Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelLuke 16:1-13 [Shorter form 16:10-13](English
Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus said to the disciples,
[“There was a rich man who had a manager, and
charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.And he called him and said to him, ‘What is
this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for
you can no longer be manager.’And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my
master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig,
and I am ashamed to beg.I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from
management, people may receive me into their houses.’So, summoning his master's debtors one by
one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He
said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you
owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your
bill, and write eighty.’The master commended the dishonest manager for
his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd
in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.And I tell you, make friends for
yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they
may receive you into the eternal dwellings.]
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in
much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.If then
you have not been faithful with the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you
the true riches?And
if you have not been faithful with that which is another's, who will give
you that which is your own?No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.”
Nine years ago while on vacation in Ireland from the Philippines I dropped by the house of Brian, a childhood friend in Dublin. Over coffee we chatted about many things, ranging from the current situation of the Church in Ireland to the days when we were growing up.
In the course of our conversation the small Jewish community in Dublin came up. It has never quite reached 4,000 in Ireland and the majority of the now fewer than 2,000 live in Dublin. I told Brian that my father, who spent all his working life as a carpenter on building/construction sites, most of those years as a highly respected general foreman, had built a house for a wealthy Jewish couple in the late 1950s.
Our house was the one on the right, 44 Finn St, Dublin
Shortly after the house was finished a very expensive car stopped outside our house, in a street of terraced houses, exactly like those in the photo above, where nobody had a telephone and very few had cars. The driver knocked on our door and turned out to be the owner of the new house my father had built. He came to invite our family to dinner the following week in his new home. My father had helped build many new homes over the 54 years of his working life but this was the only occasion when he had been thanked in such a way.
We enjoyed the gracious hospitality of the family and it was the only time I ever visited a Jewish home in Ireland.
Brian then told me a story about his father Jimmy, whom I had known well, a house painter and decorator. He had painted and decorated the houses of many Jewish families in Dublin over the years. This was mainly due to an incident the first time he was asked to work in a Jewish home. While removing the carpet from the stairs he found a diamond ring stuck in a corner. He immediately brought it to the owner and said 'I found this on the stairs'. 'I know', said the owner, 'I put it there!'
The word spread through the Jewish community that Jimmy was trustworthy. Over the years he had many Jewish clients.
One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.
When I told the story of Jimmy and the diamond ring to my sister-in-law Gladys she told me that her engagement ring had been stolen while she and my brother Paddy were having renovations done to their home a few years ago.
I remember too how upset my father was when he was renovating a Georgian house in Dublin. He discovered that the knocker on the front door had disappeared and it could only have been one of his workmates who took it. He was unable to trace the knocker or find out who the thief was.
One who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
When I wrote these reflections nine years ago the major story in the Philippines was the 'pork barrel scam'. PHP10 billion - roughly US$200,000,000 or €200,000,000 - of taxes paid by the people had disappeared. Some senators and members of Congress were alleged to have been beneficiaries of this along with others.
Today's gospel speaks to situations like this. Corruption on such a vast scale begins in the classroom when a child learns that though cheating isn't right the main thing is not to be caught. The man who stole my sister-in-law's engagement ring and my father's workmate who walked away with the valuable knocker from the front door of the Georgian house were earning salaries. What values were they passing on to their families?
One thing that both my parents instilled in me was that I must not keep anything that isn't mine. When I was a toddler I came home from a park up the road from where we lived at the time with a leather football. This was in the mid-1940s, around the time World War II ended when such things would have been very scarce and expensive. They asked around the neighbourhood and it was only when nobody claimed the ball that our family kept it.
Honesty and trustworthiness at such basic levels are a foundation for justice. I've known of individuals 'working for justice' who weren't paying their own workers a proper wage. I've known many others such as my father, such as Jimmy, who didn't talk much about justice. They simply behaved in a just and honest manner and treated others with respect.
God invites every single one of us to share for ever in the riches of eternal life. Eternal life begins in the here and now. We make our choices in the here and now.
No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Antiphona ad Communionem / Communion Antiphon (John 10:14)
I mentioned two diamond rings above. I couldn't find a painting with a diamond ring but Vermeer'sGirl with a Pearl Earringis a work of such extraordinary beauty that I used it instead.
Traditional Latin Mass
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 9-18-2022 if necessary).
Epistle: Galatians 5:25-26; 6:1-10. Gospel: Luke 7:11-16.
GospelLuke 15:1-32 [Shorter form 15:1-10](English
Standard Version Anglicised: India).
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all
drawing near to hear Jesus.And the Pharisees and the
scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats
with them.”
So he told them this parable:“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he
has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country,
and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?And when he has found it, he
lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.And when he
comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them,
‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner
who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no
repentance.
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one
coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she
finds it?And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and
neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had
lost.’Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the
angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
[And Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the
share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property
between them.Not many days later, the younger son
gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he
squandered his property in reckless living.And
when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he
began to be in need.So he went and hired himself
out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields
to feed pigs.And he was longing to be fed
with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How
many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish
here with hunger!I will arise and go to my father,
and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before you.I am no longer worthy to be called your
son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’And
he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his
father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him
and kissed him.And the son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer
worthy to be called your son.’But the father said to
his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and
put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and
celebrate.For this my son was dead, and is
alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and
drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has
killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and
entreated him,but he answered his father, ‘Look,
these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you
never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your
property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that
is mine is yours.It was fitting to celebrate
and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost,
and is found.’”]
I used most of the material below three years ago when I 'invited' some 'special guests' to share their thoughts on this wonderful parable, surely one of the most moving and powerful stories in the whole of literature, apart from the fact that it is the word of God, given to us by Jesus himself, the Word made flesh. However, on this occasion I'll invite only one 'guest'.
The late Fr Paul Andrews SJ was a regular contributor toThe Sacred Heart Messenger, a monthly publication of the Irish Jesuits. The general title of his column was One Page Wisdom and the specific title of his column in the September 2016 issue is Messy Families. I'm quoting it in full.
We know about families. We have all survived them, more or less. You remember the Gospel parable about the father of the prodigal son - and here Jesus is talking about God. The boy made a fool of him by squandering the family fortune and reputation. His older son was so envious of the kid brother that he would not attend the homecoming party.
God knows about troubled families. They are nothing out of the ordinary. In that lovely parable, the father enjoys the being of his son even when he is in every way a thorn in the father's heart. Scanning the horizon from his window he sees a forlorn, debauched figure slouching towards home, and runs out to meet him, speechless with joy.
We may dream of an ideal family with lively, intelligent, obedient children - who line up with their parents for Church on Sunday, pass their exams, compete in community sports, and visit their granny.
Move away from such rosy pictures. There is no such thing as perfect parents, or perfect children. God is not the presenter of prizes at a high-powered graduation, but the one who helps us clean up the mess or live with it, and then approach the future as a friend, without a wardrobe (closet) of excuses.
Fr Andrews writes: His older son was so envious of the kid brother that he would not attend the homecoming party.I would not totally agree with him on that. Part of the genius of this parable is that it's open-ended. We don't know if the older son reflected on the matter and decided to join the celebration. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But the story that Jesus told invites each of us to ask ourselves a number of questions. In what way do I resemble the father? Which of the two sons am I more like? If there's more of the older brother in me do I rejoice when my younger brother comes home? Do I thank God for his daily blessings? If there's more of the younger brother in me do I trust in God's mercy and decide to come home?
Kyrie, Missa Papae Marcelli
Music composed by Palestrina
Sung by Oxford Camerata and Oxford Schola Cantorum
Conducted by Jeremy Summerly
Kyrie eleison - Christe eleison - Kyrie eleison
Lord, have mercy - Christ, have mercy - Lord, have mercy
The Kyrie is the only part of the Mass of the Roman or Latin Rite, to which most Catholics belong, that is in Greek.
Traditional Latin Mass
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 9-11-2022 if necessary).
Epistle: Galatians 5:16-24. Gospel: Matthew 6:24-33.
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:29).
GospelLuke 14:25-33 (English Standard Version
Anglicised: India).
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned
and said to them,“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own
father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and
even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.Whoever does not bear his own cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple.For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does
not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete
it?Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able
to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,saying, ‘This man began to build and was
not able to finish.’Or what king, going out to encounter another king in
war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten
thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?And if not, while the other is yet a great
way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.So therefore, any one of you who does
not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Yet for love's sake I prefer to
appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ
Jesus—I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.
I am sending him back to
you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in
order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment
for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in
order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. For
this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might
have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother—especially to me,
but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
So
if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.
In thelate 1980s when I
was based in Cebu City, Philippines, I bumped into a friend of mine from
Mindanao, Miriam (not her real name), a devout Catholic, generous and
wealthy. She had come up for her grandson's birthday and invited me to the
party, which was in a gated community. Her son was a doctor.
I was sitting beside Miriam at the
party when she asked her daughter-in-law if their driver had eaten yet. She
then turned to me and said, 'I would never have even noticed him before.'
Miriam's late husband, whom I will call
'Miguel', had lingered for ten years after a severe stroke. Shortly after his
stroke members of the prayer group in the parish who knew Miriam and Miguel but
weren't in the same social circle asked her if they could visit and pray with
her husband. She made them welcome and they began to go regularly and continued
to do so until Miguel died. Miriam joined them in their prayer. This whole
experience gradually transformed how she saw those around her who weren't as privileged
financially as she and Miguel were, including her own staff and those of her
son. The
prayers of those who had regularly visited her husband had slowly transformed
her understanding of how we are related as Christians, through our baptism.
St Paul's Letter to Philemon, used in
the Second Reading today, is one of the shortest books in the Bible, with only
25 verses, and one of the most 'subversive'. It brings us right down to the
implications of our baptism.
Onesimus was a runaway slave, it seems.
(The Greek word doulos can mean 'slave', 'servant',
'bondsman', 'attendant'. Here it does not mean the type of slavery endured by
people kidnapped or sold in Africa and taken to the Americas.) St Paul speaks
of himself as a prisoner of Christ and writes, I appeal to you for my
child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. It would seem that St Paul had welcomed Onesimus and
had helped him to reform his life to the extent that he considered the young
man his own son. Paul had, as we say in Ireland, 'put manners' on Onesimus
Paul sends Onesimus
back to Philemon, sending my very heart. It would seem that during
his stay with St Paul Onesimus came to understand what it is to be baptised, to
be a brother of Jesus and therefore a brother of Paul and of Philemon, whose
servant he had been. And Paul saw him not only as a brother in Christ but as a
son.
In the Office of
Readings in the Breviary for the feast of St Anthony the Abbot on 17 January
there's a beautiful line from St Athanasius about Anthony: And all the
people in the village, and the good men with whom he associated saw what kind
of man he was, and they called him 'The friend of God'. Some loved him as a son,
and others as though he were a brother. St Paul saw Onesimus as both as a
brother and as a son.
And St Paul is
inviting Philemon, without putting pressure on him, to accept Onesimus
back no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved
brother.
This is what baptism does. It makes us sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus and therefore brothers and sisters of one another.
This is our deepest identity. Through the prayers of those who came every week to pray with her sick husband Miguel, Miriam discovered her true identity and of those around her. In calling Philemon to receive Onesimus as a beloved brother, Paul is calling each of us to do likewise with all who are baptised.
Not only that, Paul, by implication, is calling each of us and all of us who are baptised to carry out the commission given to us by Jesus before he returned to heaven: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).
Kyrie
from Mass in E flat major
Setting
by Joseph Rheinberger, sung by Voces8
Kyrie eleison - Christe eleison - Kyrie eleison
Lord, have mercy - Christ, have mercy - Lord, have mercy
Traditional Latin Mass
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 9-4-2022 if necessary).
GospelLuke 14:1, 7-14 (English Standard Version
Anglicised: India).
One
Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of
the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.
Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he
noticed how they chose the places of honour, saying to them,“When you
are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of
honour, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him,and he who invited you both will come and say
to you, ‘Give your place to this person’, and then you will begin with shame to
take the lowest place.But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest
place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up
higher.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at table with
you.For everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
He said also to the man who had invited
him, “When
you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or
your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and
you be repaid.But when you give a
feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,and you will be blessed, because they cannot
repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion at Holy Family Home
for Girls, Bacolod City
But
when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the
blind, and you will be blessed . . .
Six years
ago I experienced this in a striking way after Mass at Holy
FamilyHome for Girls (HFH) in Bacolod City, Philippines. I was
based in Bacolod City from 2002 until 2017. Kathy wished to share her birthday
joy with the girls at Holy Family Home along with her family and co-workers.
Most of the girls living in Holy Family Home - there are usually more than 30
there - have had traumatic experiences in their lives and the majority are from
poor families.
Kathy and
her husband Hernan had been celebrating their birthdays for some years with the
girls at HFH and the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family who run it.
There are other families who have been doing the same, some in HFH, some in
orphanages or homes for the aged in Bacolod City.
And you will
be blessed, because they cannot repay you . . .
Kathy, whose
father died suddenly when she was only three months old, spoke briefly at the
end of the programme after the catered lunch but asked Hernan to take over.
(The programme included a magician, some games and dances by the girls.) He
told us how blessed his whole family was simply by the joy they saw in the
faces of the girls. That was my own experience over the more than 14 years I
was involved with HFH. That involvement has been one of the greatest blessings
of my life, an ongoing one that I carry with me now in Ireland, and all the
greater because it was something I had never expected when I returned to the
Philippines in 2002 after a two-year stint in Britain that was supposed to be a
four-year one.
Most of
these girls have had experiences that no child or young person should ever
have. But in HFH they get the best of truly caring professional help that
enables them to feel the healing power of God's love. Much of that healing
comes form their interaction with each other and from their shared
responsibilities. For example, each cubicle for personal hygiene is used by
three girls, who also have to maintain it. And something that touched me when I
first began to go to HFH and given the 'grand tour' was to learn that each new
girl, whether still a child or already an adolescent, is given a cuddly toy
which she keeps on her bed. There are two large dormitories, again maintained
by the girls. And they make their bed first thing in the morning, have an early
breakfast, gather for prayers and then go off to the local elementary and high
schools, both within walking distance.
Columban Fr Michael Sinnott visits HFH
The
girls had been praying their hearts out for Fr Sinnott, then 79, after he was
kidnapped in October 2009. (He died unexpectedly here in Ireland on 23 November
2019, St Columban’s Day.) He visited HFH after his ordeal to thank the girls, the Sisters and the staff for their prayers. This was the
reaction of the girls when I told them of his release:
Hernan reminded us in his 'few words' of Jesus and
children: Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them;
for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14).
The First Reading and the Gospel remind me of a line in the Handbook of the Legion of Mary: Always
will the legionary bear in mind that he is visiting not as a superior to an
inferior, not as one equal to another, but as an inferior to his superior, as
the servant to the Lord. This is the opposite of what I have heard
many well-meaning people say: We must go down to the level of the poor
(or whoever). Jesus identifies himself with the 'outsider', with the
'other', whoever the 'other' may be. And the King will answer them,
‘Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you
did it to me' (Matthew 25:40).
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