Our Lady of Lourdes – Readings

Commentary on Isaiah 66:10-14; John 2:1-11

The Gospel is the story of the marriage feast at Cana from John. The passage comes at the end of a week introducing the person of Jesus and his first disciples—a week which recalls the week of creation in the book of Genesis.  On this last day there is a new creation, the creation of the New Covenant between God and his people, who from now on will include people from all over the world.

A wedding is a traditional Old Testament image for people’s relationship with God. Some of the prophets have described God as the spouse of his people, a people who again and again are scolded for their unfaithfulness to their Spouse.

Here at this wedding, we are told that the wine began to run short, a dreadful thing to happen for the hosts, who would have been the bride’s family. The mother of Jesus draws Jesus’ attention to the crisis. And Jesus at first tries to brush it off as none of his business. But his mother ignores his response and goes and tells the servant to go and do what Jesus tells them. He then instructs the servants to fill six large jars, each capable of holding 20-30 gallons, with water and then to bring them to the steward. When the steward was invited to taste, what had now just been water was discovered to be a wine of the very first quality. The steward is amazed. It was the custom to serve the good wine first and then, when people’s palates had been dulled, to serve a lower quality of wine.

The meaning is clear. Those six jars of water are the heart of the story. They represent a traditional Jewish custom, according to the Law, of purifying oneself on entering the house and, by implication, the whole of the Mosaic Law, whose observance was the core of serving God. 

For John, numbers are important. The perfect number is seven—for instance, there are seven ‘signs’ which Jesus gives in this Gospel; there are seven ‘I AM…’ statements. But here there are only six jars, short of perfection. They are now replaced by the high class wine of the New Covenant, of which Jesus is the sign. In fact, the passage ends with:

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

In a way all this happened because Mary told Jesus what he should do. So here, as we honour Our Lady of Lourdes, we see Mary now telling Bernadette what she should do. And that is just how Bernadette responded, so that today literally millions of people go on pilgrimage to Lourdes in search of peace and healing.

The First Reading, which is from the prophet Isaiah, speaks of Jerusalem as the source of peace for the Jewish people of the time. Here it is applied to what Lourdes means for so many people.

I will extend prosperity to her like a river…As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you…

In the passage, they are the words of God, but here it is through the Mother of Jesus that the promise is made. And many have discovered that it is really true.

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Sunday of Week 14 of Ordinary Time (Year C)

Commentary on Isaiah 66:10-14; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12,17-20

It is always an experience for people who are committed Christians to be living among people for whom God in practice hardly exists; people who seem to have little direction and meaning in their lives beyond having a job, getting money and indulging in some level of enjoyment. For such Christians the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel passage have much meaning:

The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few…

Certainly those words must have seemed so true for the early Christians as they lived in relatively tiny communities in a sea of paganism and religions steeped in superstition and fatalism. At the time, the Church was truly like the tiny mustard seed or the small measure of yeast swallowed up in a large batch of dough.

Today, there are over two billion Christians in the world, representing just under a third of the world’s total population. Those early labourers clearly did not work in vain. The mustard seed grew into a large tree and has provided shelter for billions (a number that was beyond comprehension at the beginning of the Church). The invisible yeast worked its influence on the seemingly inert dough.

How many labourers?
Yet, put another way, two out of three people have not yet accepted the Way of Jesus. Of course, a large proportion of these are committed to other faiths and many of them are deeply religious. But there is still a large proportion which is agnostic or are practical atheists—they live their lives as if God did not exist.

Among so many who do call themselves Christians, how many could be deemed active labours in God’s vineyard? For the harvest is still great. Quite often, by ‘labourers’ we think of priests, or religious brothers and sisters, those who have a ‘vocation’. One hears people expressing regret that today there are so few ‘vocations’. What will the Church do? How will it carry on?

However, it is doubtful that Jesus was thinking of priests and religious when he spoke the words above. In fact, in the world of the New Testament there were no priests or religious as we understand those terms today. In the mind of Jesus—and in the mind of the early evangelists—everyone who was known as a follower of Christ was expected to be a labourer in the harvest field. (Paul, for instance, was an Apostle, a great preacher and evangeliser, but he was not a bishop or a priest, terms which had not yet taken shape. He was a layman and made his living as a tent-maker.)

What are we to do?
What kind of work are we expected to do? Where can we find the time above and beyond earning our daily living and being with our families? Are we to try and convert every single person in our society to the Christian faith? Certainly, if we find that no one wants to share our faith-vision and the life that follows from it, then there is something seriously wrong with the way we are seen to live our Christian lives.

On the other hand, it would be quite unrealistic to expect that every single person will find faith in Jesus. Experience over more than 2,000 years tells us that this does not happen. And, while we may experience that our Christian faith provides a precious dimension of meaning which is everything to us, we cannot exclude the possibility that God can and does call others to himself in his own way.

What really matters?
In the Second Reading, Paul, speaking to the Galatians, says that it does not matter if a person is circumcised or not. Paul says:

For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation.

Could we say today that going through the ritual of being baptised may not be the most important thing either? Unless I am on the way to becoming a genuinely transformed person—a “new creation” in the image of Jesus—then my baptism and all my other religious experiences have very little value.

Christianity is not an end in itself. It is simply a very effective, and, we believe, the most effective way, of becoming that altogether new kind of human person that Jesus and Paul speak about. This new person has a deep sense of both God’s utter transcendence and utter immanence, the God who constantly calls us beyond where we are and who, at the same time, deeply penetrates our being and our every experience. This new person strives to live a life of perfect integrity and truth, a life of deep compassion and concern. This new person lives in freedom and peace.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus recommends his disciples not to weigh themselves down with all kinds of bag and baggage. Their security is not in material possessions, in what they have—e.g. money, property, investments or credit cards. It is not in their status and standing in the eyes of others. It is not in the power and influence that they can wield. Their security comes from deep within, a security that no one or no circumstance can take away from them.

Peace and prosperity
Two important words that are mentioned in today’s readings are “peace” and “prosperity”. Isaiah, in the First Reading says:

For thus says the Lord:
I will spread prosperity over her like a river,
like an overflowing torrent,
the wealth of nations.

Paul speaks of the peace and mercy that come to all who become a transformed person in Jesus Christ:

Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God.

And, in the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples:

Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’

This peace is not dependent on outside circumstances. It can exist even when we are surrounded by storms. It is the peace Jesus experienced after his prayer in the garden. It is the peace that Paul experiences:

…in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

So our task as Christians is to be bringers of peace. Of course, we need that peace and inner security within ourselves first of all. It is a peace that a close following of Jesus can bring. It is a peace that our conventional society, wracked as it is with so many externally-caused stresses and fears and ambitions, seldom seems to know.

We are called today to become labourers with Jesus in the harvest that is the society in which we live. It is a society that seems so rich and prosperous, and yet is so impoverished of the security and peace it so frenetically seeks to find. We are called today to labour, so that our society may be gradually transformed into a place where the values of the Gospel, often so little understood even by ourselves, will prevail.

Bringing Jesus
Today’s Gospel says that Jesus sent out his seventy-two disciples:

…to every town and place he intended to visit.

That is an interesting remark. Who comes first to any place? Is it Jesus or me? As a person baptised in Jesus’ name, I am a part of his Body. Where the body is, there, too, is the person. Where I go then, Jesus also comes to visit. Jesus does not go before us. Nor does he come after us. We come together!

But if I do not go or if I do not reach out, then to some extent Jesus does not go and Jesus does not reach out. I am part of his Body; I am the visible indication of his presence. My voice is his voice. He told his disciples:

Whoever listens to you listens to me…

If I do not speak his message, who will be able to listen to it?

The disciples came back from their mission rejoicing and excited. They discovered they could do the same things that Jesus was doing—and so can we. And unless we try, we are not worthy of our baptism, which becomes an empty ritual, like circumcision.

Where to start?
But where do I start? I cannot single-handedly convert the whole of my society! We can, however, follow the example of someone like St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa). She realised that there were thousands and thousands of the poor, destitute and dying who needed her immediate help. But she started with just one at a time.

It reminds us of the story about the man who was seen picking up beached starfish from the strand and throwing them back into the sea. Someone who was watching said:

“You’re wasting your time. There are thousands of them; throwing back a handful will make no difference.”

And the man replied:

“It will make a difference to each one thrown back.”

Today, I too can start with just one person.

To be a labourer in the harvest is for the happiness of others to be as important as your own. It is to experience inner peace and to be a bringer of peace to others. How life would be changed if we all tried to do that! What a difference it would make!

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Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor – Readings

Commentary on Isaiah 66:10-14; Matthew 18:1-5

The Gospel reading from Matthew speaks of those who are really great in the Kingdom of God. It is the beginning of the fourth discourse given by Jesus in this Gospel, a discourse which discusses the relationships between members of the Christian community.

As the reading opens, Jesus’ disciples approach him and ask who is the greatest in the Kingdom. Probably to their surprise, Jesus called over a small child and placed him among them. He then told them that unless they “change”, i.e. make a radical internal change in themselves, and become like little children, they will not be able to be part of the Kingdom. And what does becoming like a little child mean:

Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

What Jesus is emphasising here is a particular quality of a good child—docility, that is, openness to learn what is true and good. It is this docility towards God and his will for us that is most important for growth as a person and also in making one an effective influence for the good of other people.

Greatness, then, does not consist in great wealth, high intelligence, in power over other people, in high status or fame. It consists, as the Gospel will show elsewhere, in a spirit of dedicated love and service seeking always the well-being of other people.

Jesus also says in today’s reading that:

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

This is an exhortation for the follower of Jesus to reach out in love and care especially for those who are insignificant and weak in our society. In reaching out to them, we reach out to Jesus himself. Later, in this Gospel, Jesus will say:

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 24:40)

And, in the passages immediately following today’s reading, he will speak very strongly in condemnation of those who lead the small and the weak astray and away from God.

We can easily see why this reading was chosen for today’s feast. Thérèse was a young Sister living in the total seclusion of a Carmelite convent. In the eyes of the world, which neither knew or cared about her existence, she was a nobody. Yet, after her death, her real greatness in being a perfect child of Christ was revealed and she became a model and inspiration for thousands of people.

The First Reading is from the last chapter of the Book of Isaiah. The reading is part of a hymn to “Mother Zion”, that is, Jerusalem. Here, Jerusalem is taken as an image of God’s loving care for his people and should be read in the context of St Thérèse:

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her…that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
from her glorious bosom.

This is a lovely description of the love that Thérèse had for her Lord from whom she received so much.

And again:

As a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

In a life that was not always easy, and one that ended in a lengthy illness, Thérèse found comfort in her Lord. In spite of her sufferings and through her sufferings she found Jesus close to her. Let us ask her that she may give us the courage to follow her example in our trials and difficulties.

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