, acting justly and being a Christian is a central teaching of Christian life, perhaps this bond is not preached about as much as it might. But are we aware of the greatness of the gift of the Eucharist? Assenting to receive Holy Communion is to agree to open oneself to knowledge of the truth. Our participation in the Eucharist should form and inform our life’s actions. Christ’s words, ‘Do this in memory of me’ is an invitation to live as Christ lived, to love as Christ loved, to live according to different value systems than those of the capitalist competitive environment. The Eucharistic celebration is part of our schooling in Christian living, not an obligation to be fulfilled.  

Today’s Good News is that Jesus came to nourish us on all levels of life and he still comes down to us from heaven, not just at Sunday Mass, but through the people and experiences of our daily life.

“Lord Jesus, may each one of us who claims to be a disciple of yours show to others that you still come to us through our love, concern, compassion, forgiveness and service of all people we meet.  Give us your powerful Holy Spirit to help us to do this. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

5 August 2018

Exodus 16.2-4, 12-15
Ephesians 4.17, 20-24
John 16.24-35

A young man upset his parents when he left his well-paid, secure job to take up a less well-paid job with no guarantee of permanency. Especially in a time of recession, they thought he was very foolish. He explained that the secure job was very boring and he would never get any job satisfaction from it. He was prepared to risk and told them that the work he was now doing was very meaningful and fulfilling.

The gospel today makes it clear that the Son of Man did not come down from heaven merely to satisfy physical hunger. The manna was but a foreshadowing of the spiritual food which was now being offered to his followers by Jesus.

The people had seen Jesus’ miracles of the loaves and fishes and when they didn’t find him after he left they went across the lake to search for him and when they found him they asked him, ‘when did you come here?’ Jesus replied ‘ I tell you that you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat’. In other words Jesus was really saying that his invitation to them was not to get their needs met first of all, but that they should seek first and foremost to do the will of the Father. And he goes on to say that working for God, doing his will, is to believe in the one he has sent, namely Jesus.

Like the young man in the story, in the gospel Jesus is asking the people to risk too. Faith is a risk, an adventure with God. When Jesus invites them to do the works of God their reply is ‘what must we do if we are to do the works of God?’ They seem to be open to what he asks of them. So he replies: ‘This is working for God, you must believe in the one he has sent’, that is, Jesus. In the gospel of John the word ’faith’ or ‘belief’ is mentioned 98 times and never in the sense of just an intellectual assent to the person of Jesus.  It means much more. It is a call to follow Jesus closely, to take on his value system, to commit ourselves to whatever he reveals to us in life. This involves quite a risk as the young man in the story experienced about the choice facing him. We must never forget that when we talk about doing the works of God, what counts is not so much the works we do for God, our observances but more importantly the works that we allow God to do in and for us by our faith in him.

The people following Jesus wanted their physical hunger satisfied. But it is not only the body that gets hungry; the heart and the spirit get hungry too. The bread of material things can never satisfy the heart of a human being. To nourish a human being is not the same as to fatten cattle. We humans hunger for a lot of things besides bread.

Not all of our hungers should be satisfied.  Some of our appetites will destroy us if we feed them. The more they are fed, the hungrier and more demanding they become. We need to be aware that such appetites exist in all of us. We have all seen what certain appetites have done to people: drug addicts, property developers, alcoholics, gamblers, smokers etc.

So let us stay with the hungers that should be satisfied if we are to be properly nourished as human beings and children of God:

We hunger for acceptance. Who wishes to be a nobody or totally alone?

We hunger for relationships since we are not created to be alone as scripture says ‘it is not good for the human person to be alone’

We hunger for faith, for a true set of positive beliefs to guide us.

We hunger for hope. To give up hope is like going on a spiritual hunger strike.

We hunger for love. If this were fully satisfied then most of our other hungers would disappear.

However there is one other hunger, a deeper one that underlies all our other hungers, including that of love: it is the hunger for eternal life, in other words the hunger for God.  To experience this hunger is not a misfortune but a blessing. In each of us there is a desire for something more than we are or have. We never feel satisfied. As Christians we believe that only God can fully satisfy our deepest needs.

Every day we see people emerging from the supermarkets, some with trolleys loaded down with food and drink and other things. But we won’t find the bread from God in supermarkets. Only God can give us this food.

The Good News is that Jesus, the Bread of Life, the Bread that fully satisfies is available at every Eucharist free, and our compassionate loving God delights in making it available. What a marvellous gift that nourishes us on our journey through life as the manna did the Israelites except for the great difference that the Bread of the Eucharist is Jesus himself. 

‘Lord Jesus, thank you for being the Bread of Life which alone can nourish us for our journey through life and which satisfies our deepest hungers. May we too be bread for others who do not participate in the Eucharist. Amen.’

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

29 July 2018

2 Kings 4.42-44
Ephesians 4.1-6
John 6.1-15

In the readings today we see God’s concern for the hungry. In the first reading we heard how a man brought Elisha, the man of God, 20 barley loaves and fresh grain in the ear. They were meant to be offered as first fruits of the harvest to God (Yahweh), but instead Elisha said they should be given to those who were with him so they could eat at a time of great need. As with Elisha, Jesus gives more than can be eaten to those following him.

In the gospel Jesus, moved by compassion when he saw the crowds, was concerned that they should have food to eat since they had followed him for some time and would be hungry. So he decides to do something about it.

When Jesus met hungry people he gave them the only thing that mattered most at that moment: food, and did so with great generosity – all ate as much as they wanted, and there were still 12 large baskets of scraps left over. Jesus, who is God, is always very generous with his gifts. Remember the great amount of wine that he provided at the wedding feast of Cana? Are we generous in our dealings with others in sharing what we can with them?

The miracle of the loaves is a miracle of great generosity. We experience this generosity every time we sit down to eat and especially when we receive the Eucharist. The experience of generosity should enlarge our hearts, and a desire to be generous towards those who are not as fortunate as ourselves.

Jesus, we are told, took the five loaves and gave thanks. So should we when we eat. In a world in which millions are hungry, or do we take our food for granted? In his recent Encyclical, Laudato si’ (On the care of our common home), Pope Francis urges us to ‘return’ to the practice of giving “thanks to God before and after meals… That moment of blessing, however brief, reminds us of our dependence on God for life…” [paragraph 227]

This would not have been the first time that the people followed Jesus so they probably knew from past experiences that if they had followed him for some time they might be hungry and some at least would have brought food with them. Don’t we know that in the world we live in we have more than enough food to feed everyone but often those with a great amount will not share with those who have not, for various reasons, like keeping up the price of commodities on the world markets and forcing the poorer countries to sell their products cheaply etc. 

Maybe their hearts are closed. What Jesus is telling us is that those who have plenty and more than enough must share with those in need. Perhaps it is a question of awareness and a real desire to share. This maybe is a greater miracle than multiplying food miraculously.

It is interesting to note, that the food offered to Jesus, five barley loaves and two fishes was the food of the poor. The poor ate barley loaves whilst those better off would have eaten wheaten loaves. From my experience at least, I know that the poor generally, even though they have little, are the very ones who share more easily.  When I was young we would go carol singing at Christmastime and we found that as a general rule the poor gave most.

So whilst Philip saw the difficulties in providing food, as did the servant of Elisha, Jesus sees the possibilities and the opportunities that the occasion offered.

Obviously the scene reminds us of the Eucharist when the disciples of Jesus come together to adore, praise and worship God and to receive the nourishment we need to live our daily lives as followers of Jesus. When we go out from the Eucharist we are called upon to live a Eucharistic lifestyle. We are asked to put into practice daily what we have experienced at the Eucharist: forgiveness, unity, communion, sharing the Body and Blood of Jesus, his sacrifice of love for us

There is a direct connection between attending the Mass [Eucharist] and living a Eucharistic lifestyle. Can we call ourselves Christians if we do not do this? St. Paul in the second reading spells out some of the things we must do if we are a Eucharistic people especially the unity in our relationship with others.

The Good News today is that Jesus is concerned to feed people who are in need and whilst he did sometimes work miracles he has called on others to help out in whatever way possible.

St. John in his gospel never uses the word ‘miracle’. He uses the word ’sign’ for what the Matthew, Mark and Luke call miracles. Wherever good, love, forgiveness, sharing are practised these are equally signs of God’s concern for others. They don’t have to be extraordinary signs.

Besides, many people who are not in need of food to feed their physical hunger may need the food of friendship, concern, encouragement, forgiveness, love etc. Each of us is called upon to respond to these. Would be we happy with how we are responding these days?

“Lord Jesus give us the sensitivity to be aware of the needs of others on whatever level and to do whatever we can so that they will see the signs of your love in their daily lives. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

22 July 2018

Jeremiah 23.1- 6
Ephesians 2.13-18
Mark 6.30-34

If I were to name a saint I would certainly name a certain woman in our neighbourhood when I was growing up.  She had a young son who had Parkinson’s disease and although at first it wasn’t serious, over the years it became progressively so. By his early teenage years he was almost totally incapacitated.  At that stage it was thought he wouldn’t live beyond 20.  Amazingly he lived until he was almost 40 and for the last 20 years of her life this woman was a slave of love. She couldn’t even leave the house because of his needs.  She was totally given over to the care of her son and, in fact, died some years before him, worn out from exhaustion.

Unselfishness is never easy. Some times it is easier than at others. Isn’t it easier when we plan our own deeds, when these are of our own choosing, when we happen to be in good mood and it causes a minimum of inconvenience and disruption? At other times unselfishness is particularly difficult: when the deed is not of our own choosing, when we don’t feel in the mood and it is sprung on us at awkward moments. In such cases we have to forget ourselves and set aside our own feelings and plans. A real sacrifice is involved.  Isn’t it a great test of a person when, at the drop of a hat, they put aside their own plans to help another person?

It’s a consolation for us to know that Jesus too had to cope with interruptions. He too had his plans upset.  Today’s gospel tell us that his disciples were in such demand when he sent them out to preach and heal that they had scarcely time to eat. They had seen this in the case of Jesus himself when he and the disciples could not even have a meal. So his relatives set out to take charge of him because they were convinced he was out of his mind.

In today’s gospel Jesus decides to take the apostles apart to a quiet place for a break. This time he wasn’t thinking of himself but of his apostles. They had just come back from the mission he sent them on. He saw that they needed rest.  He took them to a quiet place apart. He knew that the carers too needed to be cared for. 

However, things did not turn out as planned. The people followed him. How did Jesus react? Far from getting annoyed he welcomed the people. Doesn’t this tell us a lot about the kind of person he was? He was moved with pity for them. 

Several times in the gospels we read of Jesus taking pity on others. Another word summing up the life of Jesus could be compassion. The word compassion comes from two Greek words ‘passio’ meaning to ‘suffer’ and ‘cum’ meaning ‘with’.  Thus, compassion signifies suffering with another.  It means being involved in their suffering, supporting them and doing whatever one can to alleviate or lighten the suffering. In the Old Testament when God describes who he is to Moses he declares himself to be ‘God, God, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in fidelity’.  Our God then is not a distant God who notices our struggles and sufferings from afar. Rather he came and dwelt amongst us to share at close quarters all that we experience, especially our sufferings and struggles. Don’t we all appreciate people who show compassion to us in our own time of suffering?

The three readings today speak of God’s compassion. In the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, God speaks out against the people he sent as shepherds to guide and care for his people. But many of them failed, being more interested in their own well-being and a good lifestyle at the expense of those to whom they were sent. So the compassionate God promises that he himself will look after the sheep, his people, who have been dispersed. Furthermore, in the days to come, he will he raise up someone who will be a true shepherd for Israel. He is obviously talking about Jesus. In the second reading from Ephesians, Paul tells us that God, through Jesus, will gather into one those who have been ‘far off’, that is the Gentiles who were regarded as not belonging to God’s people, and the Jews who ‘were near’, that is God’s people.  Before the coming of Jesus, it was unthinkable for the Jews that the Gentiles were God’s beloved children too and so part of the family of God. It is the compassion of God which will do all this.

Those of you parents with sick children or ageing parents will know this too. How often when the children were growing up and got sick at night or at others times did you not spend sleepless nights looking after them?  Is this not compassion on your part.  Or maybe welcoming relatives who visited you unexpectedly and you were about to go out on some errand or other?

It is very important to remember that when giving us the great commandment to love God, our neighbour as ourselves he actually made a commandment of loving ourselves too.  It is not a choice.  He knew that if we do not we will not be able to care for others when necessary.

Is this one of our strongest images of Jesus, of God? A God full of tenderness and compassion? I hope it is. We will keep the commandments because we are saved by God’s compassion and grace and not in order to earn salvation. That is indeed Good News. Of course, it means that we too are expected to show tenderness and compassion to others in our turn.

‘Lord Jesus, thank you for revealing to us that you are a God of total compassion.  Help us to be compassionate to others also, relying on the gift of the Holy Spirit to do so. Amen’.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

15 July 2018

Amos 7.12-15
Ephesians 1.3-14
Mark 6.7-13

Some years ago I was visiting some friends when someone knocked at their door. The wife said ‘it is the Mormons’ and asked me to go out to them. After a brief discussion once they realised that I was a priest and not interested in converting to their church known officially as The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints [LDS] they left.

Missionary work is one of the key aspects of the LDS Church. Young men and women range in age from nineteen for men and twenty-one for women. They have more than 50,000 missionaries serving at all over the world. Today, every young man/woman that are both morally and physically capable of missionary work are expected to participate in a mission. LDS missionary work is performed in pairs. Just like in the gospel today when Jesus Christ sent out the 12 in pairs.

In the Catholic Church also people are invited to respond to the call, to be sent out on mission.  Not only priests and religious but lay people too. Being sent on mission for Christians is always the initiative of God. It is he who calls and empowers us, though the Holy Spirit, to be effective advertisers or witnesses to him. It doesn’t depend on us, the mission is God’s but he uses us.

In the first reading today Amos who is a poor, unlettered, unsophisticated shepherd receives the call from God to leave the southern kingdom where he worked and go to the northern kingdom to denounce the social injustices and other offences committed by the wealthy against God’s covenant. He is told to go back to his birthplace by the high priest Amaziah. Who does Amos think he is, an uneducated man trying to address the rich, educated people? Amos’ reply is quite simple. He is called and sent by Yahweh. That is his only justification for doing what Yahweh asks of him. He intends to be faithful to this.

The gospel is also about those who are called by Jesus and sent out by him to witness to his message. This passage comes immediately after the verses when Jesus was rejected by his own townspeople of Nazareth. He doesn’t get discouraged but sends the Twelve elsewhere.

Like Amos, the Twelve are conscious of being chosen by Jesus. They don’t go on their own initiative-they are sent by Jesus. It is always a response to a commission from God. Jesus doesn’t keep the action of spreading the Good News to himself, but summons the Twelve and shares with them his authority, sending them out in pairs. Two was the minimum number of witnesses required for valid testimony according to Jewish law, suggesting that the disciples did not preach and do mighty deeds for their own self-promotion, but only as witnesses to Jesus and his authority. They are the first of many to be sent.

The missionaries or witnesses of the Word are sent out in poverty. They are to rely on God by being told to travel light, to take only the minimum for their essential needs. The mission has to be carried out in simplicity and poverty. We must be careful not to take these words too literally.  If we do it would mean that modern day missionaries and in fact those of us who are Christians and so missionaries too would be living with the absolute minimum. So what does Jesus mean?  What matters is the meaning of the instruction, not the letter. Jesus means that nothing must disturb the proclamation of the kingdom. It means relying on God’s power and grace

Because of our baptism we are all missionaries. And so this text applies to us. A good question to ask might be: is there anything in my life that prevents me from giving time to God or witnessing to him in my daily activities? For example, I could be so involved with my work, my computer or video games that I don’t have time to pray or even go to Church on Sunday. These could take up the time I might need to visit a sick relative or a needy person. Where do we spend our time or our money? The focus of our time or money will tell us what our God is and what is important in our life.

Mission is aimed at the total person; in the gospel Jesus sends out his disciples not only with the call to repent, to convert people but to heal them from sickness and all powers of evil. The human person is to be saved in the concrete realities of his/her existence. Those of us who are Christians and therefore disciples of Jesus are given the same mandate as the Twelve of today’s gospel. We can cure others by our love, encouragement, affirmation, forgiveness, acceptance of their failures etc. We can cast out devils of fear, anxiety, worry, guilt by the way we are there for them when they need us. Welcome and hospitality have great healing powers. We may find it hard to accept this and it will seem impossible if we think the power comes from us. But if we are more conscious of being chosen and sent by God as was Amos and the Twelve we can claim the power of God to fulfill the calling he gives us.

At the end of the Mass we are sent out to share with others the gifts we have received from the Lord. Here the Lord forgives our sins, speaks his word to us, and nourishes us with the food of the Eucharist.

Glory be to him whose power at work in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA 

8 July 2018 

Ezekiel 2.2-5
2 Cor 12.7-10
Mark 6.1-6

Some time ago I visited an elderly woman named Joan whom I hadn’t seen for some time. I asked her how she was and she spoke about her health which wasn’t great. When I asked her about her family she told that one of her daughters has stopped speaking with her and wouldn’t even allow her own children to visit their grandmother. Joan said what was most painful was that she couldn’t recall a single reason for this rejection by her daughter. It happened suddenly. Recently she heard that one of her daughter’s sons was getting married and whilst all the other family members and relatives were invited to the wedding, Joan was not. She said she felt even more terribly rejected.

Isn’t it hurtful to be rejected by anyone? But it is particularly hurtful to be rejected by one’s own people. Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. He greatly desired to help his townspeople but he was unable to do so. You can’t help people against their will.  He was saddened but not angered. Rejection can easily turn into anger and even bitterness.

Probably all of us have experienced a little of this. We have wanted to help someone but our help was refused. We feel frustrated and helpless. When we meet with rejection we may be tempted to say: ’that’s it. I’m finished’. We may decide not to help or care any more. It’s too painful.

Jesus didn’t react like this. He didn’t become embittered. He did what little he could in Nazareth – he cured some sick people. Then we are told that he was amazed at their lack of faith. So he decided to take his light and his gifts elsewhere.

After the three miracles Jesus worked before this gospel passage we now find him teaching in the synagogue and all there are astonished when they heard him. One would imagine then that it would have been the most obvious thing in the world for them to accept him as someone special sent by God. But the opposite was true. They refused to accept him just as they refused to listen to the prophet Ezekiel as we read in the first reading. In the Bible a prophet is someone who speaks in God’s name. Rarely does it mean someone who foretells the future.

Why would they have been so prejudiced against Jesus? One reason was that he was too human. They knew his mother Mary and relatives. We must be careful to understand what is meant by the fact that they knew the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Our European understanding of brother and sister is not the same as it was in the Holy Land, in the time of Jesus. In Africa a ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ can mean not just someone with the same father and mother but could equally mean a cousin, other relative or even someone from the same village or tribe.

For the Jews of his own town their main question was ‘how?’ How could he be from God?  Jesus would have been too human, too weak for them. They were expecting a Messiah who would destroy the Roman colonial power. They hoped for someone more powerful or political.

Another reason could well have been that they did not believe that one of their own could reveal the demands of God’s love. Their image of God, like ours for so many years, was of a God who punished bad people and rewarded good. But Jesus revealed a totally loving, compassionate, forgiving God which was very different. Going to the synagogue or to church on Sundays makes demands on us but nothing like what God expects of us after we leave the church after Mass.

Religion is what we do after the sermon is over. They felt they knew him, therefore he could not tell them anything new.

Jesus, like Ezekiel, runs into the resistance of those who refuse to hear the word of God which invites them to leave their old security and change their ways. They felt secure in their image of God and the religious beliefs they were used to. This can be equally true for us.  If any of us wants to take Jesus seriously then we will be challenged to let go of all that is not life-giving in our lives, of our false securities. He will invite us to repent of any unforgiving attitude in our hearts, any unjust business dealings, any relationships or behaviour which are contrary to the calling we have from God.

There are two themes in the readings today: rejection [Jesus and Ezekiel are both rejected] and the prophetic role of the Church.

All Christians are called to be prophets, to bear witness to Christ and his teaching through their entire lives. It is a high calling for all of us and not at all easy. Sadly in recent times there have been many scandals in the Church. In more recent times it is even worse with new scandals appearing. Like Ezekiel, Paul and Jesus will we have the courage to keep on witnessing to Jesus when people may even display contempt or outright rejection of us as Christians? People have used these scandals to leave the Church. Let us respect their decision. But for those of us who stay on, let us not focus only on the sinful aspects. Let us, as St. Paul says in the second reading, allow the grace and power of God to use our weakness as a Church to purify us all.

“Lord may we allow you to use your grace and power to work through our human weakness. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

1 July 2018

Wisdom 1.13-15, 2.23-24
2 Cor 8.7-9,13-15
Mark 5.21-34

One day a young man decided to visit his old aunt who he hadn’t visited for a number of years. He spent some hours with her and listened to her as she told him many things about her life. Since she had very few visitors she was delighted with the visit of her nephew especially after such a long time. As he left and promised to visit again fairly soon, she said: ‘I have been really touched by your kindness and your visit to me when I am sure you had many other younger friends to be with’.

In the gospel today we hear about a woman who suffered physically for 12 years and she was determined to get close to Jesus in order to touch even his clothes, as she believed she would be healed. Can you imagine her determination as she had to push her way through all the others in the crowd also seeking to get close to Jesus? But her need was so great that she succeeded. Perhaps it shows to us the importance of touch in our lives, not only physically but on other levels as well. In our opening story the aunt was touched emotionally by the visit of her nephew. People who are bereaved can be very touched by the concern, sympathy and love of those who support them in their time of grief. St. Paul would say that the life and death of others have an influence on us. Of course our lives can be touched for the worse too if people do bad things to us. And being touched emotionally, psychologically or physically may affect us powerfully for good or for worse.

How then do we allow others to touch or affect our lives? Can others say that their lives have been influenced for the better by our ways of touching them? The Good News is that Jesus came to touch our lives for the better. There are so many instances in the gospels when he touched the lives of others powerfully – the woman taken in adultery whose life was saved by him being there for her when she could have been stoned to death Then there was the man regarded as a great sinner, Zaccheus, whom Jesus went to visit and eat with, thereby shocking the Pharisees and religious leaders of his day

We recall all those he healed and welcomed, those too whom he challenged to grow in their relationships with God ad others like the rich young man who failed to respond to his invitation. Our God is a God who wishes to touch our lives for the better all the time. He is not a God who is out to punish us or condemn us if we fail to respond. Who apart from Mary our Mother has never sinned. I trust in the mercy of a God who continually touches my life inviting me to grow, to seek life and not death.

In the gospel the woman touched only the clothes of Jesus and was healed. How much more those of us who receive Holy Communion or make a spiritual communion with Jesus in prayer. Also those who celebrate the sacraments as encounters with the Risen Jesus allow themselves to be touched by Jesus powerfully. When my father was dying the nurse suggested that my father see the chaplain and receive the sacrament of the sick. He agreed. Later he told me that as soon as the priest anointed him with the Oil of the Sick he felt that he had been healed just like the woman in the gospel today. But Jesus does say to the woman in today’s reading. ‘Your faith has restored you to health. Go in peace and be free from your complaint’.

Finally we can see the sensitivity of Jesus. Here is all this crowd pushing around him, pushing him too and trying to touch him and in spite of all he is aware of the physical touch of the woman seeking healing and is obviously himself touched by her faith in him.

It seems then it is up to us to. Do we invite Jesus to touch our lives in the areas where we are unfree, where we need healing? Do we allow God to touch us through others? Do we allow God to touch others through us?

At communion time in the Eucharist, we pray ‘Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed’ Do I really pray that the Lord would heal me, touch me? Do I have an area of my life in mind – physical, emotional, relational? And do I give the Lord the freedom to heal me, to touch me as and when and how he knows best? Or is a routine prayer for me?

‘Lord Jesus, we praise you for all the many ways in which you touch and heal our lives mostly through others and the events of our lives. Help us to be more aware of these so as to realise how much you are at work in our lives, only seeking what is best for us and enabling us to have a deeper joy and peace. Open our hearts and minds to receive all the many ways you want to heal and touch us and others Amen.’                            

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

27 May 2018

St Augustine of Hippo was a great philosopher and theologian who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. But he found this very difficult to do. One day as he was walking along the seashore and reflecting on this, he suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine went up to her and said, “Little child, what are doing?” and she replied, “I am trying to empty the sea into this hole.” “How do you think,” Augustine asked her, “that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?” To which she replied, “And you, how do you suppose that with that small head of yours you can understand the immensity of God?” With that the child disappeared.

Like St.Augustine we would probably like to understand more about the mystery of the Holy Trinity. But like St.Augustine we may not be able to understand the how of the Trinity that is, how can there be three Persons in the one God and so on. But it is very important that we understand the why. So why did God, The Blessed Trinity reveal itself to us as Trinity?

Experts in religion tell us that people always try to be like the God they worship. People who worship a warrior God tend to be warriors, those who worship a God of pleasure tend to be pleasure-seeking, people who worship a God of wrath tend to be angry people, etc. So the more important question for us to ask today is: What does the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be?

God wants to be known as a community of persons. He has revealed himself as three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God does not exist in solitary individualism but in a community of love and sharing. God is not a loner. Neither can a Christian be a loner. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. True love requires another, others to help us grow as human beings. We must always remember that we are using human concepts and human words to try and understand better who God is. Mystery in the religious sense means that we cannot know everything about God. But we can know more and more about God as he progressively reveals himself to us according to our capacity. A parent will tell a teenage son or daughter things what they could not have understood 5/6 years earlier.

The best revelation of God as Trinity is seen in the gospels. Each of the three persons of the Trinity is concerned for and focused on the Others. At the Baptism of Jesus and on the mountain of the Transfiguration God the Father is not speaking about himself but of Jesus:’ This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. Jesus constantly refers to the Father. “I came not to do my own will but the will of the One who sent me’, and ‘Father into your hands I commend my spirit’. And, of course, the great prayer he taught us starts: ‘Our Father’. Jesus before he goes promises to send the Holy Spirit who according to Jesus will teach and explain to us what Jesus came to achieve. So the Holy Spirit is constantly inspiring us to listen to and follow Jesus. Very simply put, this is the pattern of Christian living. In being concerned for others we are living out who God is and what God is about as community.

In a very feeble attempt to understand a bit more who The Trinity is, we know that when a couple marry their love issues in another person, their child and especially at the beginning the baby is their joy, concern and focus. This human community of love could not exist with three loners living under the one roof. It needs the fuel of loving concern and reaching out to the others to grow and develop.

In the first reading from Deuteronomy, we find that it was because of their own lived experience that the Israelites came to realize that it was Yahweh who did all the signs and wonders on their behalf when he freed them from slavery in Egypt. He alone is God and there is no other. For us our faith tells us that God is still a revealing God for us. And in the second reading from St. Paul we are told that through the Holy Spirit we are God’s children who wishes to lead us away from whatever enslaves us to real freedom. With Jesus we have this incredible promise of being heirs of God, coheirs with Jesus. Then in the gospel of Matthew we have the great promise of Jesus that ‘he is with us always until the end of time’.

It might be worthwhile to reflect on what we do every time we bless ourselves in the name of the Trinity.

‘In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and also when we say the prayer ‘Glory be to the Father etc’. If we realised the significance of what we often rush through we might have a greater awareness of our dignity of belonging to God’s Trinitarian family. These are short but very effective prayers. “Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA.

20 May 2018

Acts 2.1-11: 1
Cor. 12.3-7,12-13
John 20.19-23

Some years ago I met a man in Ireland who had just returned from England where he visited his brother. The Social Services in England had contacted him because his brother was old and badly undernourished. He had his own house but it was clearly very neglected and dirty. After visiting his brother who was then in hospital he returned to the house to try and clean up the place. Imagine his great surprise when he found almost a quarter of a million pounds sterling hidden in a suitcase in an old cupboard. His brother had been a lawyer, and obviously a successful one but since the death of his wife had neglected himself badly. If this brother had made use of the money in the suitcase he could have had a very comfortable lifestyle. But he didn’t do so and suffered the consequences.

It would appear that many Christians are like this. They don’t call upon the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They have a great treasure at their disposal. They can call upon the Spirit at any moment for help. But unless they do they may be undernourished, depriving themselves of the power of the Spirit in their lives. Just like the lawyer who deprived himself of food and other comforts.

In the gospel today we hear Jesus appearing to his fearful disciples after his resurrection. These fearful men are locked in a room. Their faith and trust in Jesus seems to have disappeared. Now he comes into their midst and offers them peace and joy. The opposite of faith is not lack of faith but rather fear. We try to rely on ourselves only and as a result may feel incapable of responding to what God is asking of us. So when Jesus appears to them in today’s gospel he breathes on them and says ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’. This recalls the first creation when God breathed life into Adam, transforming him from dust into a human being. Here we have a new creation, now enlivened by the Spirit. This is a new transformation. If we offer our lives to the Holy Spirit for transformation, we will find that we will gradually be changed, not just spiritually but on other levels too, emotionally, psychologically, in our relationships etc.

The reason why the Spirit wants to do this for us is because Jesus tells the disciples today that as the Father sent Jesus, he is sending them to be his witnesses. Christian witness comes from an inner conviction. This is only achieved by spending time with Jesus in prayer regularly. People will know a real witness because he or she speaks from personal conviction. And Christian witness has to end in outward testimony; a person who is prepared to say and live by what he believes to be true. It is impossible to achieve our call to witness to Jesus without the powerful Holy Spirit who so much wants to help us.

Jesus then tells the disciples after breathing on them the Holy Spirit: ‘Those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, those whose sins you retain, they are retained’. We must read the text properly. Jesus did not say that it was to priests only that this gift of forgiveness was given. It was to all the disciples. This is very important for us to accept. After love, the gift that Jesus spoke most about when he was with them was forgiveness. In the ‘Our Father’ in Matthew’s gospel chapter 6, forgiveness is the only quality that has a condition attached to it – ‘forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’.

Why this emphasis on forgiveness? Look at the world around us. Nearly all the terrorist attacks, all the bitterness and hatred between nations, ethnic groups, individuals, even those claiming to act from religious beliefs come from unforgiveness. In Israel, Jews and Palestinians keep recalling what the other side has done and want to take revenge and so the spiral of violence continues. Al Quaida terrorists keep remembering past injustices as they see them and so won’t forgive, so revenge is the response. Unfortunately, this is true in so many places throughout our world. It is no less true between individuals. We have all heard people saying, ‘I will never forgive him/her/them for what they did to me and my family’.

Jesus knows that the refusal to forgive will continue the spiral of violence. He knows too that forgiveness is the sheer gift and work of the Spirit. Human will power is just not enough. We read in St. Luke’s gospel that as Jesus hung on the cross about to die he prayed, ‘Father, forgive them they do not know what they are doing’. How often do we pray for this gift of forgiveness or at least to want to forgive?

In the first reading today when the disciples had received the Spirit they began to speak in such a way that everyone understood them. This is not the gift of being multilingual as such but rather that they were able to communicate to all their listeners the Good News. In the second reading then we are told that there is a variety of gifts given by the same Spirit. But all have the same goal, to bring about unity and harmony, the very opposite of what unforgiveness does.

Today’s feast is telling us clearly that the Spirit works powerfully still in many different ways and in many different peoples. We are sent as witnesses, proclaiming and living forgiveness. Difficult as this is, it has to be a central part of our witness. Let us pray often for the help of the Spirit.

“Come Holy Spirit, renew each of us so that we can work together to renew the face of the earth. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

13 May 2018

Some years ago I decided to visit some friends of mine, a married couple. It was not a visit I was looking forward to then because I knew that it was a time of great sadness for them. The brother of the husband and his wife also had been tragically killed in a car accident three months earlier leaving behind them two very young children, now orphaned and so this couple had decided to look after the children. When I met the two small kids during that visit I could not help feeling very sad at the thought of their being orphans at such a young age and having to start life without their real parents who obviously had adored them.

The one thing we cannot say about today’s feast, the Ascension of the Lord, is that the apostles felt themselves orphaned at the departure of Jesus. In no way did they consider themselves orphans, so that they felt abandoned by Jesus when he ascended to heaven. For the apostles the Ascension meant three things 1) It was an ending. One stage was over and another had begun. Formerly Jesus was with them physically. Now his presence is that of a firm faith knowing he is still working with them. 2) It was a beginning. They are to take the place of Jesus and continue his work. 3) The Ascension gives the disciples the certainty that they had a friend not only on earth but also in heaven. There awaits them and us the self-same Jesus who on earth was so marvelously kind, compassionate and forgiving. To die is not to go out into the dark. It is to go to him.

The Ascension is not a farewell feast; it does not lament the absence of Jesus. Rather it celebrates the new way Christ became present to his people through the gift of his Spirit. For sure, Christ went away from us so that we no longer experience his physical presence but he is closer to us now than he ever was before. When Jesus was on earth he was limited like us in space and time. This is no longer true of him. He is, so to speak, out and about. He is present to us in an equally powerful but different manner. We can turn to him in any place, in any situation knowing he is there for us. It is important to realise that the apostles and disciples never regretted the departure of Jesus after his Resurrection and Ascension. We never read this in the Acts of the Apostles or in the letters of St. Peter, St. James, St. John, St. Paul etc.

In Acts 1.8 our first reading today we heard: ‘you will be my witnesses …even to the ends of the earth’. So today’s Solemnity, like that of Pentecost are feasts of Christian maturity. They are a call to continue Jesus’ mission in today’s world and the difficulties we face there. The power of the Spirit is with us. In Acts today Jesus warned his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, the promise of the Father. It is as if Jesus were saying to the disciples: ‘please don’t claim to be working on my behalf as my witnesses unless you wait for, receive and live out of the power of the Spirit. If not, you will fail’.

We must not look up to heaven lamenting the absence of the Lord like the disciples did in the first reading today. We must face here on earth what God asks us to do and keep our feet firmly on the ground. We must set out to bring his gospel, his Good News to the ends of the earth. This is why any attempt to keep Christians in an attitude of dependency and immaturity without real responsibilities and voice in the Church is contrary to the meaning of the feast we are celebrating today. The Second Vatican Council strongly emphasized this.

And it is happening. In comparison to when I was growing up when the priest did everything, now in very many countries we have Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, and the Laity as members of Parish Pastoral Councils etc. In some countries because of the absence of priests, the laity do even more, like conducting funeral services, preparing people to be baptised and confirmed etc. This may not be enough for some who feel the Church is moving too slowly in this direction. But we need to pray more and more to the Spirit to lead us into the way of all truth. We need to pray that we will have the courage to let go of traditional practices which no longer serve our witnessing to Jesus. Will we have the courage to follow the lead of the Spirit, painful as this may be if it is not what we would like to see happening but seems the best way forward?

Rather then than seeing the Ascension just as the departure of Jesus, we should see it as the sending of the Church on mission (in place of Jesus). Rather than seeing the Church as an orphan as a result of the Ascension of Jesus it needs to be seen as being given adult status by God, as being given responsibility to witness to Jesus Christ through the power of his Spirit.

And as St. Paul tells us there is a variety of gifts that is a variety of ways of being Church, be it as laity, priests or religious. No one group is called to dominate the others since we are all brothers and sisters of our one heavenly Father who uses each of us in different ways. If we want to compete with each other let it be in the area of service to the poor, forgiveness of our enemies, love of all God’s children no matter what unfortunate labels they are given such as – those with AIDS, prostitutes, homosexuals, alcoholics, drug addicts, divorced people etc.

“Lord Jesus, we believe that you have ascended to be with your Father and that the real meaning of today’s feast is that each of us has been given adult status in your Church to be your witnesses throughout the world. Give us your powerful Holy Spirit to enable us to be effective witnesses of your loving concern for all”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA.

6 May 2018

A young man got married and he asked his wife if they could go, as part of their honeymoon, to a certain country where his best friend lived as he wanted her to meet him. On meeting the friend he introduced him to his wife with the words. “Here is the man you need to thank for my being alive today”. He is what I call a true friend. Apparently when they were in high school together the young married man found out that he had had a very severe kidney complaint, with both kidneys in a very serious condition. Even though he had been good friends always with the other young man, he realized then what it was to have a true friend. His friend, on hearing of his possible death due to his serious kidney condition offered him one of his own kidneys. Luckily the kidneys matched and the gift of the kidney saved his life. I suppose not everyone would risk his own life to do this.

In the gospel today Jesus says to his disciples that ‘a man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends’ which he himself did in giving his life on the cross. He assures them that in the gospel he wants to call them, and us too, his friends. His relationship with them and us is not to be that of a servant. A servant is someone who does what his master commands as an obligation or because he is paid to do so. Jesus is emphasizing that his relationship with us is to be that of true friendship.

Then in today’s gospel passage he spells out clearly what that is to be. He names a number of consequences of his friendship with us. a) As the Father loves Jesus, so Jesus himself loves us. b) He invites us to keep the commandments so that his joy will be in us and that our joy may be complete. This is not to be seen as an ethical or a moral command but rather as love in action It is a friend telling us the secret of how we can be joyful. c) He is prepared to lay down his life for us d) He makes known to us all that he has received from his Father. Jesus has no secrets. He keeps nothing back. There is no hidden agenda. What a marvelous programme for marriage and community life. e) He chooses us even though he gains little or nothing if we don’t respond. He gives his all. f) He invites us to share in his work by commissioning us for this. He is the one who chooses us.

Above all he invites us to love because God is Love (first reading). We are to love him first and then others. If we open ourselves to his friendship he will give us anything we ask. If we don’t, he won’t be able to do this because we set all kinds of obstacles in the way. If we truly love Jesus we will know what to ask the Father as we would never think of asking anything contrary to God’s will for us and for others.

In each gospel, Jesus never starts calling people in large groups. In John’s gospel, he calls Andrew and a friend. Andrew goes and calls Peter his brother. Later in that ch.1 of John he calls Phillip and Phillip goes off and calls Nathanael. So the process seems to be: Jesus calls friends who, in turn call other friends. This is to underline the absolute call to friendship as part of discipleship. In Mark 1, Jesus calls 2 sets of brothers. Obviously they are not only brothers but friends and close to each other. Again, this is to underline the importance of friendship.

Would you and I describe our relationship with Jesus as one of close friendship? If not, why not? Why not ask him often for the gift of a deep friendship with him. That is what he longs for. We will certainly be the ones to benefit. So in the gospel today Jesus is emphasizing friendship, love and joy. How much does our spirituality reflect this? In many ways maybe we are better as a Lenten people than an Easter people.We have the Stations of the Cross but no Stations of Joy, a sacrament for confessing our sins and failures but no special sacrament for expressing our joy and gratitude to God, unless we name it Eucharist. And yet the main thrust of the Christ story is of Tragedy averted, Sadness overcome, Victory achieved.

One of the great experiences for me when in Africa was the marvelous spirit of celebration in our Christian liturgies, often taking 2 hours. Elsewhere one hears people hoping the priest will celebrate a ‘fast mass’ on Sundays. Is this because we cannot spare more time for God? So today God is inviting us to rid ourselves of a religion of sadness and fear. We have created God in our own image – we expected a judge, an avenger, even an executioner. Instead a child was born for us. And a baby who was is stretching out his arms asking for love and friendship. And eventually as a grown man he was crucified.

“Lord, why is it that many people experience your message so little as joyful news. Open up our hearts Lord to your call to friendship, sharing, joy, love. Help us to be convinced of this GOOD NEWS first in ourselves and then to invite others to the feast of your friendship and love. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA.

  29 April, 2018

A certain young man in his twenties had got into bad company. Soon he was drinking heavily and sometimes took drugs. He was warned once at his workplace that if his work did not begin to improve soon, he would be made redundant. In fact, his life was in a mess. About this time he met a young woman to whom he was attracted and he invited her for a meal. Very quickly she realized what was going on in his life as they shared their experiences. When he asked her out again she told him bluntly she didn’t see why she should go given his lifestyle. But she decided to accept provided he showed signs of change. After the second time out together he knew she might be the one he was looking for. As they became closer friends she told him clearly that unless he gave up drugs and heavy drinking she would end their friendship. Bit by bit he did change and they are now engaged. It was his relationship with her and her understanding that ultimately bore fruit. However, it was a process which took time.

Today’s gospel is also about relationships, communion and friendship. Just as without the help of his girlfriend the young man might have had a disastrous life, Jesus is telling us that even more so, we will not have the deep joy and peace we seek unless we are in a deep personal relationship with him and his Father. We will not be true disciples of Jesus if we remain far from him and don’t have his value system. Sadly, many Christians think that their religion is about keeping the commandments and if they do more good than bad in life they will go to heaven. For sure we have commandments and laws to guide us but ultimately Christianity is a Person, Jesus Christ and our relationship with him. Then the commandments will take their proper place. I can go to Mass on Sunday, say some prayers and do some good works which are very good actions. But I can miss out on the essential fact of Christianity, my relationship to Jesus, the Father, the Spirit and to my fellow human beings. Laws in themselves don’t give life.

We know deep down that life is about people, and people are about relationships, and relationships are about communication, sharing, forgiveness, all of which result in real love and friendship. Sometimes people who are lonely, or when they are old seek for something or someone to relate too. We may know people who live alone and who only have a cat or dog for company. But their need for a relationship of some kind is vital for them.

In the Christian life solidarity or a deep relationship with Jesus is the condition for bearing fruit. In the Old Testament, the part of the bible before the time of Jesus, there are a number of times when Israel is described as the vine planted by Yahweh. Sadly it often bore sour grapes because it had cut itself off from Yahweh. It did this by following false gods, worshipping idols of the surrounding peoples. Because it had abandoned Yahweh it got into all kinds of trouble. Eventually the Israelites were exiled for 70 years.

When we as Christians turn aside from worshipping God we naturally seek other gods to replace him. These maybe the gods of pleasure, money, status, drugs, sex or drink etc in a way that these are given a far too great importance in our lives. Usually at this stage we feel we don’t need God. Our own natural abilities will see us through whatever comes up in life. Yet Jesus today says very clearly, using the image of the vine that ‘cut off from him, we can do nothing’. The choice is ours. We can allow God to rule our lives or we feel we don’t need God. If we are trying to be faithful to God, he will prune or purify us in the sense that he will reveal to us what is not life-giving in our lives for ourselves and for those we relate to.

The image of the vine sketches a series of relationships of love which is the bond uniting the Father, Son and the disciples with each other. The key relationship is between Jesus and the disciples.

There is another beautiful image in today’s gospel, that of the ‘home’. Jesus says ‘make your home in me, as I make mine in you’. Isn’t he great to want to do this? Recently a friend was invited out to a business dinner by people he didn’t know too well. Obviously, he dressed fairly formally. He said at the meal because he didn’t know them well, the conversation was very polite and they were all a bit reserved. Then when he got home, he immediately changed into more comfortable clothes and slippers. He relaxed in an easy chair and chatted with his wife and family without having to watch his words. He was ‘at home’, he could relax and be himself. That is the kind of relationship Jesus is inviting to. He wants us to relax in his presence. When we pray we can tell him exactly how we feel or share our problems honestly knowing he will hear us with great love and compassion. We don’t need to put on any airs or graces. We can be ‘at home’ with him as he invites us to be.

“Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting us into a close relationship, a deep friendship with you. Help us to realize that only you can fulfill our deepest needs. May we express our gratitude to you by the way we reach out to all others, especially those in greatest need of our help and compassion. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA.

15 April 2018

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
1 John 2:1-5
Luke 24:35-48

In the hours and days that followed the resurrection, the pervading atmosphere amongst the disciples was fear. They were fearful as followers of Jesus crucified that the Jewish authorities would find them and punish them severely. Gathered together in a room they see the ghostlike figure of Christ. How can he be alive? They see the wounds in his hands and side. Fear and doubt take hold of them. Remembering their own betrayal of Jesus despite all their promises to be faithful they wonder if Christ has returned for vengeance and retribution. Then they hear the wonderful transformative words of Jesus, ‘Peace be with you’, not once but twice. Their fear disappears for there is no retribution or vengeance in his heart, only love and compassion.

In the three readings today, the underlying reality is that of forgiveness and acceptance. In the first reading Peter excuses the people by telling them that neither they nor their leaders had any idea of what they were really doing in putting Jesus to death. All through his prophets God had foretold the sufferings and death of Jesus the Just One. So the Jews and their leaders are invited to repent and turn to God so that their sins may be wiped out.

In the second reading John tells us that Jesus is the sacrifice that takes our sins away. In gratitude to God we are asked to keep God’s commandments, not because he will punish us if we don’t but because it will cause pain and hurt to ourselves and others and furthermore people will not believe in a loving, forgiving God if we, who claim to be his followers don’t witness to this to others.

In the gospel we heard that Jesus opened the minds of the disciples to understand the scriptures and all that these are meant to reveal. They are meant to reveal above all that God raised up Jesus after his terrible suffering and cruel death and that in his name, repentance and forgiveness would be preached to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem. The disciples are to preach forgiveness of sins. We are all sinners, but because we belong to Christ, we are loved, saved, forgiven sinners. It is vital to accept this about ourselves and others.

The Risen Christ told his disciples to begin their preaching of the Good News, the offer of his peace and forgiveness beginning with those living in Jerusalem, then to those in the towns and countryside and finally to all the world. He invites us to realise that the place to seek for peace is first of all at the centre of our own lives, then in our immediate personal world, and then beyond. We make our impact where we can and then we let the ripples spread outwards. Let us not despair of the dark clouds and the seeming impossibility of peace and justice in our world today, but start by promoting justice in one’s own life, and avoid surrendering to the darkness.

When the Risen Lord appeared to the frightened and confused disciples they wondered if he were a ghost. But he quickly moves to reassure them by taking a piece of grilled fish and eating it. Is it not something very ordinary? God continues to appear in our daily life in very ordinary ways. God wants to open our eyes to the presence of the risen Christ in the ordinary happenings of life. It is in the small things, the everyday details of life, the moments of caring and sharing when we reach out to others that we show that Christ is risen among us. The Risen Christ is not apart from the world. He is in our midst, not controlled by religious language and practices.

Then he asks them to touch his wounds. Needless to say they are not any old wounds. They are the wounds the world inflicts on those who love God above all else. They are the wounds of those who live for others rather than themselves. Jesus didn’t hide his wounds because they were the price of his love. Neither did Jesus become embittered because of his wounds. Our own wounds maybe are those caused by betrayals by others, things like disappointments, ingratitude, being taken for granted etc. His wounds give us hope in our wounds.

‘Lord, we pray for the gift of the Spirit to open our minds to understand the scriptures and that we may have the courage to witness, especially by forgiveness and compassion, to the Risen Jesus. Amen.’

Fr. Jim. Kirstein, SMA

Easter Sunday – 1 April 2018

Acts 10:34, 37-43
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9

Many years ago I knew a young married couple, very happily married. Then after 15 years of marriage the husband died suddenly. Sadly they had had no children. For the widow life all but ended with her husband’s unexpected death. She said to me at that time that the sun would never shine for her in her life. She didn’t see any point in living. She was totally devastated. This went on for about 4 years. Being the quiet retiring person she was, she had depended very much on her husband and after his death, she felt totally alone. Others helped her for awhile but then they had to look after their own families. Then with the help of a few close friends and her faith in God, she gradually started to live again. In fact, because her husband was no longer there to depend on, she had to develop talents she never knew she had. Bit by bit she grew in self-confidence and now this woman thinks nothing of travelling to the far end of the wold alone where before she would hardly go a 100 kilometers. She had matured out of all recognition and the sun certainly shines again for her in her life. But I know that it was her faith in God and the support of a few friends, which made all the difference. But it took time.

Perhaps Easter Sunday is something like that. Up to the moment of the Resurrection, after the terrible death of Jesus on Good Friday, the disciples of Jesus were devastated. The one they had leaned on was gone. They never imagined Jesus would be taken prisoner and crucified. In that instant their dreams evaporated like that of the woman when her husband died suddenly. The disciples experienced a dreadful loss and no doubt were shattered, their hopes taken away in those short few days. They were also afraid for their lives and half expected to be caught and punished by the religious leaders who plotted the death of Jesus and had him crucified. For them too at that terrible time, they never expected the sun to shine for them again in their lives.

In today’s gospel, a woman no less, Mary of Magdala reports to Peter and John that the tomb is empty. In nearly all the Resurrection accounts, it is the women who first experience the Risen Jesus. Women at that time as in many places still were looked down upon. This may be why the disciples did not believe them. It seems that the proclamation of life of the Risen Jesus starts with the very people who were marginalised and who count for little in society. In any case the curiosity of the 2 is awakened and they run to the tomb. Peter sees the linen cloths on the ground in an empty tomb. He did no more than merely ascertain the facts. However, it is said of John that he ‘saw and he believed’ even though his own faith was not yet perfect because the full impact of the vision of faith of the Scriptures had no yet dawned on him. It took Thomas even some days to surrender and accept – very consoling for us. To discover fully how rich faith is, takes time and growth and God in incredibly understanding and patient.

Maybe we all stand condemned in some way by the woman interviewed on an international radio programme. Because of modern technology, after an operation she was able to see for the first time in her life at the age of 54 and her comments in that radio interview were. “I cannot understand how all of you who were born with the gift of sight can be so unmoved by the beauty of life. You seem to take it all for granted – the beauty of a flower, the marvels of dimples on the hands of a new born baby, the serenity in the faces of old people who are content with life.etc. etc. I feel she is correct. Faith is like a new way of seeing. The resurrection does make a difference. If we believe our eyes are opened to enormous possibilities. Jesus was in a tomb for 3 days and then burst free from its darkness and the stone that imprisoned him. For me, that is my experience of resurrection. Whilst the empty tomb has its importance I know that I have experienced much freedom because of the gift of faith in the resurrection of Jesus God gives me. Like Mary Magdalene who went in the dark and found an empty tomb Since Jesus was not there it was indeed darkness, but later in meeting Jesus a new light dawned for her and all other believers.

The resurrection doesn’t mean that we gloss over pain, suffering and difficult daily life situations, but it does give us a new vista or outlook on life. It gives us the freedom to face the dark side of life, and even death with confidence knowing that Jesus broke the bonds of human limitation and slavery in our lives. Jesus is alive and if we really have experienced the joy of the Risen Jesus in our daily lives we don’t have to wait until we die to experience resurrection now – deep joy, peace and serenity because of Jesus, now alive and out and about. In the first reading today Peter says that he and the disciples are now witnesses of all they saw Jesus doing even if for a few days they were paralysed by his death and seeming failure. If you and I have experienced the Risen Jesus at work in our lives, like the women who lost her husband suddenly, if we are faithful despite the great difficulty of these times of loss Jesus is there with us then and he will surely help us experience the sun shining again.

“Thank you Lord Jesus for the gift of our faith in the resurrection. May we be witnesses of gospel joy and peace to others till searching and doubting. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

18 March 2018

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:7-9
John 12:20-33

Many years ago a famous footballer who had been a legend in his own lifetime agreed to play one final game for charity in another country because of a close friend of his who now lived there. People came from far and wide even at great expense to see him play. They had previously only seen him on television. Many of these people brought their children along and others much younger wanted to be able to say to their own children that they had seen this legend playing.

In the gospel today there are some Greeks who want to see Jesus too, so they go first to Philip and Philip calls on Andrew and both go to Jesus to tell him. The Greeks’ request to Philip was ‘we would like to see Jesus’. They had probably heard all about the miracles of Jesus and the large crowds which followed him. Possibly they were searching for something to give greater meaning to their lives. Maybe their own particular belief system did not satisfy their needs and perhaps Jesus could provide the answer to their desires.

Jesus’ first response is rather strange. He talks about the process of dying. Jesus is saying very clearly that if you want to go to him and follow his ways you must be prepared for something far from easy. Following Jesus is not all about miracles and large crowds. In fact, these would pass very quickly and then following Jesus would involve commitment to his value system and maybe to suffering.

So seeing Jesus is not just like seeing the famous footballer. We may have had a very pleasant and enjoyable time and go home probably feeling very good. To SEE Jesus is not just to look at him as if he were on a stage performing. Those Greeks would not have realised what seeing and meeting Jesus would lead to. To SEE Jesus is to enter totally into his way of thinking, to accept that he had to suffer and die and rise again. Like the grain of wheat, Jesus had to let go of everything, including his own life, in order to bring life to many others. In the process both he and we will be transformed. If we cannot see this as the core of Jesus’ life we have not really seen him. But Jesus goes further and says that we must have the same way of thinking. Anyone who loves or clings to his life will lose it.

Are we ready for what Jesus asks? Are we afraid to follow him closely by taking on his value system which in many circumstances is contrary to the way the world thinks? Is Jesus asking too much? Let us have no doubt. Jesus too was afraid, deeply afraid. Today’s gospel says it clearly – ‘Now my soul is troubled. Father, save me from this hour’. But as the second reading today, The Letter to the Hebrews says ‘he learned to obey through suffering’. This is not an easy experience to go through.

The readings today point out the source of our hope. We are asked to consider the strangest of paradoxes that life itself comes through death. It seems to be a clear from experience that in seeking our own happiness and comfort only we will never find it. But like Jesus, it is in seeking to make others happy and trying to alleviate their sufferings even at a cost to ourselves that happiness comes to ourselves too.

The Letter to the Hebrews and the Gospel both speak of the suffering and death of Jesus and tell us it was very real and very painful. Yet through his death comes our hope for new life. This then is the core of Jesus’ message. To die is to give life. We do this and often are not aware we are following this pattern.

Finally, in today’s gospel in spite of his rejection by his own people Jesus must have been heartened in seeing these Greeks coming to him. He sees in them the fulfillment of his mission. He will now be revealed beyond the borders of Israel.

“Lord Jesus, give us the courage to be life-givers even at the cost of dying to our own self seeking ways”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

11 March 2018

2 Chronicles 36:14-16,19-21
Ephesians 2:4-10
John 3:14-21

The husband of a certain woman was killed unexpectedly in a car crash and she said to a friend that the accident happened because God was punishing her for her past sins. She had committed adultery a few times and as a result of one affair, she had to have an abortion. Now she was convinced that she was paying for all this. Sad to say, but there are very many people who are convinced that God punishes them for their past failings. They see God as a harsh kind of judge who condemns them if they do wrong and makes them pay sooner or later. This is totally the opposite to the God Jesus reveals to us.

Recently a friend of mine, a very committed Christian said to me that he found it very hard to please God always and felt he would be judged severely at the end of his life for failing to please a demanding God.

The great good news of today’s gospel is very simply that God loves us passionately, unconditionally and completely. The gospel spells out as clearly as possible that God cannot but love us. In verse 17 we read ‘that God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved’. So the primary purpose for which Jesus came was not to condemn but to save. Sometimes the word ‘save’ may not mean that much to us but an equally acceptable translation is the word ‘free’ or ‘liberate’. God through Jesus wishes to liberate us on all levels of our being: mental, physical, psychological, spiritual, emotional etc. He wants us to be free us of unnecessary fears and anxieties, scruples etc. so as to be free to love God and others. The reason why I continue to be a Christian is precisely for that reason. I have experienced a great amount of freedom in my life through my relationship with Jesus and his life-giving words. God wants us to be fully human too like Jesus.

In verse 16 we read: ‘Yes, God loved the world so much that that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but may have eternal life’. The greatness of his love is only matched by the greatness of his gift, Jesus. Life for John here in its biblical understanding is not primarily continued existence after this life. It is first and foremost life with someone, life in relation to God, to those whom we love and to those who love us. Eternal life is the preservation of these relationships intact even through death. For John ‘to be lost’ is to die, to cease to be. To cease having relationships with all those we would want to love. Thus, to save the world is to deliver from the power of death all who are subject to it, not preventing them from dying but by granting them eternal life.

So God cannot stop loving us, even when we are sinning. We cannot lose God’s friendship, his love from God’s side but we can choose ourselves to lose it by our evil acts and behaviour, what John calls the darkness. So God loves us totally and his love for us is not based on the attractiveness of the recipient nor on the return involved. God loves us now, always, totally, irrespective of our response but he will not force it.

The gospel is telling us also that eternal life begins NOW. Eternal life is above all a relationship with our loving Father. Being a friend of his by doing his will is already the beginning of eternal life, the fullness of which we will experience when we die.

St. Paul tells us in the second reading that we are “God’s work of art” – what a magnificent statement. Do you, do we consider ourselves as a work of art, something of incredible beauty? Well, God does. If we could only accept this about ourselves and others what a wonderful world we would have.   St Paul goes on to say in this reading that ‘it is by grace (that is God’s loving choice of us) that we have been saved, through faith, not by anything of your own, but a gift from God, not by anything you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit’ except God. Is not this good news? It is a totally free gift from God.

Is there nothing left for us to do? Surely. We don’t try to be virtuous or good or holy or whatever, to earn or gain God’s love. It is already freely given, never to be taken back for whatever reason. Jesus lifted high on the cross is the absolute proof of that. Our efforts to be loving, kind, virtuous etc are not a condition for entering heaven but a way of thanking God for his free gift. So we try to live a good life so as to thank, praise, and glorify God. To witness to people that all other ways apart from that lived and spoken to us by Jesus do not give lasting peace and joy. Also to show that the evil people do brings suffering and death into our world whilst the way of Jesus is truly life-giving.

“Lord Jesus, help us to believe that our God is a loving God who seeks only what is best for us. Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

25 February 2018

Genesis 22:1-2, 9, 15-18
Romans 8:31-34
Mark 9:2-10

Some time ago a woman was talking to a priest and said that 8 years earlier she was going through a very bad time in her life. Then one day she was praying in her room and she distinctly heard a voice telling her not to worry, that all would work out well. She was assured that ‘I will be with you’. And so it proved. Life eventually got better, her marriage which she thought was ending is strong again and sickness she was experiencing has been healed. The priest said to her that it appeared she had a mountaintop experience like the Transfiguration scene in today’s gospel.

Maybe quite a number of people have had a similar experience without being aware that it was a kind of Transfiguration event for them too.

The gospel today describes the transformation or transfiguration of Jesus. An encounter with God changes us. We read about an outer change in Jesus’ appearance, but for most of us, the experience of God brings about an inner change, a change of heart.

The gospel talks of the three disciples going up a high mountain with Jesus. He is the one who leads. In the two passages before this, he had been telling them that he was destined to suffer grievously, be put to death and rise again after three days. Peter reacts strongly and tells Jesus that this cannot be so. But Jesus says that anyone wishing to be a follower of his will have to take up his/her cross too.

The Transfiguration of Jesus now takes place. It has a double significance, one for Jesus himself and the other for the disciples.

For Jesus: he had taken the decision to go up to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die and he wanted to know if he had made the correct decision. On the mountaintop he received a double approval of his decision from Moses and Elijah. These two saw in Jesus the fulfillment of all that had been dreamed of in the past.

But above all, God his Father approved Jesus. Jesus did not just consult his own wishes. He went to God for confirmation and he gets it very clearly here. But the crucifixion on the cross will be part and parcel of what will ultimately lead to his glory.

For the three disciples: The idea that the Messiah would be rejected, made to suffer and die at the hands of his own people was simply unthinkable. Now it seems that this special experience is given to balance out the picture. These three disciples are given a glimpse of the ‘real’ Jesus to help them through the dark days ahead.

The gospel comments that Peter did not know what he was talking about in asking to build three tents or shrines. There would never be a shrine to Jesus except in the hearts of his followers. We cannot hold on to our good experiences. We must move on to face what come next in life. But the good news of the Transfiguration scene is that each of us has the potential for transformation, for transfiguration, for greatness. Often, suffering will be part of this but in overcoming our temptations and weaknesses, following Jesus’ example and the gift of his Spirit to help us we become more and more transformed into God’s dream for us, his desire for us. This is the basis of our Christian hope.

On the mountain a cloud came and covered them all. The cloud is traditionally the biblical way of describing God’s presence. The voice which says ‘This is my beloved Son, listen to him’ is God’s voice. It is God’s invitation to the disciples and ourselves to accept the difficult things he speaks about, his and our rejections, sufferings and deaths – but also resurrections. Jesus is the Word of God. To listen is to hear, to accept, and to follow – all the way leading to final glory.

God is totally pleased with the self-offering of Jesus on our behalf. God as the second reading says, ‘did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all’. That is why God is so pleased with his Son because Jesus offered up his life in order to show us the enormous love of God for us.

Most ordinary people do this in their daily lives without making any connection to the sufferings of Jesus. They are faithful in their marriages, looking after family and friends especially in time of sickness and difficulties etc. God equally says to all of you who do these: “You are my beloved children, in you I am well pleased”.

Finally, in the gospel scene when the bright cloud disappeared, the disciples are left with ‘only Jesus’. God has made himself that close and familiar to us that we do not need to be afraid. He is always with us and we should never forget the transfiguration moments in our lives, the glimpses of transcendence. They encourage us to be faithful especially in difficult times until the time of final glory.

“Lord Jesus, help us to be courageous in times of trial, knowing you are with us always. Amen”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

 5 November 2017

Malachi 1.14,2.2, 8-10
1 Thessalonians 2.7-9,13
Matthew 23.1-12

Shortly after arriving in an African country I was appointed to teach in a High School. Three months later we were told that the Government Secretary for Education would be arriving for an official visit to the school.  This was considered a great honour. On the day he came to us our Principal and staff greeted him. When he entered the main assembly hall where all the students were seated they stood up once he came in. The Head boy read a suitable address of welcome and then the Secretary of Education addressed us all. I was very impressed by what he had to say. At the end of his address he was loudly applauded by all present. Unfortunately he said that he had another urgent appointment after his visit to our school so he needed to leave us then. After he went the students started rolling on the ground shouting and roaring with laughter. I couldn’t understand this until one of them explained its meaning to me. He said, “Father, he is one of the most corrupt politicians we have. He takes bribes, is often absent and when he spoke to us of the need to be disciplined and to be of service to others he was saying the exact opposite of what he himself does. He does not practise what he preaches”.

This incident came to mind as I was preparing today’s homily.  Jesus tells his hearers to listen to what their Jewish religious leaders say but warns them not to take them as their models because ‘they do not practise what they preach’. At the time of Jesus the religion of the Pharisees had become almost one of ostentation, that is, of outward show. Jesus is telling us that people who are granted a function or a responsibility in the community that they must carry it out with humility rather than considering themselves the centre or absolute reference for others. There is only one point of absolute reference for us Christians. We have only one Father, one Teacher, that is God. Of course, we can call our human fathers ‘father or daddy’ or our school teachers ‘teacher’. But it can never in the sense of their being given the honour which is due to God alone.

When I try to recall my own time in school I don’t remember much of what my teachers said but I remember quite well whether they were kind or harsh or tried their best to be of service to us. The Pharisees got caught up in laws and laid heavy burdens on people’s shoulders.  Jesus was a lifegiver and came to lead us to freedom and joy. He said “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full ‘.

It is a call to humble service as Jesus says today.  The reason that Jesus was so harsh on the Jewish religious leaders of his time was that they were leading the people astray.  They were the ones who were trained in the study of the Law and the Prophets i.e. the basis of their religion.  Instead of “giving glory to the name of the Lord” as Malachi says in today’s first reading, the Pharisees were seeking their own glory.  They wanted the places of honor at banquets, having the front seats at synagogues and all other marks of respect as well as wanting people to call them Rabbi, Teacher, Father.

Jesus is asking us simply to  “LET YOUR LIFE TELL GOD’S STORY” as I tried to do when I was with you. And he tells us how is may be done in the end of today’s gospel by serving and being there for others. “The greatest among you will be the one who serves the rest”. This is the good news of today’s gospel since it is possible for any of us.  Jesus is inviting each of us to continue to do this in our daily lives and not just priests or religious. If I am the father or mother of a family, am I the best father or mother I can be for my family? If I am a son or daughter am I the best that I can be in that family. The call is to think of the others. Do not seek to be the center of attention. If I am a priest or sister or bishop, am I the best one I can be in using the talents God gives me in the service of others. The paradox is that the less we make ourselves the centre of attention and serve others, the happier we will be and the more peace and joy we will experience in our lives.  At least that is the experience of many as well as my own. 

Ultimately it is by realizing that Jesus went this way before us in his own life that he is now inviting us to follow his way. I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE (John 14.6). He emptied himself to come amongst us to show God’s total choice of and love for us. He knelt down and washed the apostles’ feet.  He fed the hungry and healed the sick. Why? To reveal to others that this is our heavenly Father’s way too.  God the Father is prepared to kneel at our feet and wash them if we will allow him. He will do anything apart from sin for our sakes. God is the ultimate servant for us. His only concern is our happiness, our joy, and our peace. Can we do anything less for others so as to reveal to them by our lives  ‘THIS IS OUR GOD and YOURS TOO! 

“Lord, it is not easy to be of service to others.  Give us the Holy Spirit so we can show others the kind of God you are – a servant to all.  Amen”

Fr.Jim Kirstein, SMA

29 October 2017

Exodus 22:20-27
1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Matthew 22:34-40

There is a certain man who goes to daily mass and communion. Sad to say this man is a tyrant at home to his family and treats his workers rather badly. He shouts and roars at them if they don’t do exactly as he wants and as quickly as he expects. He will certainly claim to love God. After all he goes to mass daily, is faithful to his prayers and even goes on pilgrimage to Lourdes. Yet this man is failing to respond to what Jesus asks in today’s gospel. His response only partly fulfills Jesus’ conditions for pleasing God.

Jesus tells us quite clearly that there are two great commandments. The first being to love God totally with all our being. The second resembles or is like it: to love our neighbour as ourselves. Both are necessary according to Jesus. The man in the story felt he loved God with his whole heart even though he neglected to love his neighbor (his family). On the other hand a certain young woman brought up as a Catholic recently scandalised her parents by saying that she was going to Church no longer since she believed that in loving and serving the neighbour she is automatically loving God. Prayers and Mass, celebrating the sacraments, vital expressions of our love of God now have little importance for her.

It seems then that some people emphasize the love of God in such a way that makes the relationship with one’s neighbour secondary. Others prefer to give great importance to serving the neighbour without feeling the need to have a personal relationship with God. Interestingly Jesus does not give us a choice. He says that loving God is the first and greatest commandment. It is from that relationship with God that the second gets its meaning and importance. The two loves are not meant to be conflicting. It is not a question of either one or the other but ‘both and’.

The danger here is that we may think we know better than Jesus. He states very clearly that the two loves are equally important. Is there not a danger that we might be arrogant in thinking we know better than Jesus when we choose one or the other but not both? The reason Jesus emphasizes our need to love God and so be rooted in His Love is that prayer, the Mass etc. are the vital means of enabling us to love the neighbour. In Christianity we cannot be Do It Yourself people, i.e DIYs. We need God’s enabling power, that is, the Holy Spirit. We need to be nourished at the Eucharist and by the Word of God in order to have the capacity, the ability to love our neighbour. Basically, our neighbour according to Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan is anyone who is in need. This demands a concrete response.

So Christianity is a very concrete and practical religion. It might be easy enough to love God but the simple test of whether we do or not is how do we love, relate to our brothers and sisters. With our blood relatives it might be reasonably easy but what of the widow, orphan and poor person spoken of in the first reading from the Book of Exodus? This Book tells us of the need to be concretely concerned – ‘if you take your neighbour’s cloak as a pledge you must return it before sunset etc. The early Church Fathers said that if we have plenty of clothes especially those items we never use and do not share them with the poor we are stealing from them. Strong words indeed. So loving our neigbours as ourselves means loving them as if they are members of our own family, as if they were our own. This is far from easy. How we deal with asylum seekers is a case in point.

Years ago the famous English pop group, the Beatles had a song called ‘All you need is love’. But what did they mean by the word love. Nowadays there are many different understandings of it e.g. sentimentality, romantic love, sex without commitments and so on. The Christian definition and a good test to see how we measure up is that given by St. Paul in 1 Cor.13 ‘Love is always patient and kind, it is never boastful, jealous or conceited. It is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence and is not resentful’ etc. We can easily put the name of Jesus in the place of love. Could we put our own names?

The Good News is that Jesus is inviting us to prioritise what our faith, our religion is all about. God gave Moses the 10 commandments. By the time Jesus had appeared there were 613 laws and precepts governing every aspect of human behaviour, even to things like washing one’s hands as far as the elbows on returning from market. Most Jews were enslaved by all these. So Jesus gives priority to the two great loves. He is saying the same to us. If we love God and our neighbour as ourselves and what that means concretely, then that’s all God asks of us. But it is not easy. Yet God can ask this of us because he knows we have the capacity to do so. Is it by going to war against others that will solve the question of terrorism etc.? Jesus offers us the way of love. He asks us to do this wherever we live and with all we encounter.

“Lord Jesus show us and enable us how to love as the only true way to world peace. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

22 October 2017 – Mission Sunday

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Matthew 22:15-21

Mission Sunday theme: That you may have life

One time I was driving a friend of mine to the airport. I jokingly asked him with which passport he was travelling on that journey. The fact was that his parents were of one nationality, he of another. As a result he had two passports. He held a passport of the country he was born in but he also had the passport of the country his parents came from. He had dual citizenship.

In today’s gospel the question of dual citizenship is raised. But it is a question which is set as a trap for Jesus. This posed a dilemma for Jesus. If he said it was unlawful to pay tax, those who asked the question would immediately report him to the Roman government officials for being anti-Roman and his arrest would surely follow. If he said that it was lawful to pay the tax, he would stand discredited in the eyes of many of the people. Not only did the people resent the tax as most people resent taxation; the Jews resented it more for religious reasons. For a Jew God was the only king; their nation was a theocracy meaning that they did not give their allegiance to any human king or ruler. To pay tax to an earthly king was to admit the validity of his kingship and thereby insult God. Therefore whichever answer Jesus gave, they assumed, would leave himself open to trouble.

The answer of Jesus certainly surprised them. Instead of laying down hard and fast rules and regulations which he rarely did, he lays down principles as was usually the case. Here he lays down a very great and important one. Every Christian has dual citizenship. He is a citizen of the country in which he happens to live. To it he owes many things, security, public services etc. In a welfare state the citizen owes still more to the state, education, medical services, unemployment and retirement benefits. This places him under a debt of obligation. So a Christian has a duty to be a responsible citizen. Failure to be a good citizen is failure in Christian duty. But a Christian is also a citizen of heaven and he is expected to live according to the commandments, the Law of God. If there is a clash or an opposition between the two, doing what we believe to be God’s will must prevail. Being against abortion would be an example.

Today is Mission Sunday and we are being reminded that each of us, and not just those who go abroad as missionaries, is expected to be a missionary wherever we are. Of course, we need to support those who go abroad in whatever way we can, either by prayers for them and for missionary vocations as well as by our financial support. But in many countries now which are beginning to have a higher standard of living more people have stopped going to Church and living by Christian principles. We do not judge them but it is all the more important we live out our missionary calling by a life of real Christian witness.

In the gospel when Jesus asks to see the coin the Pharisees and Herodians, who were out to trap him, paid the tax with Jesus asked them, whose head was on it, whose name. This was another way of saying ‘whose image is on the coin?’ Obviously it was that of the emperor Caesar. For us Christians it is not just an image stamped on a coin or something else external to us. We are told that we are created in the image and likeness of God. The image is stamped on our very being when we are created. This may have little effect for many people. It seems the image they live by is money, power etc rather than what is stamped on their very being.

So on this Mission Sunday what image do we live out of? Are we conscious enough of our image and likeness to God? Do we live our lives accordingly? Do our behaviour and lifestyle show us to be missionaries so that others might be attracted to following Jesus because of us?

The world we live in is highly influenced by image. More and more there is a danger that we are an image conscious people. Some young people risk their lives due to anorexia or bulimia because the image presented is that of being very slim. Others will follow pop stars some of whom have died because of an overdose. With billions being spent yearly on advertising we can be seduced into living according to an image created by outsides agencies. The Good News today is that God is telling us that we are incredibly blessed in being citizens of heaven, having his image and called to be real missionaries.

“Lord Jesus, praise and thank you for creating us in your own image and likeness. Help us not to forget this and live as true missionaries so that others may come to follow you too. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

Reflection for the Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) …

A Thought for the day …

Invitation… what’s your excuse? 

The Banquet is prepared. The Hall is ready. The food is on the table. The King has issued the invitations for his son’s wedding feast. You have received one. Your name and RSVP is written on it. He is waiting for your reply. Come!

The feast we are called to share is the eternal banquet that awaits the redeemed in heaven, but we must remember that it begins here on earth. Heaven does not begin when we die; it begins the moment we open our lives to God and decide to follow him. The aperitif is already available for those who don the wedding garment. Ask anyone who has already responded and they will tell you.

The Bridegroom will feed us now (The Eucharist – his Body and Blood; The Scriptures – his Word) so long as we approach him wearing the right heart and mind, dressed in the right attitude and openness, and clothed with a sincere desire to be spiritually fed.

The Bridegroom longs to have us share in his banquet but to be admitted to the Hall and to receive the foretaste it is necessary that we respond now to his invitation and be of the right disposition (the wedding garment) to receive what he wants to give. We must not presume we will be admitted otherwise. We must not put it off to later. Later may be too late.

Do you have any excuses at this moment in your life for turning down his invitation? Are you really so foolish?

– Fr Pat Kelly SMA.
SMA House, Tenafly
NJ, USA

8 October 2017

Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43

A certain couple had 5 children, 4 of whom were generally pleasing to their parents but one of the boys, now 25, had caused problems down the years. He stole money and was imprisoned twice. He was on drugs and had children with 3 different women even though not married to any of them. Obviously he had caused great suffering and embarrassment to the family. The relatives and friends of the father of this boy have been telling him that he should disown his son but they are frustrated as each time he answers: ‘how can I, he is my son and I love him. Maybe with the passing of time he will change his ways’.

Today’s readings can be seen from the point of view of morality i.e. how are we responding to God’s call. Are we good workers in his vineyard etc. and it is one way of viewing the gospel story. But nearly always in the parables, Jesus is trying to tell us something about who God is and his unconditional love for us.

In the parable we note that the owner had prepared everything for the tenant farmers, he has planted the vineyard, put a hedge around it and erected a tower – a symbol of what God does for us in his loving care for us. Are we grateful enough for all that we have received from God.

Next, the vineyard owner, sends his servants to obtain his share of the grapes. We see the terrible response of the tenants. The owner sends more servants, thereby saying that he has forgiven the tenants their awful crime. Sadly, the same thing happens. Then, he decides to send his son, thinking that surely the tenants will respect the son. We wonder if the vineyard owner is totally naïve or crazy to risk this after what had previously been done to his servants whom he sent. Jesus is saying that this is the way God acts towards us humans. In the Old Testament God sent prophet after prophet and many were persecuted or killed. Finally God in his incredible love for us sends his Son and we know the end result. One wonders is God totally naïve or stupid or what. No wonder St. Paul speaks of ‘the foolish love of God’. The answer of course is that this is God’s nature and since ‘God is love’ according to 1 John 4.8. He is not a vindictive God or a punishing God but trying in so many different ways to show how much he loves and cares for us.

The last part of the parable is a question to the listeners and we see their reply: punish them. But God’s response is very different. The very Son of God killed on the cross will become the very Saviour of us all. However, God wants to bring about his kingdom here on earth and if some people refuse to cooperate with God he will choose others in their place not as punishment but simply that they will bear the fruit that will help to bring about his kingdom’.

What is the parable saying to me personally about who God is?

“Lord, maybe we are tempted to think that you are a punishing God or a vindictive God. Help us to hear clearly the message of this and the others parable that you are a God who loves us unconditionally and passionately. May you give us your powerful Holy Spirit to help us respond to you, simply in order to show our deep gratitude and not to try and gain your Love which we cannot do since it is freely given or we cannot lose it from your side since it is never withdrawn but sadly our sinful patterns can lead us to act like the tenant farmers in the face of your total love and concern for us.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

1 October 2017

Ezekiel 18:25-28
Philippians 2:1-11
Matthew 21:28-32

A young priest was appointed to a certain parish. He spoke to the parishioners about his desire to visit the prison and give some help to the prisoners there. He wondered if the parishioners would like to help also. His ideas were very enthusiastically welcomed. The parish priest, much older and very experienced, suggested he phrase the question differently. So next time he asked how many people would like to sign up to participate in prison visiting. Only three did so.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells the parable of two sons who say one thing and do another.

The first son was asked by the father to go and work in his vineyard but he answered no. Later he reconsidered his decision and decided to go. The second son politely said yes to the father but failed to do the work. Who then actually did what the father wanted?

Jesus posed that question to the religious leaders of the people of his time. He invited them to answer the question and their reply was that it was the first son who really did what his father wanted done.

At this time Jesus was nearing his death. For three years he had been preaching to the people inviting them to repent and believe the Good News he offered them. He discovered that it was the public sinners like the tax collectors who responded to his invitation. The religious leaders like the Pharisees and scribes, even after perceiving the divine origin of the message of Jesus still opposed it rather than believing it. They had the same attitude towards John the Baptist, knowing that his teaching came from God. As Jesus said to the religious leaders in the gospel today. “Even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him” v.32.

Religious people and those who claim to be followers of Jesus sometimes are so intent on proving they are right that they fail to hear the voice of reason and the voice of God. We can become so attached to our own wills that we don’t hear or follow the will of God and yet whenever we pray the Our Father we say ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. It is not easy to let go of our own wills. Perhaps it would disturb us a lot to really try and follow God’s will. It might call for some big changes in our lifestyle and ways of relating to God and others.

The parable likens the tax collectors and prostitutes to the son who first said no but later did what his father requested, and the Pharisees and elders to the son who enthusiastically said yes but did not go. One group has no fine words but they have good deeds. The other group has fine words but no corresponding good deeds. They represent two kinds of people and the different ways they try to relate to God. There are those who have no fine words: like those who profess no faith, who do not go to church, who do not pray. But sometimes when there is an injustice they will be the first to rise up and condemn it. When there are people sleeping rough they will be among the first to donate a blanket or even do voluntary part-time work in a shelter for the homeless. Often when there is an appeal to help famine, earthquake or flood victims they will make a contribution. These people have no fine words to say to God or even about God but when they do things such as these, they are doing what God has commanded us all to do.

One can imagine why the Pharisees and Scribes would have been scandalised at the very thought that public sinners would enter the kingdom of God before them. What of us?

How would we respond if we were told that murderers who repented and are now living a good Christian life and involved in works of charity would get into heaven before people who claim to be Christian. These latter are those who do little beyond going to Church and praying novenas but are not following God’s will for them in their daily lives.

Is there no punishment for the sinner then? We can say that there is indeed. The sinner basically punishes himself. The punishment is built into the very sinfulness. This is what Ezekiel is saying today.

Our self-seeking, our hate, anger, aggression, violence, jealousy, resentments, our greed and avarice… all lead to isolation, loneliness, hostility with others and often to physical and mental stress and breakdowns. Sin, which is a refusal to respond to God loving us, brings its own inevitable punishment. Our sins often leave wounds which take a long time to heal. God does not need to punish us; we do that very well by our own choices.

The Good News is that God loves to welcome sinners who repent. He never gives up on us. He is always calling on us to change if we sinning and hurting others and ourselves. If we are blessed enough to be good Christians let us never take this for granted. Any one of us may fall from grace. God never stops loving or blessing us even then.

“Lord Jesus, help us to put your will for us into practice, not only by praying and going to church on Sundays but in doing whatever you ask of us in our daily lives. Amen.”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

10 September 2017 

Ezekiel 33: 7 – 9
Romans 13: 8 – 10
Matthew 18.15-20

Some years ago I was visiting a friend in hospital. As I was about to leave the hospital a nurse who was a religious sister saw me and asked me if I would go to pray over a woman who was dying of stomach cancer. I agreed and we made our way to the room where she was. There were five other beds in the ward. I was introduced to the sick woman and I asked her if she wanted to be prayed over and she answered ‘yes’.  I then said that I would be happy to do this but first of all I would like to pray for her in case there was any unforgiveness in her life which is a major obstacle to healing. She was quite happy about this. So we prayed first of all to heal any possible unforgiveness in her life and then we prayed that the Lord would heal her in the way best for her.

About a week later I met the daughter of the sick woman and asked how her mother was. She said she died two days after my visit to her. But she said a wonderful thing happened the following day. A neighbour to whom she hadn’t spoken for many years over a dispute about land visited the hospital and on hearing my mother was there went to visit her and a marvellous reconciliation took place. The daughter said that that was the best healing possible as she felt that her mother was freed of that obstacle and so was ready to go to her God.

If we read and pray the gospels regularly one thing will surely strike us. That is that after love, forgiveness is perhaps the next most important virtue Jesus speaks of. In the prayer we pray often the Our Father, we pray that God will forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. In fact, forgiveness is the only petition in the Lord’s Prayer that has a condition attached to it. Also, Jesus said to the woman who was caught committing adultery and about to be stoned:  ‘Has no one condemned you?’  ‘No one, Lord.’ she replied.  Jesus then said ‘Neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more’.

A famous American Cistercian monk Thomas Merton once said: ‘God is mercy within mercy, within mercy’. For him mercy or forgiveness almost define who God is.

In the gospel today Jesus speaks about reconciliation. He emphasises how important it is to forgive and to be reconciled with one’s neighbour. The short passage is emphasising the teaching that we should leave no stone unturned in order to be reconciled with any person towards whom there is unforgiveness.

Jesus himself was the great Reconciler. He was always offering the hand of friendship to those who were regarded as great public sinners by the religious leaders of the time. He invited the prostitutes, adulterers, those banned from participating in the synagogue because they were not considered virtuous enough to be his friends to eat with him. This, of course, was nothing short of scandalous in the eyes of the religious leaders and eventually one of the reasons he was put to death.  We have many modern examples in our own times. We recall GordonWilson whose daughter was killed in the Enniskillen bombing in 1987 saying that as a Christian he forgave the killers of his daughter from his heart. In South Africa we have seen how Nelson Mandela after about 27 years in a South African prison began to work for reconciliation between his own people and those who practised apartheid. Instead of there being a bloody civil war, thanks to his heroic attitude much bloodshed was spared. The first reading from the prophet Ezekiel tells us that reconciliation can never be achieved at the expense of Truth and Justice otherwise it won’t work.

In the next little passage about binding and loosing Jesus is not specifically referring to the sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. He is addressing all his disciples, those present and those who will follow.  He is telling us a great psychological truth. A friend of mine once told me that he was asked to visit a certain old man. All his friends told him that the man was a very bad tempered person and was also very impolite. So my friend said he refused to accept what the others said of the old man and went to visit him expecting the best. He was rewarded because the old man was most gracious and welcoming. What my friend had done was to loose the old man from responding as all the others had said of him. We know equally that if we continually tell a child that he or she is no good they will believe this and act accordingly. We can bind them into a very negative self-image.

Jesus, on the other hand, was always telling people how good they were. He invited them to believe this.  No matter how they had acted in the past he saw the potential for change and for goodness. They then began to believe in themselves and change was very possible. Where do you and I stand?  Are we positive in what we say to others? Do we encourage others and give them reason to hope, to reach beyond what they thought possible?

The Good News of today’s gospel is that Jesus, not only wants to forgive us, to reconcile us to himself and others but he actually delights in doing this if we accept what one of the prophets tells us. He is constantly encouraging us, loosing us from who we think we are and can do to be the people he knows us to be: a holy people. We have a royal dignity because we are brothers and sisters of Christ the King.

‘Lord Jesus, give the gift of forgiving all others and of loosing them from whatever binds them by our positive and encouraging attitudes towards them. Amen.’

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

3 September 2017

Jeremiah 20:7-9
Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16.21-27

Some years ago two of our SMA priests were kidnapped in Liberia where there is a terrible civil war. For some time we did not know whether they were alive or dead. Eventually after intermediaries intervened with the rebels the two priests were released. For a long time we have been working in this war torn country at great risk as one never knows what will happen next. And at present we have the Ebola virus to deal with (as do the people we serve in Liberia, Sierre Leone and Nigeria). Yet these men continue to expose themselves to danger because of their strong faith. They know that to follow Jesus involves suffering.

In the gospel today Jesus began to make it clear to Peter and the disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and the Scribes. He was to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. No sooner had Jesus said this than Peter reacted with violence. Peter had been brought up with the idea of a Messiah of power and glory and conquest. For him the idea of a suffering Messiah was incredible, in fact, unthinkable. Peter ‘caught hold’ of Jesus, putting a protecting arm about him to try and stop him from following such a suicidal course. Peter’s words indicate this: ‘This must not and cannot happen to you’. And then came the great rebuke of Jesus that makes us catch our breaths – ‘get behind me Satan’. The literal meaning of the word ‘Satan’ is adversary. Peter’s words were not those of God but humans. What Jesus is saying here is that Peter cannot be the one who leads Jesus. It is the other way round. Jesus is the Messiah and therefore the leader and all others are invited to follow. Jesus’ reaction contains both firmness and welcome. The Lord knows that discipleship involves a process. It takes time to understand and to put into practice.

So Peter’s image of the Messiah, of God, was a God of power and conquest, someone totally in control. Maybe we are like Peter at times. We wonder why God allows so much suffering in the world. Why doesn’t he use his power as we think he should? Again a human way of thinking. Sure, we would like to know but as people of faith and humility we have to bow our heads and accept it. And whether we realise it or not the cross is at the very centre of all our lives. It is easy to say this. But when suffering comes our way even when we try to lead a good life, we might feel tempted to stop following Jesus. The cross is not just on a wall in a room or in a church, or on a hill on Calvary, it is in all our lives when suffering or tragedy visit us. So it is not too difficult to understand Peter’s reaction.

How will we react as Christians when any cross comes along? Jesus has gone the way before us and he invites us to follow him. We have his help and also his Holy Spirit to strengthen us.

We must remember too that each moment of our lives does not involve the cross. We could make people depressed if we gave that interpretation. Reading the gospels we know that Jesus stayed in the houses of Peter, Mary and Martha. He certainly enjoyed eating and being with his friends and their families. But when the cross came he didn’t run away from it. And so too – for you and me – he invites us to do the same. Peter had still to come to a full understanding of what following Jesus involved. It was not just only using the words he used last Sunday: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’ Neither was it the number of miracles or the great popularity Jesus enjoyed earlier on.

The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah is very instructive. He says ‘you seduced me Lord and I let myself be seduced.’ When first called by Yahweh, Jeremiah did not see all the consequences of his call. Later on when speaking the message of Yahweh which the people did not want to hear, he suffered greatly at their hands. Nevertheless he continued to be faithful to his vocation in spite of this.

May it not be the same for us? When couples marry everything is wonderful and full of hope. But married life is varied, as the marriage vows say: better or worse, sickness and health, rich or poor… Same too with religious life. We ‘grow’ in awareness of what our previous decisions means for us. But we can deal with the challenges of our life, with God’s help and the strength of our faith. Our own experience then may help us understand what Jesus meant by saying that he would suffer, be put to death and be raised up on the last day. We need to hear this Good News as well as the rest of his statement about suffering. In fact, we will have many experiences of resurrection, of being raised up in our lives: the birth of a baby or a grandchild; the success of our children at school in spite of many difficulties during their school days and study times; the recovery from a serious accident or health problem etc.

‘Lord Jesus, you invite us to follow you when times are good and enjoyable but also when suffering and difficulties come our way. You have walked the path ahead of us. You know our human struggles and are very patient with us when we fail. Give us your powerful Holy Spirit to help us to be faithful to the end.’

27 August 2017

Isaiah 22:19 – 23
Romans 11:33 – 36
Matthew 16:13 – 20

“Who do you say I am ?”…

We know Peter’s inspirational response – ‘You are the Son of the living God’.

We know the varied opinions of those who met the historical Jesus from Nazareth – ‘John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets’.

But you!  Who do you say He is?

We too have varied opinions about Him and may even relate only to a historical Jesus of Nazareth who died 2000 years ago.  Or like St. Paul, do you recognise and believe in a Risen Christ.   If not, then ‘your faith is useless and my preaching is in vain’.

The risen Christ enables us to reach into the very depths of God which St. Paul refers to in his letter to the Romans. In seeing the person of the Christ we see the nature of God. Christ told his followers ‘if you have seen Me you have seen the Father. The Father and I are one’.

Knowing Christ enables us to plummet the depths of God’s wisdom and knowledge. To come to an understanding of God’s motives and methods. All this while still recognising our dependency on Him. Knowing our place in relation to Him. As St. Paul reminds us today – “who could ever be His counsellor? Who could ever give Him anything or lend Him anything? All that exists comes from Him, all is by Him and for Him. To Him be glory for ever!  Amen.”

Fr Tom Fenlon SMA, SMA House, Claregalway

20 August 2017

Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

An Invitation…
            … to strangers…
                     … can do marvels…

This Gospel story can make us ask, why did Jesus respond to the Canaanite woman in this way?

But perhaps rather than wondering if Jesus did the right thing or not in his response to the woman, it would be better for us to focus on our own life, our relationships and reactions to people who come across our path unexpectedly.

Jesus was in this area – a foreign environment – at the time because of the strong opposition of the Pharisees – he was rejected by the religious leaders.

• How often have you found yourself in a strange environment?
• When last did you feel like a stranger?
• Do you meet people who are not part of your circle of friends or work group?
• When last did you feel rejected?
• Have you said or done something to cause others to feel rejected?

In our changing world new horizons open up daily as more and more people move from their own home base to new environments. The new horizons may come about through personal choice or they may be forced on us by circumstances. No matter which way they come they present a challenge.

The new environment, our personal “region of Tyre and Sidon” can be the place of a new beginning just as it was for Jesus when he met the woman who kept asking for healing for her daughter. The new beginning happens when we get over the initial resistance to what comes at us or when we find ourselves challenged by new demands, new places, new cultures and new needs. While we may not be able to meet all the ways we or others would wish, we know that our choices do make a difference – we grow and others grow by creating a new beginning.

• What new beginnings can you name in your life?
• How has your life been enriched by new beginnings?
• When last did you welcome a ‘stranger’, a rejected or self-rejecting person?
• When did you say to someone, “you have great faith”?
• How is your faith today?

– Fr John Dunne SMA

13th August 2017

1 Kings 19:9, 11-13
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:22-33

For my 7^th birthday my father bought me a beautiful shiny red bicycle. I couldn’t wait to get on it but needed my father to show me how to ride it. The first time I got on it I was reassured by my father walking alongside me with his hand on my shoulder. Once his hand was there I was very confident. Then bit by bit he would take his hand away for a few seconds but still I was confident. I felt then I could risk riding alone but very soon I had a fall and shed tears. For a while my father held out his hand to steady me again and soon I was able to ride by myself.

We all need a helping hand when we take risks, whether learning to walk, passing the driving test or in my case starting to ride a bicycle. In today’s gospel we read of Jesus holding out his hand to Peter when he felt himself sinking beneath the waves. “Do not be afraid”, Jesus said. Peter was a bit overconfident when he asked Jesus to tell him to go across the water to him. But as soon as he felt the force of the wind he took fright and he began to sink. Obviously Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the waves instead and began to sink. Maybe the message for us is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus especially when the storms of life affect us. It’s easy to trust in God (even to believe in God) when things are going along nicely. But when the storms of life happen? That’s the time when we should be even more faithful (full of faith). So in the calm times of life remember to pray for stronger faith so that when the storms come you’ll be able to draw on the wellspring of faith within you to face and overcome the storms.

Going back to the Gospel. Whilst the others remained in the relative security of the boat, Peter took the risk and so discovers his own limitations, frailty and fear. However, in so doing he opens himself up to the saving power of Jesus.

At some time or other we are all faced with very trying circumstances, very difficult decisions, great sorrows, powerful temptations. At those times we are being asked to ‘walk on the water’. There can be situations in which we feel weak and powerless. But if we take a chance, trusting in God, then we will not be alone. As with Peter, Jesus is there to hold us up or walk with us.

A second point from the Readings today:

In the first reading from the First Book of Kings Elijah was surprised that God did not appear in strong wind or in the earthquake or in the fire but in the sound of a gentle breeze. In the Gospel Jesus came to the disciples in a storm. So God is with us when the storms of life assail us but also in the quiet and peaceful times of our lives.

And finally, a third point:

Today’s Gospel has Jesus sending his disciples ahead of him whilst he went up into up into the hills to go apart and commune with his Father. It had been an unexpectedly busy day and so he needs, as do all of us, a time of silence and quiet, a time of contact with God. Do we give ourselves those periods of time apart or do we think that we have too many ‘important’ things to do and so cannot build up a personal relationship with God?

“Lord, increase my faith, my awareness of your presence within and without me and help me to to take the practical steps needed to be at peace even amid difficulties or trials. Amen”.

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14;
2 Peter 1:16-19:
Matthew 17:1-9

6 August 2017

A certain man took a woman work colleague for a meal a number of times and having spent some time with her on different occasions he realized that he would like to marry her. He broached the question of marriage a number of times but she herself didn’t think he was the one for her.  Then one day having agreed to meet for an afternoon snack she suddenly saw him in a completely different light.  It was as if he were transfigured before her very eyes. Eventually they did marry and are still together after 29 years of marriage and three children.

On this day we celebrate the Transfiguration of Our Lord, a foreshadowing of his glorious resurrection and a hint that awaits all who surrender to the Father’s will as Jesus did.

In the gospel today we hear how Jesus was transfigured or transformed.  In the passage just prior to this Jesus explains that those who follow him will have trials and sufferings.  Also the three disciples whom he took with him up the mountain are the same three ones who will be with him in the garden of Gethsemene.  In the Transfiguration scene Jesus wants them to see his glory so that later when he suffers and dies on the cross they might recall his being transfigured so that they might not be overwhelmed by his apparent failure and shameful death. He was preparing them for what was to come. He is also reminding them and each one of us that we too will be transfigured if we try our best to do God’s will.

We know that in his gospel St. John says that eternal life is now.  So the process of Transfiguration begins here on this earth and we all know people and hopefully our own experience bears it out that transformation is possible now.  For example a certain man was an alcoholic and through the support of his family and friends he eventually went to Alcoholic’s Anonymous.  Now, many years later he has overcome his drink problem and as we say, he is a new man.  In another case a couple who had been married for a number of years decided to divorce because their marriage was almost finished.  Friends encouraged them to go to a marriage counsellor and as a result they are now enjoying a happy marriage. 

Isn’t it obvious from the examples we have given that we need the help and encouragement of others to change?  In the gospel account today it is Jesus who takes the initiative.  He takes them up a mountain to be alone. Very often it is when we take time apart or alone with Jesus in prayer and if we can be silent and listen we will surely hear him telling us how great we are. He tells us what the possibilities are for change in our lives and the promise of his help, when he gives the powerful Holy Spirit for us to be able to achieve this.  He doesn’t promise that it will be easy.  In fact, usually growth is a demanding and challenging process. 

Moses and Elijah who appear with Jesus represent the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament reminding us God is a God who is always faithful to his people who told them that they would enter the Promised Land, that they would no longer be slaves in Egypt.  That would be one way in which they would be transformed or transfigured as a people.  God through Jesus is offering us the same freedom from whatever slavery or slaveries that affect our lives.  God wants us transformed or transfigured on all levels, be it spiritually or psychologically or indeed physically.  But we must respond to his ways.  Just as Jesus took the three disciples up the mountain, we must allow Jesus to transfigure us.  We may have to let go of certain prejudices or a refusal to forgive etc.  If we ask Jesus with a desire to be changed he will bring it about.  His only desire is for our freedom, peace and happiness now.

Peter, of course, was so overcome by his experience of the transfiguration of Jesus that he wanted to stay on the mountain forever so that he could rest always in the experience.  But Jesus told him of the need to go back down the mountain to enter the reality of daily living.  Now armed with the experience he could face difficulties and suffering knowing what was possible. Peter speaks of his mountaintop experience in the second reading.

We can be like this too.  We may have had a good experience in prayer or feel God very close and want to hold on to them.  But they are always given to us to help us be of greater service to others.  God’s gifts to us are always for sharing.

Finally, the voice of Jesus’ Father from the cloud is of great importance for us.  ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him’.  It is a confirmation to the three of who Jesus is.  It is also an invitation to each of us to listen more to Jesus.  This is a gift we need to pray for often.

‘Heavenly Father, help us to listen more often to Jesus, to hear what he wishes to reveal to us. Help us to realise too that you can transfigure us also as you did Jesus, if we will allow you to.  Amen’                                           

                                            + Fr.Jim Kirstein, SMA

30 July 2017

1 Kings 3:5-12
Romans 8:28-30
Matthew 13:44-52

Near to where I live in Cork an old man was dying. He had been a farmer all his life. Knowing he would die soon he called his sons and told them that he had hidden his money in a certain part of the farm which was a fairly big one. He explained to them exactly where it was. Then he showed them a copy of his will and how that money was to be divided among his children, his wife being already dead. It was not unusual many years ago for people to hide money in the ground. They distrusted banks especially in those days and felt safer with their money near them, very often in a field or garden.

So in the first little parable of today’s gospel the listeners of Jesus would have understood the background to the parable, as they would have been aware of the practice of people hiding money or treasure in a field or garden. This was still more the case in a land where a man’s garden might at any time become a battlefield. Palestine was probably the most fought over country in the world.  And when war threatened the people it was common practice for them to hide their valuables in the ground before they took to flight, in the hope that they could return one day and could then dig up what they had buried.

It seems that the latest occupant of the land was doing some farming. In other words he was about his daily work when very unexpectedly he came across the treasure. The first thing to notice is that it was during the course of his daily work. For the most part this is where we find God who rarely comes to us in extraordinary ways. If we are aware of God’s Incarnational or ordinary ways of coming to us we may find him much more in our lives than we thought. So when I bring my kids to school and they kiss and hug me on their return, here is surely a sign of God’s kissing and hugging me. When someone calls me on the phone to greet me there is God again inspiring the person to do this. Personally I have never experienced God kissing me or hugging me directly from heaven or phoning me from heaven! Have you? 

The other point in this little parable is the unexpected nature of finding the treasure. The parables suggest that things seem to happen by chance therefore surprising us. It is a way of saying that we are in the presence of mystery.  God’s gifts are always like that: totally free, unexpected and undeserved.

The main point of this little parable is the joy of the discovery that made the man willing to give up everything in order to make the treasure his own. The question begs itself. Is God our treasure? Are we so surprised by all the blessings we discover going through life that we will let go or give up all behaviour and attitudes that are contrary to God’s will.  Perhaps the most surprising aspect of all is that God regards us, his children, as his greatest treasure and he was prepared to give up all, even the life of Jesus on the cross for us, so that we could receive the fulness of life he has planned for us.  Is not this Good News?

In the second little parable the man is really searching for fine pearls. He finds a pearl of great price. And like the hidden treasure he is prepared to sell all he has and buy it. Are there not many people in our world searching for the pearl of great price, whatever or whoever it may be. We all search for a lasting happiness. Many search for it in wrong places or relationships. Many have tried these and found they didn’t answer their desires. Finally some turned to God and there found the pearl of great price they had been looking for. St.Augustine was one of these. Before his conversion he even sought it in a relationship with a woman with whom he a child. But it didn’t answer his deepest needs. Finally he turned to God and there he found the pearl of great price. The second little parable reminds us that God ought to be the pearl of great price in our lives. But is this true for you and me? Perhaps our lack of faith and trust prevents us from seeing God as such. Why not pray to him often to reveal himself to us as that great pearl and that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes and help us to respond generously and joyfully.

The third parable is that of a fishing net cast into the sea. Such a net does not select or discriminate. It is bound to include all it comes across. Jesus is telling us more Good News here. The Church is made up of saints and sinners. This is meant to be a reflection of God’s inclusive attitude towards us his children. The life of Jesus clearly showed this. He welcomed everyone.  It was one of the main reasons he was put the death. Most of the Jewish religious leaders were scandalised that Jesus accepted public sinners, adulterers, prostitutes, tax collectors etc as his friends. Can we do otherwise?

Just as a time of separation comes for the fisherman who keep the good fish and throw away the ones of no use, so too a time of separation will come when God will judge us. We are warned by Jesus not to judge others. All such separation must be left to God who is very compassionate, just and merciful.

“Lord Jesus, the three parables you have used in today’s gospel tell us that you are the treasure we really want to have, as well as being the pearl of great price. Help us not to settle for anything less. Amen”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

23 July 2017

Wisdom 12.13, 16-19
Romans 8.26-27
Matthew 13.24-43

A certain boy started High School. He was quite intelligent as well as being good at sport. But he came from a disturbed family. The father had a drink problem and he and the wife were continually arguing and fighting. Before long this boy started to disturb the other boys in his class. At first he was warned to change his ways. But he didn’t seem to be able to do this. Then his parents were asked to see the principal of the school. As soon as he saw the parents he knew where the boy’s troublesome behaviour came from. Against the advice of a number of teachers who wanted to expel the boy for disturbing regularly, the principal who could see his great potential resisted. He took a personal interest in the boy who gradually because of the trust and concern of the principal began to improve his behaviour, eventually rewarding the principal’s patience and trust in him by graduating near the top of his class.

The opening parable of the gospel today is saying something similar. A farmer sowed good seed in his field but during the night his enemy came and sowed darnel or weeds among the wheat. When the wheat began to grow, the weeds appeared as well. The servants of the farmer felt the obvious thing to do was to pull out the weeds there and then. Amazingly the farmer said ‘no’. Rather, he told them to wait until harvest time and then they could gather the weeds in bundles and burn them.

The parable is telling us that the farmer is God. God sows only good seed in our lives. Yet he knows that in the world there are people who live good lives and some who act in an evil way. This is quite obvious to us these days when we hear or see on our TV screens all the terrorist attacks in our world, many civil wars, not to mention the sexual exploitation of women and children as well as so much injustice. Many people ask the question ‘why doesn’t God weed out this people now and destroy them?’ The parable gives the answer. Like the school principal in the story only much more so, God sees the possibility for change in each of us. He is the God of many chances. He keeps on giving us more and more opportunities to change our ways. Why? Well, because he is God and that is the way God acts if we are to believe what Jesus does and teaches in the gospels. So Jesus is saying that it is God alone who makes the separation and amazingly he will only do so at the end of time. Where would any of us stand if it were otherwise and God weeded us out now? Which of us is without fault?

The Good News is that the parable is underlining the incredible patience and longsuffering of God towards us. He knows that there is the potential for good and evil in each of us. We all know this from our daily experience. And aren’t we all very blessed that God sees the great potential for goodness in each of us and gives us time to change. St.Peter says ‘think of God’s patience as your opportunity to be saved’.

Another reason why God allows the weeds in our lives even if he doesn’t put them there, is that if we didn’t have any struggles or shortcomings we would most probably not feel our need for God. Experience tells us that it is when difficulties, suffering and trials come our way that we turn to God with greater focus and intensity. The terrorist attack of September 11 was a good example of this when many people who had lost interest in religion started praying and turning to God for strength and comfort.

In the parable the enemy came when everyone was asleep. By this we are reminded that in our lives as Christians we need to be vigilant. Isn’t it easy enough to get sucked into what is popular and to follow the present trends. For example we hear people saying ‘ I am living with my boy or girlfriend’. After all many people are doing it. Or, if many people, even public personalities take bribes why shouldn’t I? Or again many people tell lies, why should I suffer by telling the truth. Does that mean that by doing these we are just in God’s eyes? For sure God will not punish us for these things but we will certainly punish ourselves and others whether we are found out or not. This is why God is giving us the time to convert as he knows we will suffer if we allow the weeds to become part of our lives. Sadly they can choke the wheat of peace and joy in our lives if we are not vigilant. We need to call often on God for his Holy Spirit to help us.

The parables of this chapter 13 of Matthew’s gospel are about the presence of God’s kingdom in history and this involves a process. The kingdom does not arrive suddenly. Nor does conversion take place all at once. For most of us it starts in a small way. This ought to encourage us. The parables of the yeast and the mustard seed in today’s gospel confirm this.   God is patient with us.

Finally, the parable about the wheat and weeds leaves no room for ambiguous or lukewarm positions. We cannot choose both as Christians. When we are confronted with our own dishonesty or violation of basic of human rights we cannot be spectators. We have to choose life or death. We are constantly being called to be life-giving wheat. God knows we are capable of this and gives us his Spirit to do so.

“Lord Jesus, help us to be more and more the life-giving wheat for others that you were. Amen”

Fr.Jim Kirstein, SMA

16 July 2017

Isaiah 55.10-11
Romans 8.18-23
Matthew 13.1-23

A number of years ago I visited the local Catholic community in a very poor agricultural area of Nigeria, an African country. These people were farmers and depended totally on their millet harvest for survival. Whenever they harvested their crops they would always set aside a certain quantity of seeds for sowing when the following Wet Season began. At the sowing time I noticed how careful they were not to waste a single seed because their future depended each time on how much they harvested.

On reading today’s gospel what a contrast we see. The Sower of the seed in the gospel parable seems very wasteful in comparison to the poor farmers I met in Nigeria who just could not afford to do the same. This farmer or sower seems to scatter the seed in all directions without being too worried whether some of it would bear fruit or not. He allows some to fall on the path, some on patches of rock, others among thorns and the remainder on rich soil. So it is as if he is prepared to accept the fact that quite an amount of seeds will not bear fruit. What is Jesus saying? He is telling us very clearly that God our Father is the Sower. And he is so incredibly generous with his gifts to us and that he is prepared to accept that much of the seed scattered, symbolising the talents given us, will not give the return he would wish from us. Yet he is not a miserly, mean God. His scattering of so much seed is telling us more about God’s generosity to us than about anything else. It is saying very obviously that God gives his gifts first of all simply because this is the kind of God we have, a sign of his great love for us. His giving of the gifts does not depend on the return he will receive or the attractiveness of the person who receives the gifts. He continues to lavish us with his gifts so that hopefully sooner or later we will realise his goodness and make a proper response. This is the most important lesson of the parable.

Why did Jesus teach in parables? Well, the purpose of a parable is for the listener to discover something about God and about him/herself. The reader is left to wrestle with the parable to see what it is saying. Since that time the Christian community has given a number of interpretations.

Jesus told this parable at a time when many people were leaving him, they had stopped following him. It was a time of frustration and disappointment for himself and his followers. So the parable envisages this situation of frustration in Jesus’ ministry and it sought to assure the disciples of the ultimate triumph of God’s reign on earth. The seed will eventually bear fruit. The beautiful first reading from the prophet Isaiah today gives the same encouraging message.

The parable is meant to encourage the disciples telling them that in the end God’s purpose would be achieved even if at that point in time it didn’t appear likely. It calls for patience and trust in the final victory of God. Could not such a message be transferred easily to the Church’s situation today when there are a number of scandals, persecutions, many frustrations, failures, as well as many leaving the Church?

There are also other lessons to be gained from today’s parable. We heard how the parable first applies to God and his great generosity to us. It is meant to encourage us too in a time of doubt and questioning. But it also involves a response on our part. God in his love gives us the freedom to respond or not. He asks for our cooperation but will not force it. So how do we hear the word of God and how do we respond to it? Four conditions are presented in the parable. In the first three the word is not accepted for various reasons. Only in the last case is the result good. The lack of success comes from not listening to or refusing to hear the word. Some will say I have no time yet spend hours watching TV or using their computers. Others spend so many hours trying to make more money so haven’t time to pray. Others would like instant gratification or success like instant food but listening to the Word of God demands patience and quietness, not easy to do today.

Today’s three readings ask the question: How do we hear the Word of God? And what a difference it makes when one hears it. But the Word of God is not like ordinary information like giving us the weather forecast. God’s word is like rain on the earth, or like the seed. It changes things. It interacts: it makes possible something new, a new harvest. It is alive; and therefore needs, like all living things an environment that will support life. So we need to provide the conditions in our life, the good soil for God’s seed, for his word to bear fruit. We do this by living good Christian lives, by prayer and good works.

Finally, if we allow ourselves to be nourished by prayer and by God’s word, the result is remarkable. Normally 10% is regarded as a good return on seed sown. But here Jesus promises 30, 60 or even 100%. What commercial bank today would give such a return for an investment?

“Lord Jesus, we pray that the soil of our lives may be very rich so that when the seed of your word falls into it, it may bear much fruit and help to bring about your kingdom on earth. Amen”

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

2 July 2017

2 Kings 4:8-11. 14-16
Psalm 88:2-3. 16-19

Romans 6:3-4.8-11
Matthew 10: 37-42

   Some months after his ordination in 1963 an SMA priest was about to leave for his first missionary appointment in Africa. His mother said to him then, ‘this is the day I was always dreading, when you would leave home for your missionary work with the fear that I might never see you again.’ He too also felt it very hard to say goodbye to his parents and family. It was as if part of him died the day he left for the first time. He returned from Africa many times over the following years, seeing his parents and family. But each time he left home he said it was more difficult since his parents were getting older and he never knew if he would see them again.

That story reminded me of the gospel today when Jesus says to his disciples, ‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me’. It is the concluding part of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples who are to be sent on mission. Although their master gives the disciples a body of teachings, first and foremost they receive a mission for their lives. This is why this mission must take precedence over all other relationships, which are given their proper place and not denied. The missionary must be prepared for rejection, suffering, even death.  This is not a kind of masochistic or self-inflicted suffering but it helps the person to commit himself to God more fully.  The result is that he will enjoy a great peace and joy

We might think then that the gospel today applies only to missionaries and not to the rest of us. This is to interpret the gospel in too narrow a way.  It is for all of us. We are commanded to give God the first place in our lives. We are told not to prefer any other person or thing to him. This, in fact, is the first commandment. So if I am married then my commitment is to my wife and family but not in such a way that God fades from my life.  My relationship with God is not just one among others. It has to be given first place. Besides Jesus is not only talking about relationships.  He is saying that any thing or obsession may get in the way.  Spending a lot of time on video games or working with a computer might take up so such of my time that I have no time for prayer or to go to Mass.  Equally money, status, drink, drugs or workaholism could remove God from the centre of our lives or indeed altogether.

The reason why Jesus is warning us not to put any of these in the first spot in our lives in place of God is for our own good. He knows and we know if we reflect on our past experiences that none of these gives lasting happiness.  We may have a lot of pleasure or wellbeing for a short while but it just doesn’t last.  So in his great love for us he is warning us against giving them more value than is good for us.

Jesus also says that ‘anyone who finds his life will lose it and anyone who loses his life for his sake will find it’. What does he mean? He is saying that there is no place for a policy of safety first in the Christian life. The person who first of all seeks ease, comfort, security and the fulfilment of personal ambition may well get all these things – but he will not be a happy person for he was sent into the world to serve God and his fellow men and women. This is the one who sets out to find his life but in the end loses it. The opposite is that we fulfill God’s purpose for us by spending ourselves selflessly for others, be it our families, friends and especially in real service for the poor and those deprived. This is the way to true happiness and friendship with God both now and in the life to come.  This person loses his life but in reality has found it.

The last part of his discourse today is about welcome. Someone has said that welcome and hospitality were the very basis of the ministry of Jesus. He was constantly welcoming people, whether they were Jews or Gentiles, virtuous or sinners. Little wonder people flocked to him because they knew they were fully welcome. Hospitality constitutes a major theme in both the first reading and the gospel.  Jesus identifies what is done to others as done to himself even in those people in whom it is difficult to see any identification with him. If we want a simple concrete proof of whether we love God or not then the way we love and welcome others is the direct proof.  And if our prayer does not lead to this then our prayer is surely suspect. The basis of all hospitality is that we all belong to one family and that every person is a brother or sister in a very real (and not just a ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ sense). It can, in the words of the Gospel, be something as simple as offering a cup of cold water. Unfortunately, in our affluent urban societies, the protection of our material goods now usually takes priority over welcoming the stranger. The open door has been replaced by iron bars, alarms and surveillance cameras. It is again a sign of the serious distortion of our values and a breakdown in human relationships. But at least the Eucharist surely ought to be the place where at least everyone might feel welcome especially newcomers to the area. The ‘kiss of peace’ is a symbol of our desire to welcome whomever we might meet after the celebration.

“Lord Jesus, help us not to prefer any other person or thing to you. Help us to lose our lives in order to find them and give us the great gift of hospitality and welcome.  Amen”.

Fr.Jim Kirstein, SMA [RIP]

18 June 2017

Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16.  
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
John 6:51-58

Reflection for Feast of Corpus Christi…

Christ embraces everyone…

Some years ago, I was driving through the streets of Ibadan, Nigeria, on a Sunday evening as dusk was approaching. The streets were teeming with people. Radiant coloured cloth of every hue against the black skin was a thing of beauty for the senses. It was a mixture of play and noise and laughter and, yes, chaos. It was ‘Corpus Christi’  – not the feast of Corpus Christi, it was ‘Corpus Christi’. Humanity’s happiest people celebrating life.

In Jesus’ “priestly prayer” towards the end of St John’s gospel we read: “Father, glorify your Son … and, through the power over all humankind that you have given him, let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him”. All are included. No one is excluded. All of humanity and all of creation are included: Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, non-believer – all are included.  Corpus Christi

Jesus left us his own Body and Blood in sacramental form. “The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world”. The Eucharist is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life’ [CCC 1324]. We worship, we praise, we receive, we eat, we become one with Our Lord.

To what end? To feel comfortable? To be ‘settled’ in a cosy relationship with Jesus? To avoid or escape from the problems of living? That’s the temptation and it’s an attractive one. But it is not the Gospel.

To recognise ‘Corpus Christi’ in the sacred species but to deny it in the teeming masses of an Ibadan street or any street is incorrect and invalid.

May we truly worship the sacred Host, the true Presence, the Body of Christ – Corpus Christi – so as to be better able to recognise and appreciate His presence in our sisters and brothers everywhere in the world.

May we truly become the Body of Christ.

Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA Generalate, Rome, Italy

The HOLY TRINITY
11 June 2017

Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

I once heard a story about a young Dublin lad with a lisp. While making his Confirmation the poor lad got the dreaded nod to come forth to answer a question from no lesser a character than the formidable Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John McQuaid. Archbishop McQuaid asked the boy to explain what is meant by the Holy Trinity. The boy had learned verbatim what was in the Catechism and repeated it by rote:

“By the Holy Trinity is meant that in God there are three Divine persons.”

However, the boy’s lisp made it difficult for the Archbishop to understand, so he asked the boy to repeat it. Indeed, he asked him to repeat it a third time, with the same incomprehension. The Archbishop looked at the boy who was, by now, becoming ever more frustrated and embarrassed and said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.”

“You’re not supposed to understand,” the boy blurted out. “It’s a mystery!”

Whether or not the story is true, the mystery of the Holy Trinity is certainly the compelling element of our faith, for it is about us trying to understand the very nature of God.

Legend has it that while trying to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity to the Irish, St. Patrick plucked a shamrock and demonstrated that its three-lobed leaves emanated from one stem.

Albert Einstein once said: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” He also said: “Any fool can make things more complex. It takes a touch of genius to move in the opposite direction.”

We certainly can recognize the kind of genius Einstein talks about in the use of the shamrock as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity. I’m not so sure, however, about those who decided to change the wording of the Creed from “one in being with the Father” to “consubstantial with the Father”.

In my seminary days, I certainly came across tomes about God and the Holy Trinity that filled my mind, not with enlightenment, but with a fog of confusion and made me feel stupid.

Today’s readings are quite revealing in helping us to grasp the nature of our Trinitarian God: Father, Son and their Love for one another that is the Holy Spirit.

In the first reading, God is revealed to Moses as a God of compassion, slow to anger, patient, merciful and true.

In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul encourages the brothers and sisters to rejoice – to strive for perfection, to be of one mind, to encourage one another and to live in peace. The reward, he promises, will be that “the God of love and peace” will be with us.

And, again, in John’s Gospel, we are presented with a God of such tender love and compassion who, in wishing to help us understand His/Her love of humanity, sent Jesus “not to judge the world” but to save it so that we might have life everlasting.

Sometimes we can think too deeply and make things that are really simple appear complex to the point of incomprehension. It is the same with the Holy Trinity. All that we need to remember is that we are made in the image of the Trinitarian God of Love (Father = Mind; Son = Body; Holy Spirit = Soul/Spirit).

We are called to cherish our uniqueness and to cherish the uniqueness of each and every person in the human family who too are temples of God. St. Elizabeth of the Trinity wrote: “I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God, and God is in my soul.”

God is Love. We are made to Love. Love is a perpetual dialogue and fusion, which is what the Holy Trinity is. When we who are formed out of love, love in return, we too are the co-creators of the same Holy Spirit that is the love of the Father and Son.

And that reminds me of another quotation from Albert Einstein. On 9 July 1955, Einstein and the British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, published a Manifesto which began:

“In the tragic situation which confronts humanity, we feel that scientists should assemble in conference to appraise the perils that have arisen as a result of the development of weapons of mass destruction… ”

Before calling the Governments of the world to acknowledge publically: “… that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war … and to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them”, the manifesto starkly stated:

Remember your humanity,

and forget the rest.

The same is true of Christians. And, if we were to write a manifesto, we too can starkly state:

Remember your origins,

God is Love – We are called to Love,

– and forget the rest.”

                                                                                                                                                           EDBM-P

Locked up Holy Spirit

                Readings:    Acts 2:1-11    1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 11-13   John 20:19-23

When great people die we often say their “spirit” lives after them. It’s not really their “spirit” – this accompanies them to await the final judgement. It’s really their “memory” that lives on and continues for a time to inspire their family, friends, followers. …

Jesus was different. After his Spirit ascended with him to heaven an amazing thing happened. On Pentecost he sent his Spirit back again into his disciples! He still sends his Spirit upon his followers today. Nobody else ever did that. The same Spirit that filled Jesus on earth – that empowered him to heal the sick and raise the dead – now lives in all who are open to receive him. On Pentecost we ponder this amazing truth!

“If this power abides in us” you ask, “why don’t I experience it? Why am I full of fears and anxieties? Why can’t I do the things that Jesus did?” (Read Mt.17:20) Lack of faith and trust can block this power being manifested in our lives.

The Holy Spirit is often represented as a dove. Imagine this dove locked up in a bird-cage. “I have the Holy Spirit” you say. “I received the Holy Spirit at Baptism and Confirmation.” Yes, he dwells in you – but perhaps you don’t give him any freedom. Perhaps you don’t take time to encounter his presence within you or don’t trust him to guide your life. The result  – you don’t experience his power. The Holy Spirit locked in a cage. (Read Rom.8:11). This Pentecost – open the cage door!

– Fr Pat Kelly SMA Tenafly, USA

The Ascension of the Lord
28 May 2017

Acts of Apostles 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:17-23
Matthew 28.16 -20

A few years a certain man was driving along in his car and suddenly another car came out of a side street and collided with the car in front of him. He went to court as a witness and although the lawyers of the driver who caused the accident tried to show that this witness may not have seen things exactly as they happened, he simply kept repeating what he saw. He spoke from his personal experience of the accident and was so convincing as he never changed what he said no matter how often he was questioned, the judge was in no doubt that he was telling things exactly as he had witnessed them.

Today’s feast of the Ascension is a call to the disciples of Jesus to be witnesses to all the world of what they experienced when they were with him while he was still alive. It is interesting that today’s gospel from St.Matthew does not focus on the Ascension as such but on the sending of the apostles to carry out his mission to make disciples of all nations. What matters about the Ascension is not so much about how it happened as to what it means, namely that the time of visible Jesus on earth is ended for he is now in glory in heaven. It is now the time of the apostles and the Church.

For the apostles the Ascension obviously meant three things:

1) It was an ending. One stage had past and another had begun. The day when their faith was faith in a flesh and blood person, Jesus of Nazareth has gone. Their faith depended on his being with them physically. Now they are linked to someone who is forever independent of space and time.

2) But it was equally a beginning. The disciples did not leave the scene heartbroken. They left it with great joy. Now they knew they had a master from whom they would never be separated. Did he not say: ‘And know that I am with you always to the end of time.’ So rather than seeing the Ascension just as the departure of Jesus we should see it as the sending of the Church on mission (you, me and all Christians). We are being asked to take the place of Jesus. Wow! Rather than seeing the Church as an orphan it should be seen as being given adult status, being given the responsibility to witness to Jesus Christ. That is how much trust and confidence Jesus has in us to continue his work

3) Still further, the Ascension gives the disciples the certainty that they had a friend not only on earth but also in heaven. Surely it is the most priceless thing of all to know and feel that in heaven there awaits us that self-same Jesus who on earth was so marvellously kind. To die is not to go out into the dark; it is to go to him.

In the story at the beginning it was the personal experience of the man who witnessed the accident that gave him the assurance to witness clearly and simply. So too for us as Christians we will be able to witness to Jesus only to the extent of our own personal experience of him. What then is the extent of my personal relationship to Jesus? Do I allow him to be a true friend, someone to whom I feel close? Does my personal experience of what he has done for me in my life make me want to share my knowledge of him with others? It is like a young man who has fallen in love and keeps on telling his friends about his girlfriend. He feels more alive because of her. Is it like that with Jesus and me? If not maybe I should pray to have this personal experience of him.

The first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles tells us that Jesus informed the apostles that they were not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for what the Father had promised, in other words to be baptised with the Holy Spirit. It was as if Jesus was telling them very clearly that unless they had this Holy Spirit they could not possibly witness to him, as he would have wished them to. It is almost as if he is telling them. ‘Please, please, do not claim to be my disciples, my followers if you try to do this without the help of the powerful Holy Spirit because it is impossible without his help’. Trying to be a disciple of Jesus, a close follower of his is just not possible without the Holy Spirit whom we receive in Baptism and Confirmation. But whether we are aware of this and live out of this reality is another thing altogether.

The first reading also tells us that when Jesus ascended into heaven the apostles were gazing into the sky as he was taken from their sight. But the two men in white standing there ask ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky?’ They are being told clearly that the Ascension rather than pointing to the skies directs the believers attention to the vast horizon of their mission on earth.

One very consoling fact in the gospel is that when the apostles saw him as he was about to ascend they fell down before him, though some hesitated. This phrase, ‘though some hesitated’ gives each of us so much courage and hope. That even though we may have certain doubts and hesitations about some aspects of our faith, these in themselves are no barriers to God using us. He sent out some hesitant apostles to be his witnesses. Can he not do the same with us if we offer ourselves to him?

‘Lord Jesus, help us to be true witnesses to you on earth with the help of the powerful Holy Spirit. Amen’

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

21 May 2017

Spirit of Truth…

“On a huge hill, cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and he that will Reach her, about must, and about must go;  And what the hill’s suddenness resists, win so”                                                             – John Donne

The desire for truth is a fundamental aspiration of the human spirit.

This desire includes the desire to know the truth about what is happening in the world around us, but it is much more than that.

It is a desire for truth with a capital T. It is a desire a truth that not only illuminates the mind but that also liberates the heart. It is a truth that cannot be defined by words, only by living. Truth with a capital T is always more than knowledge. Knowledge is about things observed, but truth transcends the purely material levels. It is linked to wisdom and embraces the mysteries of who we are, where we came from and where we are going.

Knowledge originates in science; wisdom in true philosophy; truth in the religious experience of spiritual living. Knowledge deals with facts; wisdom, with relationships; truth, with ultimate values.

This is the Truth the 16th century English poet John Donne is referring to in the lines quoted above, lines which present the quest for truth as an arduous uphill journey.

In the Gospel today Christ tells us, however, that we are not alone in this quest. He sends us a helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to accompany us in the quest. 

The Spirit of Truth not only teaches us a vision of life totally in harmony with the vision of God himself but guides us in all our decisions, actions and relationships, so that we may live by that vision. 

– Fr Michael McCabe SMA

21 May 2017

Spirit of Truth…

“On a huge hill, cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and he that will Reach her, about must, and about must go;  And what the hill’s suddenness resists, win so”                                                             – John Donne

The desire for truth is a fundamental aspiration of the human spirit.

This desire includes the desire to know the truth about what is happening in the world around us, but it is much more than that.

It is a desire for truth with a capital T. It is a desire a truth that not only illuminates the mind but that also liberates the heart. It is a truth that cannot be defined by words, only by living. Truth with a capital T is always more than knowledge. Knowledge is about things observed, but truth transcends the purely material levels. It is linked to wisdom and embraces the mysteries of who we are, where we came from and where we are going.

Knowledge originates in science; wisdom in true philosophy; truth in the religious experience of spiritual living. Knowledge deals with facts; wisdom, with relationships; truth, with ultimate values.

This is the Truth the 16th century English poet John Donne is referring to in the lines quoted above, lines which present the quest for truth as an arduous uphill journey.

In the Gospel today Christ tells us, however, that we are not alone in this quest. He sends us a helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to accompany us in the quest. 

The Spirit of Truth not only teaches us a vision of life totally in harmony with the vision of God himself but guides us in all our decisions, actions and relationships, so that we may live by that vision. 

– Fr Michael McCabe SMA

14 May 2017

Acts of Apostles 6.1-7
1 Peter 2.4-9
John 14.1-12

Sometime ago I met a woman whose husband had died very suddenly because of cancer and she herself had been recently diagnosed with cancer too. She said that it was obvious to her that God was punishing her. When I asked why, she replied that many years ago when her husband was working for his company overseas for a few months she had had an affair with another man. She became pregnant and had had an abortion. She believed that the cancer now was God’s way of punishing her. This is certainly not true. But she is like many people who believe that God punishes them because of their sins. Yet Jesus spent a great amount of time during his public life healing people. Nowhere do we find Jesus punishing people for wrongdoing. And in the Garden of Gethsemene he begged his Father to spare him the suffering that he would undergo because of his enemies. How then can we say God punishes us?

In the gospel today Philip says to Jesus: ‘Let us see the Father and we will be satisfied’. Jesus replies: ‘Have I been with you all this time Philip and you still do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen the Father.’ Many of us have grown up with and maybe still have a wrong image of God. Jesus is telling us very clearly here that when we read the gospels and see him in action we see who God really is and to say that God punishes us is to deny how Jesus lived and loved. We must of course avoid the danger of thinking that I can do anything I like since God doesn’t punish me. That would be an insult to God instead of doing his will in gratitude. It would also lead us to punish ourselves. One simple example is that if I decide to have casual sex and get AIDS, who punishes me? Surely myself, certainly not God.

So who is the God Jesus reveals to us by his own life? He tells us as he did to Philip: ‘Look at me and you will know who God is’. Of course, Jesus as a human being was limited whereas God is not but in the fullest way possible, humanly speaking. Jesus reveals to us who God our Father is and what he is like.

The first thing we can say is that Jesus reveals a God who is a Consoling God. Here in today’s gospel Jesus is trying to console the disciples. They hear that he is going away and so they are fearful of the future. He simply says ’Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me’. I will not leave you orphans. I will not abandon you. I will be with you every step of the way through the Holy Spirit that I will send you. It was like when my uncle was dying and had two young children. On his deathbed he asked his brother to promise that he would take care of his children after he died. The brother promised he would and in fact did so. Is the promise of Jesus any less trustworthy than that?

Jesus also assures them that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We all know that in our world today, on TV, on the radio, through advertisements that there are many calls on us to listen to these as if they could give us happiness. Jesus is telling us very simply and clearly that he will guide us if we turn to him and try to live by his values and teaching. It is one thing to know the Truth and to know the Way, what makes Jesus so different is that he is the Life. He is the Lifegiver who empowers us to be lifegivers in turn. I can only say from my own personal experience that the more I try and live by the gospel values of Jesus by calling on the help of the Holy Spirit the more certain I am that the way of Jesus who is the Way is the only sure path for me. I know equally how life-giving he has been and is for me.

Then Jesus gives us this incredible promise. “Whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works because I am going to the Father”. This might seem an exaggeration but it is not. We know Jesus was limited to his own areas and time. Today his name is known all over because his followers wherever they went brought their faith in Jesus with them. This is seen in the lives of all the poor Europeans who emigrated to the United States in the last centuries. Most were uneducated but they lived by their faith and witnessed to Jesus. They would hardly have thought of themselves as missionaries but they certainly were. They spread the kingdom far beyond what Jesus did.

Jesus is telling us how incredibly good we are in his and so in God’s eyes. He is affirming us as best he can saying that we can do marvellous things to bring about his kingdom. We don’t have to be priests or religious. When we do acts of love, forgive people, share with others and all this very often in small, hidden ways we participate in doing what Jesus was doing. We owe it to Jesus and God and ourselves to believe in our own capacity for greatness mostly through small daily acts of kindness. By the way we pass on the faith and gospel values to our children etc. Jesus believes in us, do we believe in ourselves?

Then when Jesus promises the disciples that there are many rooms in his father’s house, he is saying that Heaven is as wide as God’s heart which is limitless. He says that there is room for us all if we choose to go there.

“Lord Jesus, how can we ever thank you enough for all your goodness to us? Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

14 May 2017

Acts of Apostles 6.1-7
1 Peter 2.4-9
John 14.1-12

Sometime ago I met a woman whose husband had died very suddenly because of cancer and she herself had been recently diagnosed with cancer too. She said that it was obvious to her that God was punishing her. When I asked why, she replied that many years ago when her husband was working for his company overseas for a few months she had had an affair with another man. She became pregnant and had had an abortion. She believed that the cancer now was God’s way of punishing her. This is certainly not true. But she is like many people who believe that God punishes them because of their sins. Yet Jesus spent a great amount of time during his public life healing people. Nowhere do we find Jesus punishing people for wrongdoing. And in the Garden of Gethsemene he begged his Father to spare him the suffering that he would undergo because of his enemies. How then can we say God punishes us?

In the gospel today Philip says to Jesus: ‘Let us see the Father and we will be satisfied’. Jesus replies: ‘Have I been with you all this time Philip and you still do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen the Father.’ Many of us have grown up with and maybe still have a wrong image of God. Jesus is telling us very clearly here that when we read the gospels and see him in action we see who God really is and to say that God punishes us is to deny how Jesus lived and loved. We must of course avoid the danger of thinking that I can do anything I like since God doesn’t punish me. That would be an insult to God instead of doing his will in gratitude. It would also lead us to punish ourselves. One simple example is that if I decide to have casual sex and get AIDS, who punishes me? Surely myself, certainly not God.

So who is the God Jesus reveals to us by his own life? He tells us as he did to Philip: ‘Look at me and you will know who God is’. Of course, Jesus as a human being was limited whereas God is not but in the fullest way possible, humanly speaking. Jesus reveals to us who God our Father is and what he is like.

The first thing we can say is that Jesus reveals a God who is a Consoling God. Here in today’s gospel Jesus is trying to console the disciples. They hear that he is going away and so they are fearful of the future. He simply says ’Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me’. I will not leave you orphans. I will not abandon you. I will be with you every step of the way through the Holy Spirit that I will send you. It was like when my uncle was dying and had two young children. On his deathbed he asked his brother to promise that he would take care of his children after he died. The brother promised he would and in fact did so. Is the promise of Jesus any less trustworthy than that?

Jesus also assures them that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We all know that in our world today, on TV, on the radio, through advertisements that there are many calls on us to listen to these as if they could give us happiness. Jesus is telling us very simply and clearly that he will guide us if we turn to him and try to live by his values and teaching. It is one thing to know the Truth and to know the Way, what makes Jesus so different is that he is the Life. He is the Lifegiver who empowers us to be lifegivers in turn. I can only say from my own personal experience that the more I try and live by the gospel values of Jesus by calling on the help of the Holy Spirit the more certain I am that the way of Jesus who is the Way is the only sure path for me. I know equally how life-giving he has been and is for me.

Then Jesus gives us this incredible promise. “Whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works because I am going to the Father”. This might seem an exaggeration but it is not. We know Jesus was limited to his own areas and time. Today his name is known all over because his followers wherever they went brought their faith in Jesus with them. This is seen in the lives of all the poor Europeans who emigrated to the United States in the last centuries. Most were uneducated but they lived by their faith and witnessed to Jesus. They would hardly have thought of themselves as missionaries but they certainly were. They spread the kingdom far beyond what Jesus did.

Jesus is telling us how incredibly good we are in his and so in God’s eyes. He is affirming us as best he can saying that we can do marvellous things to bring about his kingdom. We don’t have to be priests or religious. When we do acts of love, forgive people, share with others and all this very often in small, hidden ways we participate in doing what Jesus was doing. We owe it to Jesus and God and ourselves to believe in our own capacity for greatness mostly through small daily acts of kindness. By the way we pass on the faith and gospel values to our children etc. Jesus believes in us, do we believe in ourselves?

Then when Jesus promises the disciples that there are many rooms in his father’s house, he is saying that Heaven is as wide as God’s heart which is limitless. He says that there is room for us all if we choose to go there.

“Lord Jesus, how can we ever thank you enough for all your goodness to us? Amen”.

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

19 June 2016

Zechariah 12.10-11, 13.1
Galatians 3.26-29
Luke 9.18-24 

A certain elderly woman who lived overseas rarely visited her brothers and only sister who still lived in the country of their birth. On one such visit she commented to a friend that she was not very impressed by her sister’s husband as she felt he was rather impatient and moody. When her sister heard about these comments she replied: ‘obviously she doesn’t know my husband very well as she rarely visits us.  I have lived with him for 30 years. I know him very, very well and he is a marvelous husband. Like all of us he has human limitations but I am really happy I married him’.

In the gospel today we have something like that. Jesus asks the disciples who do people say that he is. They replied that there were different opinions about him. Because they don’t know Jesus that well some said John the Baptist, others Elijah and others one of the ancient prophets come back to life. It is clear that there was not a general agreement about his real identity. All these saw Jesus as a holy man like the ones the people mentioned. But when Peter is asked he doesn’t quote what others say of Jesus but in answer to Jesus’ direct question: ‘who do you say I am’ Peter replies ‘the Christ of God’.

Peter sees Jesus as much more that a holy human person. The word ‘Christ’ means the Anointed One of God, the Messiah, someone who has a very special relationship with God. It is only after the resurrection that the full truth of who Jesus is was revealed to the apostles and disciples.

Of course, Jesus is asking each one of us the same question he asked of Peter. “Who do you say I am?”  What is our answer? Jesus wants a personal reply from each of us. Jesus is really asking ‘Who am I for you? What is your most cherished way of naming me? Who do you want me to be for you? It is never enough to know what others are saying about Jesus. Jesus asks for a personal answer.

The wife in our story knew her husband, through and through. Why? Because she was living with and therefore very close to him. Is there really any other way to know a person than to spend much time with that person as Peter did with Jesus? Hearsay is not enough. It is very interesting that the text tells us that Jesus himself sets the pattern of getting to know him and the Father. Today’s gospel passage opens with the statement that it was just after he was praying alone in the presence of his disciples that Jesus posed the question about his identity. Jesus the human being – because he spent a good amount of time in personal prayer to the Father – knew him intimately. He is telling us that this is the best way. Do you spend personal time in prayer, not only repeating vocal prayers, rosaries or novenas which are very good prayers but spend time in quiet prayer to Jesus, to God, listening to them, talking to them about our own personal lives, joys, sorrows and needs.

So far in the gospel episode maybe what Jesus asks isn’t too disturbing but then he really makes a radical statement which the disciples or we would prefer not to hear. Following Jesus involves carrying the cross, not anyone’s cross, even the cross of Jesus, but my own cross. The gospel passage spells it out clearly. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let them renounce themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”.

One of the medieval mystics wrote ‘Jesus does not ask us to take up his cross!’ This simple statement – only a matter of underlining a different word from the one we usually underline – has been a source of insight and support for me for many years. My cross will not at all look like the cross of Christ! It will look more like me! We are our own crosses. To carry ourselves along, with all our fears, compulsions, laziness and sinfulness: that alone could make many of our days Good Friday! Add to it all the people we try to help, who make demands on us, or those we lend a shoulder to in order to carry their crosses’.

As we know one doesn’t have to be a Christian to be a disciple of Jesus. Millions are without knowing it. Just look at the television news any day and see the explosions, the bombs, the famines, the civil wars and all those displaced and starving – there is the cross in its stark reality. These tragic people do their best to survive in their living hell concerned about families, friends and fellow victims. If we feel like complaining about our own crosses hopefully these scenes might make us count our many blessings and see our own crosses in perspective.

The gospel passage ends today with Jesus telling us: ’whoever would save his/her life will lose it, and whoever loses it for my sake will save it’. That certainly is the greatest paradox of our lives. We gain life by losing it. Why? Because by doing so we become sharers in the life of Christ himself.

“Loving Father, your Son Jesus offered his life for our sake. Grant me the grace of offering my own life to you.” 

Fr. Jim Kirstein, SMA

12 June 2016

2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13
Galatians 2:16, 19-21
Luke 7:36 – 8.3

‘Set no limits to forgiveness’ is a theme in today’s readings. In the first reading David sinned seriously by arranging for the death of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba and taking her for himself. God who spoke through Nathan did not condone these sins. Ironically David was magnanimous in sinning and repenting. Both murder and adultery called for the death penalty. God chose to be generous in forgiving David. Here there was no limit to forgiveness.

In the gospel Simon the Pharisee seem sure of the entrance requirements to God’s kingdom with computer accuracy. He believed that unless the law was kept perfectly there was little hope for sinners.

Perhaps we might have some sympathy for Simon’s reaction as it would have been totally foreign to the religious ideas of the time. But Jesus was quite at peace with this. The woman would have had a low self image so Jesus doesn’t want to crush this altogether. He knows from what we read that her many sins must have been forgiven her or she would not have shown so great love. He told her to go in peace since it was her faith that saved her.

Many people practise forgiveness in their lives. For example, husbands and wives who regularly forgive each other, who set no limits. Friends who speak again to their offenders have no use for limits. Priests in Confession, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in dealing with penitents who reflect Jesus’ standard of no limits. For these and similar people, love overrules limits. A very well known example of this is Nelson Mandela, who despite all the atrocities committed against him forgave his persecutors when freed from prison. Obviously our great model is Jesus on the cross who set no limits when he prayed to his Father: “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

Whilst the Law is necessary, like going to Mass, keeping the commandments etc. it must always be done for the sake of loving God, our neighbour and ourselves. Love is the primary law for Jesus’s disciples and it may be necessary to ‘break’ the law if the law of love demands it. St. Paul deals with this in the second reading. He says that it is not obedience to the Law as such that counts but faith in Jesus Christ. Simon had yet to learn from Jesus not to set limits to forgiveness. Where are we in all this? Is there anyone we refuse to forgive? Maybe we need to forgive others for being different. They don’t measure up to our demands and conditions and so we judge them harshly even though we may fail in those very areas ourselves. Often they mirror back for us what we don’t like in ourselves.

We must see the goodness in one another and affirm it. People’s faults can only be cured by loving and forgiving them. We cannot change anyone unless we accept them as they are. Condemnation does not liberate, it only represses. Jesus did not condemn the woman. He saw her sorrow, her humility, her courage and her love. He affirmed this side of her. The woman had never experienced anyone like this before. Jesus was the best person she had ever met. She was not only forgiven, but also loved by Jesus. What is our personal experience of him?

‘Lord Jesus, thank you for forgiving me, loving me and accepting me just as I am. Help me to do the same for others by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen’.

Fr. Jim Kirstein SMA

5 June 2016

1 Kings 17:17-24
Galatians 1:11-19
Luke 7:11-17

Today we read about a situation which echoes in many of our lives. A mother is burying her child, her only child. And she was a widow. Think of the pain she must have felt. She is now totally alone. And what are the consequences for her? They must have been terrible. There were no supports for her. Words cannot describe how this poor woman must have felt.

And then along comes Jesus who tells her, “do not cry”. I’m sure she must have thought, ‘who on earth is this who tells me not to cry as I bury my only child’. And what must the other mourners have thought? They were probably like many others who in other occasions belittled Jesus. “Isn’t he the carpenters son?” But when you’re at rock bottom – as this poor widow woman was – you grasp at any straw. And her trust in Jesus was rewarded. He restores her son to her. He brings light into the darkness of her grief.

In this miracle Jesus shows himself as master of both life and death.

Do you trust Jesus in your difficult life situations? Think back on past troubles and how you coped, calling on God in prayer, even if some of that prayer might have been uttered in anger or near despair. But God still heard – and answered – them.

So he will do today. Never despair of God’s love for you. In your darkest moment Jesus is with you. He will never abandon you; do not abandon Him. Call on him and trust He will reply.

Mairtín Caomhanach SMA