Daily Reflections from "alive Publishing"

Saturday 11 October


Luke 11:27-28



27While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” 28But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”



Good goods come in small parcels, right? Today’s Gospel is only two verses long. Not much to go on there you might think. But you would be wrong! Depth beyond depth, treasure beyond treasure, riches beyond riches.
The woman who cried out, ‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you’ (v. 27 NIV) could never have realized the significance of her words, but, indeed, blessed for all generations would be the woman who gave Jesus birth and nursed him (Luke 1:48). Jesus seized this moment to teach about where the true source of blessedness is to be found: in verse 28 we discover that the blessed are those who hear God’s word and obey it. This is tantamount to a Christian formula: blessedness = hear God’s word and obey it. Essentially this is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about.
When all is said and done, the essence of the Christian life is to be blessed and holy. And we set about being holy and blessed by learning to obey God. But how do we obey God? We obey God by learning to hear his voice. For we cannot obey or follow that which we do not hear or understand. The question then is how clearly or well do we hear God speak to us and, unpacking that question further, what kinds of things does God call us to hear and obey?
We can be sure of a number of things that God says to us. As one example, God says to each one of us, ‘Be joyful today.’ We don’t like to think of joy as a command but it is. God wants us to find a deep and lasting joy in our relationship with him. As another, God says, ‘Live the Sermon on the Mount; put into practice the Beatitudes.’ We know this because Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with these words: ‘Every one…who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock’ (Matt. 7:24). If we listen and obey, our heavenly Father promises us that we will know the joy of heaven and witness to life to the full!


Lord, help me to make the decision to set aside even a small amount of time to spend with you, so that your love will have a chance to penetrate my life more deeply.

Sunday 12 October


(A) Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Matthew 22:1-14




22Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14For many are called, but few are chosen.’



The kingdom of heaven is compared to a wedding feast that a king gives for his son. However, the special guests he invites refuse to come. A second invitation receives the same response and the invited guests even murder the messengers. So ‘the king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city’ (v. 7). Then the king sends his servants out onto the streets to invite anyone they find. They collect people from anywhere and everywhere until the wedding hall is filled with guests.
The main points of the parable are clear. The king represents God. He was the one who sent Jesus. The wedding feast represents salvation, which will be an occasion of great joy. The first people invited are the people of Israel. The invitation is a simple one: ‘everything is ready; come…’ (v. 4). Israel is offered God’s grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the invitation is rejected and despised. The ill-treatment of the servants represents Jewish persecution of preachers and prophets. The anger of the king is a hint of the coming fall of Jerusalem. The second invitation is the gospel as it goes out to the Gentiles. God offers his salvation first to his Chosen People, but if they will not receive it, God will turn to those whom everybody despises! The Gentiles will be powerfully brought into the kingdom of God.
What is interesting about the parable is, however, that it does not end there. Attendance at the banquet is insufficient in and of itself. Something else is needed. Seeing a man who is not dressed in proper wedding attire, the king questions him in rather a cool manner, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ (v. 12). When the man is unable to answer, the king has him ejected from the banquet. The punch line of the parable is sobering: ‘many are called, but few are chosen’ (v. 14). The wedding clothes signify the grace of our baptism – baptism is both the gateway to the Christian life and empowers us to live a life of grace. We have been invited to the wedding feast but we must respond to the call of our vocation to live a holy life, day by day.



Lord, today may I put on the garment of salvation and remind myself of the great grace of baptism with which we are clothed.

Monday 13 October


Luke 11:29-32



29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! 32The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! "


We do not live by faith alone: we live also by reason. If reason does not inform faith, it veers into superstition and becomes fanciful. The Christian faith is rooted in historical fact; Jewish and Roman historians documented Jesus’ existence. Nevertheless, the cry of a sceptical humanity from the beginning has been, ‘Prove it’ or ‘Give us a sign, some evidence to support your claim.’ Jesus did perform miracles, he did reveal himself through his works and miracles, but ultimately, as he makes clear in our reading today, he himself is the sign.
Jesus compares himself to Jonah, at whose coming the Ninevites reformed their lives (Jon. 3:5). Jesus, like Jonah, had a message of salvation. The Queen of Sheba travelled to Israel to investigate the rumours of Solomon’s wealth and wisdom (1 Kgs. 10:1-13). So open to God’s will and plan was she that she journeyed over land and sea in her quest for the truth. These pagans were more open to God’s work among them than Jesus’ own people. Among them was one greater even than Solomon but they refused to recognize him.
Jesus’ teaching constantly probes our attitudes and our heart. One of the problems of the Christian life is that we can grow dull, cold-hearted and indifferent. Parish priests can grow weary and reluctant to embrace a new movement of the Spirit in their midst; lay people can grow self-righteous and complacent – confident of their own religious attendance and duties. We can all make our own pronouncements about who is open to God and who is not. But the Spirit doesn’t work like this: God’s Spirit is at work all the time in everyone. He leads us to repentance, conversion of heart and a change of life. This work of the Spirit will continue until the day we die.
The sign of Jonah – his ‘entombment’ for three days in the belly of the whale and his coming back to life again – is the sign of the resurrection. This is God’s ultimate sign of his power and victory, and its light and truth will always attract and speak to the weary, the downtrodden and those seeking an authentic and meaningful relationship with God.



Lord, teach me to have an attitude of heart which is quick to confess my sin, eager to discern your will and ready to take up my cross and follow you.

Tuesday 14 October


Luke 11:37-41





37 While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. 38The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you."


The challenging thing about the Pharisees – and indeed about us, too – is that they were doing their best to follow God, but they were going off course. So blinded were they by their own sense of self-righteousness that they fundamentally misunderstood God and the spiritual life. But isn’t this true of all of us? We are all prone to self-righteousness and often fundamentally misunderstand God.
On this occasion the Pharisee who had invited Jesus to dine with him was ‘astonished’ that Jesus did not wash his hands before eating (v. 38). At the heart of the Pharisees’ problem was an emphasis on the external and not the internal – the attitudes of the heart. The word ‘Pharisee’ comes from an Aramaic word meaning to ‘divide’ or ‘separate’: hence a Pharisee was someone ‘separated from sin’. The Pharisees’ religious observances, rules and duties gave them a sense of their own importance; they had lost sight of the need to rely upon the mercy and forgiveness of God.
We need to guard against the sin of the Pharisees by asking the Holy Spirit to grant us the gift of self-knowledge and self-awareness. The more focused we are on God, the less focused we will be on ourselves and the clearer our understanding will be of what our prayer to God should be every day: not, ‘I thank you, God, that I am unlike others’ but rather, ‘God, have mercy upon me a sinner.’
So when we read today’s Gospel we should extend a measure of compassion and kindness towards the Pharisees. They were good and devout men, but they had lost their way and therefore ended up rejecting the very Saviour for whom they were waiting. In so doing they rejected the plan of the God they worshipped and served.
There is a way in which the liturgy invites us to put ourselves in the shoes of these Pharisees and let Jesus’ words to them speak to our hearts also. Recognizing that we are making the same mistake as they did will lead us to freedom and growth. For make no mistake, Jesus loved the Pharisees and wanted them, as he wants us, to repent and turn back to God.



Lord, grant me the gift of repentance leading unto life; grant me the gift of self-knowledge leading unto freedom. May I move and walk and have my being in the love and mercy of the Father.

Wednesday 15 October


Luke 11:42-46 • St Teresa of Jesus (Avila) (Memorial)




42 ‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised, without neglecting the others. 43Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honour in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market-places. 44Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.’
45 One of the lawyers answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.’ 46And he said, ‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them."


Many years ago it used to be the practice for parishes to publish in their newsletter a list of those who had given the most through the year. The few rich, wealthy professionals – the doctor or the solicitor or the architect or the wealthy landowner – would be at the very top of the list while the poor farm workers – the majority – who had given so generously from their meagre earnings were placed at the bottom. Such a practice was clearly not in the spirit of the gospel! In the same token nowadays we have benefactors of all kinds of church-related projects seeking to have the best seats at banquets, their picture taken with a leading prelate, and plaques put up in their honour or wings of schools or hospitals named after them. Those who don’t seek this kind of acclaim tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
Not much has changed over the centuries. In Jesus’ day it was the Pharisees who revelled in their status as a religious elite. Interestingly, they were prone to insist on the best seats in the synagogue and were rather partial to being greeted, one can only assume in a rather grandiose way, in the market-place as they walked through (v. 43). Jesus gave them a reality check; he told them the honest truth and hit them where it really hurt. But the reason he did so was because he loved them profoundly. When he later wept over Jerusalem, on his way to his Passion, it was precisely his fellow Jews whom he was weeping over (Luke 19:41). When we really love someone, it hurts us to see them trapped in blindness and deception.
And that was the problem: the Pharisees were literally blinded by their perception of their own righteousness and devotion to God. They didn’t understand or had lost sight of the fact that God looks at the heart. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus lamented that ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’ (Matt. 15:8). Religion and faith have little to do with being powerful people, enjoying pride of place, lording it over others or appearing to be what we are not. Faith in God the Father is about being children of God, humbled by repentance but overwhelmed by the lavish mercy and forgiveness of God .


Lord, have mercy on me a sinner; lead me in the way of humility and salvation.

Thursday 16 October


Luke 11:47-54




47Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. 48So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, “I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute”, 50so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation. 52Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.’
53 When he went outside, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile towards him and to cross-examine him about many things, 54lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.



Leading God’s people is a serious responsibility. We should pray and intercede for those entrusted with this task: the Pope, the cardinals, the bishops, the priests, the deacons and lay people. We should pray that they would be those who proclaim Jesus and his teaching and lead us to him. This is the way of the gospel, and it is the gospel which gives us light and life.
Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees in the form of a number of ‘woes’ pronounced against them, shows how important it is to lead God’s people in the way of truth and righteousness. Although the Pharisees had built ‘tombs for the prophets’ (thereby showing them great respect), they rejected the very One the prophets pointed to.
The Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus meant that they had taken the key to knowledge away from the people (v. 52). They refused to accept Jesus and, in so doing, hindered others from believing in him. They themselves had become the stumbling block to others coming to know God. Their stewardship of the grace they had received was not bringing people life but, in fact, was doing the very opposite and leading them away from the life of Christ.
We believe that it is precisely in studying, reflecting, pondering and praying on the Word of God that we are all equipped to do the work God wants us to do. ‘The best guide you can find to the correct path is the serious study of the Bible. There we can find rules for the conduct of our life and, in the lives of great figures, living images of a life with God whose actions we are encouraged to copy. Each person can concentrate on the area where they feel themselves to be lacking and find, as in a hospital, a cure for their particular trouble’ (St John Chrysostom).


Lord Jesus, teach me not to lead others astray either in what I say and do or in what I teach. May I always proclaim you as the Way, the Truth and the Life and your Church as holding the key to knowledge, which is you, the Lord of Life, Christ the King.

Friday 17 October


Luke 12:1-7 • St Ignatius of Antioch (Memorial)




12Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered in thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. 2Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 3Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.
4 ‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. 5But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. 7But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows."


We can forgive people many weaknesses, mistakes and sins but there is something about the sin of hypocrisy which we find very difficult, even impossible, to forgive (although, of course, nothing is actually unforgivable). A priest or preacher who teaches his people that they shouldn’t get drunk or commit adultery but is subsequently exposed as a drunk or adulterer is hard to bear. And so is a professor or teacher who insists that his students don’t plagiarize because it is dishonest but is later found to be plagiarizing himself.
This kind of behaviour sticks in the throat, and if it is exposed by the national media, there is no mercy – no one likes a hypocrite. Our word ‘hypocrisy’ derives from the Greek hypokrisis meaning literally ‘play acting’, ‘acting out’ or ‘feigning’. In Paradise Lost the poet John Milton wrote: ‘For neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone.’
The sin of hypocrisy may not be discerned by man or angel and may indeed ‘walk invisible’ but Jesus was quick to expose it and bring it into the light. The problem with hypocrites is that they imagine that their private thoughts and actions are not seen by God when, of course, he sees everything. They lose sight of this fundamental truth and behave as if they act alone and with immunity but this is self-deceptive and dishonest. Before we become too indignant, however, the truth – and the truth can be hard to bear – is that there is something of the hypocrite in us all. We are all prone to self-deception and certainly most human beings have weaknesses, foibles and peccadilloes which remain hidden from others.
A good way to understand hypocrisy is that it is a form of lying – the hypocrite is lying to himself and others. As St John Climacus once reflected: ‘Hypocrisy is the mother of lying and frequently its cause. Some would argue that hypocrisy is nothing other than a meditation on falsehood, that it is the investor of falsehood, laced with lies.’ God wants us to walk in the truth and live by the truth for when we do this, unlike the hypocrite who is really a prisoner of his own self-deceit, we are free.


‘Hypocrisy is born of self-conceit, and self-conceit is contrary to being poor in spirit.’ (St Gregory Palamas)

Saturday 18 October


(Feast) St Luke • Luke 10:1-9



10After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’


As a faith Christianity is fundamentally outward-looking and focused very much on winning hearts and minds to follow Christ. Nowadays it is much more politically correct to suggest that Christianity is about serving others and being nice than about people being sent out to preach, teach and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but this is exactly what we see Jesus doing in today’s Gospel passage. We are, it has to be said, much more comfortable taking the tolerant and easy-going view, ‘You believe what you like, we’ll believe what we like, and we’ll get on.’
A priest in a senior position within his diocese liked to say that he didn’t ‘do religion’, the suggestion being that ‘doing religion’ was to do with God and Jesus and he was far too busy doing administrative and other such important tasks! The problem is that these laissez-faire attitudes fly in the face of the gospel message and the raison d’être of the Church, which is to evangelize and win souls for Christ.
It’s all very well pointing this out but the question is how do we evangelize and win souls for Christ? There are, of course, many different ways, but one way is to encourage people to read the New Testament, particularly one of the Gospels. We at Bible Alive are confident in making the following proposal: we believe that if you give somebody a Gospel of Luke and encourage them to read it, or read parts of it with them, especially those parts only found in his account (e.g. the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son), they will be changed by the experience. It is amazing what the Holy Spirit can do in the life of a person who opens themselves up to the Word of God.
St Luke, who came from Antioch in Syria, was a doctor by training and a gifted historian and storyteller. His Gospel is a reliable and trustworthy account of the life of Jesus and his account of the early Church in the Book of Acts reads like an action-packed thriller. We encourage you today, on his feast-day, to set aside time to read some of his Gospel: it will lift your spirits, give you hope and move you to share the Good News.


Father God, we praise and thank you for St Luke’s true and trustworthy account of Jesus’ life, mission and teaching .

Sunday 19 October
Matthew 22:15-21 • Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

The Pharisees were ardent nationalists opposed to Roman rule and occupation. The Herodians, on the other hand, supported the Herods, who were puppet rulers for the Romans. However, the two parties normally at loggerheads were united in their common purpose of trying to catch Jesus out in order to expose and trap him. Their approach was as old as the hills: first they tried to ingratiate themselves to the Lord with flattery and then they moved in with their supposedly knock-out question: ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’ (v. 17). The stakes were high because if Jesus answered ‘No’, the Herodians would report him for treason, the penalty for which was death. But if he answered ‘Yes’, the Pharisees would denounce him to their people as disloyal and not a true Israelite.

Neither the Pharisees nor the Herodians understood whom they were dealing with. They were no match for the Lord of Wisdom. The denarius was a Roman coin made of silver. On one side was the portrait of the Emperor Tiberius and on the other the inscription in Latin: ‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus’. The coin was issued by Caesar and was used to pay tax to him. In reply to his opponents’ question Jesus utters words which speak down the centuries into every human heart and into every political reality: ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’ (v. 21). The state makes its demands on us and we are called, as good citizens, to pay our taxes, abide by the laws and contribute as best we can to the welfare of the state.

However, as accountable as we all are as citizens of our country, we are ultimately answerable to a higher power, a higher authority, to God and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We must strive to be, as St Thomas More famously said, ‘the King’s good servant, but God’s first’. This is especially important today in the face of government policy which stamps on the rights of the unborn child, ignores the cry for religious freedom and rides roughshod over conscience, because although citizens of the world we are first and foremost citizens of the kingdom of God, sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.

‘The clearness of my conscience has made my heart leap for joy.’ (St Thomas More)

Monday 20 October


Luke 12:13-21



13Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”



The Torah laid down the rule that an elder son should receive double the inheritance of a younger one (see Deut. 21:17). Not surprisingly this led to all manner of disputes, which were typically taken to the rabbi to be sorted out. All we know about the man who asks Jesus for help in today’s Gospel is that he has come into an inheritance and his elder brother is hoping to get twice the amount. He pleads with the Lord to get involved. Jesus is, however, quick to set him straight, ‘Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?’ (v. 14), seizing the opportunity afforded by the brief exchange to present a parable which goes to the heart of the matter of earthly riches versus heavenly riches.
The rich man in the parable has tunnel vision. He is not, we can fairly assume, a reflective or deep thinker: he lives for the moment, grabs what he can and thinks only of himself. As a result he has failed to understand one of life’s fundamental and essential lessons, which is that life on earth is very brief and the one thing that is absolutely certain is that we cannot take our earthly riches with us. He is regarded by God as a fool (v. 20).
God does not want us to hoard our material wealth: he wants us to be generous and kind with it. So many of our readers are generous and make donations to our work with prisoners (International Prison Outreach) and missionaries all over the world (International Faith Outreach) by helping us to provide them with faith resources (subscriptions to Bible Alive, Bibles, books and so on). It is just this impulse to share and help others that the rich fool lacked.


‘When we have money, we lose contact with God…What can we do with too much money? Put it in the bank? We must never get into the habit of being preoccupied with the future. There is no reason to be preoccupied with it: God is there. When the desire for money comes, with it comes the desire for the things money can provide: superfluous objects, beautiful rooms, luxurious food on our table, more clothes, admirers, etc. Our needs increase, and, because one thing leads to another, the consequence is endless dissatisfaction. God gives riches, and it is our duty to share them with those who are less favoured.’ (Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

Tuesday 21 October


Luke 12:35-38



35 ‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves."


Time and time again in his teaching Jesus urges his disciples to keep watch, be at the ready and be prepared. But what are we to keep watch, be at the ready and be prepared for? There are two realities which the Christian must live with – one we share with every human being; the second is an exclusively Christian concern which (sadly) many lose sight of.
The first reality for which we all must be prepared is death. We truly do not know the day or the hour when our time will come. We live in a society which is quite at home, at one level anyway, with being saturated with sex and sexual images, on the basis that it’s an adult theme, but our society runs for cover at the very mention of another adult theme, namely death.
We don’t talk much about it, find it hard to discuss and spend our lives running from it. Death is going to come to us all, no matter who we are, and we must live our lives in the light of this truth. This is not to be morbid or dark or depressing: it’s a fact of life. We need to learn from the psalmist who, many centuries ago, prayed, ‘So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom’ (Ps. 90:12).
The second reality the Christian needs to be ready for is the return of Christ. But how many Christians are? How many give it even the slightest thought? It is, however, a vital truth of our faith and actually at the heart of every Eucharistic celebration. Since the beginning the prayer of the Church has always been, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come.’ No one knows when the Lord will return – only the Father knows (see Matt. 24:36).
What we do know, however, is that we are living in the final age of the world, the age of the Church, the ‘last hour’, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably underway. Since the ascension of Jesus into glory at the right hand of his Father, his second coming has been imminent (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 673). We must not grow tired or weary and we must not lose heart, but rather remain alert, keep watch and be prepared for our own death and the Lord’s return.


‘Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

Wednesday 22 October


Luke 12:39-48




39 ‘But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.’
41 Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?’ 42And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? 43Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 44Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 45But if that slave says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming”, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. 47That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. 48But one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded . "

When did you last hear a sermon or homily on the second coming of Christ? Although a central tenet of our faith, it is seldom referred to nowadays and many are reluctant to discuss it, preach about it or teach it, and rarely are we exhorted to pray for it, prepare for it and watch out for it! Indeed, as we touched on in yesterday’s reflection, although the continual prayer of the Church is, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come’, as individual Christians we are more likely to pray, ‘Not just yet, Lord, not just yet!’
Why this reluctance and reticence? Why this discomfort and unwillingness to preach and proclaim this vital truth of Christian revelation? It is hard to know the answer exactly but clearly there has always been a genuine concern regarding the dangers of people focusing on the detail of Jesus’ return – the when and the where – as opposed to simply being content in the knowledge that we cannot know these things but are called nevertheless to pray ardently for it and long for it! What we must not do is avoid the issue or pretend that Jesus does not address it explicitly, because he does, as illustrated in today’s Gospel: ‘You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour’ (v. 40).
The parable of the Wise Manager contrasts the behaviour of a wise and faithful manager, who proves his trustworthiness and faithfulness, with an unwise and foolish one who deceives himself into believing that his master’s delay is an excuse to let his guard down and behave badly. A clear message of the parable is that God wants us to be loyal, faithful and obedient, and live as those who have a conscious and lively sense of Jesus’ return in glory. We need both to re-awaken and re-discover this sense of the second coming of Jesus within and ask the Spirit to move us to long for it with deep sighs and groans. We do not know how to pray for this but the Spirit does, and he will help us. The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come.’


‘We preach not one coming only of Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the first. The first revealed the meaning of his patient endurance; the second brings with it the crown of the divine kingdom.’ (St Cyril of Jerusalem)

Thursday 23 October


Luke 12:49-53





49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53they will be divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’



The Fast Show, a BBC comedy show famed for its running gags, catchphrases and hilarious characters, featured a sketch in which some young people chatting at a party were contrasted with an earnest young Christian woman seemingly pouring cold water on the party spirit by interjecting into the conversation such comments as, ‘I had a great day today because I know that Jesus has forgiven me my sin’ and ‘The thing I always ask is what Jesus would have done’. She was made to look weird and out of place among her peers, and was ostracized and mocked (of course, all behind her back). The goal of these comedy writers was to capture the mood of the day (the zeitgeist), which is prone to mocking and ridiculing Christians for their faith.
The truth is that believing in Jesus and following his way in today’s society invites ridicule and rejection. We are, without doubt, living in a secular society which is more comfortable without God than with God and wants to push religion and faith to the margins, ignoring the moral compass faith offers not just to us as individuals but to governments, society and culture.
Jesus brought fire to the earth – the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit at work in us works against the spirit of the world and therefore inevitably causes division – and not just amongst those with whom we interact in society, but amongst our closest family as well. The Christian, like his or her Master, will always be a sign of contradiction.
As our world and society become more and more secular, Christians will need great courage to resist and stand firm. This will require a form of martyrdom – and perhaps, for some, even true martyrdom. These words from the great Scripture scholar Origen are as relevant today as they were in the second century: ‘Let us enter the contest to win perfectly not only outward martyrdom, but also the martyrdom that is in secret, so that we too may utter the apostolic cry, “For this is our boast, the martyrdom of our conscience that we have believed in the world with holiness and godly sincerity.”’


Father, you sent your Son to bring fire to the earth – the fire of holiness, truth and goodness. May I know the peace of Christ, which is the fruit of a good conscience and of standing firm in faith.

Friday 24 October


Luke 12:54-59




54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. 55And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
57 ‘And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case,* or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. 59I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.’



A people dependent upon agriculture, fishing and livestock were adept, by necessity, at interpreting weather systems. Thus it was common knowledge in first-century Palestine that the winds from the west came from the Mediterranean Sea and brought rain and storms. In contrast the warmer wind from the south came from the desert and carried with it the hot weather.
Jesus makes the point that his contemporaries knew how to interpret the natural world but not the spiritual one unfolding before their very eyes. They did not realize or grasp that they were living through and witnessing events that would transform the world for ever and that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah – God’s secret kept hidden but pointed to by the prophets of Israel and now revealed. They could interpret the weather – and thus make provision for the practical aspects of their lives – but not the signs of the times – and thus make wise provision in spiritual matters. Clearly exasperated by them, Jesus exclaims: ‘You hypocrites!…[W]hy do you not know how to interpret the present time?’ (v. 56).
What are the signs of the times that we are living through today? How do we judge them? What is happening today that impacts our spiritual lives and the living out of the gospel? The positive signs of our times are many: an increasing interest in the spiritual realm, a new awareness of the need to reach out and help the poor and marginalized around the world, and a growing dissatisfaction with values which seek only self-promotion and self-gratification. The negative signs of our times are many also: the rise of materialism, consumerism, moral relativism, the rejection of the value of human life and the ever-growing secular agenda. Have we got our spiritual eyes open?


One of the great prophets of our age, Pope Paul VI, said:
‘The split between the Gospel and culture is without doubt the drama of our time, just as it was of other times. Therefore every effort must be made to ensure a full evangelization of culture, or more correctly of cultures. They have to be regenerated by an encounter with the Gospel. But this encounter will not take place if the Gospel is not proclaimed.’ (Evangelii nuntiandi 20)

Saturday 25 October


Luke 13:1-9 • Six Welsh Martyrs (Feast in Wales only)




13At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’
6 Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” 8He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

Natural or man-made disasters invite a range of profound theological and philosophical questions. The most obvious one is: Why? Others touch on issues like: Where was God? Why did it happen? Why does God allow such terrible things to happen? When the aeroplanes crashed into the World Trade Center Towers killing over 3,000 people on 9/11 or the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was brought down in July this year, many voiced questions such as these. When the tsunamis hit south-east Asia on Boxing Day 2004 killing over 300,000, the world was justified in asking, ‘Why?’
In today’s Gospel Jesus is challenged by the crowd about recent tragedies in Israel. The view of the ancient world was that indiscriminate and sudden disaster was a sign of God’s displeasure and judgement. Pilate had killed a number of Galileans, mixing their blood with the temple sacrifices. This cruel dictator thought nothing of having people killed while offering sacrifices in the temple (brutal acts, brutal times). Surely the terrible deaths of these Galileans must be a sign of judgement? Jesus refers the crowd to another tragedy in the region in which eighteen workmen had been crushed when a tower had collapsed.
Our forefathers assumed that terrible catastrophes befell those who were rebellious, sinful and enemies of God (Job 4:7; 22:5). Jesus points out the error of this way of thinking by asking the simple question: ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus?’ (v. 2). The Lord doesn’t wait for a reply but answers the question for them: ‘I tell you, No.’ He then expresses a central teaching of Christian faith: the need to repent and believe the gospel.
We are all equally fallen, we all share in original sin, we all need God’s grace and we must all commit ourselves to walking as repentant pilgrims as we journey through life. We are not called to judge: we don’t know why some die in terrible accidents and others in their sleep. There is a profound mystery to life which we must learn to revere and respect. The teaching of Jesus, however, is clear: every one of us must understand our need to turn away from sin, embrace the gospel and produce fruit for the kingdom.


Lord Jesus, I proclaim that I will put on the garment of repentance. I am not ashamed to confess my utter need of God’s grace and mercy.

Dp

Sunday 26 October


(A) Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Matthew 22:34-40



When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”



Jesus expressed the heart of the Ten Commandments when he said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (vv. 37-39). He brought together the first three of the Ten Commandments under his first commandment to love God, and the remaining seven commandments under his second commandment to love our neighbour. He also declared that this was the heart of the teaching of the law and the prophets (v. 40). Why does God require us to love not only him but also our neighbour?
God has revealed himself to us as ‘a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’ (Exod. 34:6). He has shown mercy toward us by forgiving us our sins, reconciling us to himself and adopting us as his beloved children. Because of the mercy and kindness that he has bestowed upon us, he demands that we, in our turn, respond to him with love, and with heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for all that he has done for us.
But since God the Father has shown mercy to every single person that he has created, he also requires that we do not withhold mercy and kindness from his children, since they are our brothers and sisters. If we really understand what God has done for us all, then we are compelled to imitate God’s kindness and mercy toward all people. If we fail to show mercy and kindness, then our hearts remain hardened, revealing that we have not understood what God has done for us. Furthermore, if we are harsh with one another, then God’s anger will blaze out against us (Exod. 22:21-24). The servant who owed his master a great deal of money and was released from his debt was himself bound to release his fellow servant from the very small debt that he owed him. Because he refused to release his fellow servant, his master’s anger blazed out against him (Matt. 18:23-35). In the same way, we will provoke God’s anger if we lack mercy toward our neighbour.


Lord Jesus, help me to live out the heart of the commandments by loving God and my neighbour to the best of my ability.

Monday 27 October


Luke 13:10-17



Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.



When we read the Bible, our minds and hearts touch another world. We are given a window into God’s world and our world is turned upside down. Take today’s incident. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue when he saw a woman who was permanently bent over. Luke informs us that she had suffered this condition for eighteen years. The Lord, clearly moved by her plight, invites her over to him and declares: ‘Woman, you are freed from your infirmity’ (v. 12). He then lays his hands on her and she straightens up and praises God (v. 13). What a wonderful intervention of God into our world! We should marvel at Jesus’ power to heal and restore because it highlights the inbreaking of God’s reign into our world and is a sign of future glory when all sickness and death will be no more.
Do you believe in miracles? Do you expect God to intervene in our world? Or do you think that such miracles don’t happen in our modern, sophisticated, scientific world? Actually disciples of Christ don’t have an option. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is beautifully crisp and clear on the matter:
By following Jesus his disciples acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: “So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.” The risen Lord renews this mission (“In my name they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover”) and confirms it through the signs that the Church performs by invoking his name. These signs demonstrate in a special way that Jesus is truly “God who saves”. (paras. 1506-1507)
We must guard against the hardened attitude which resists God’s intention to heal and restore. Otherwise, we can be rather like the synagogue ruler we encounter in today’s reading. He cannot bring himself to praise God for the wonderful healing he has just witnessed, but rather wants to complain and criticize. The Lord humiliates his critics by exposing their cruelty and legalism – they would rather break the Sabbath for an animal than for a human being.


Lord Jesus, I believe in miracles and praise God for the sacraments through which your grace, mercy and power are given.

Tuesday 28 October


(Feast) SS Simon and Jude • Luke 6:12-19




12 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.



We don’t tend to spend the night in prayer up a mountain before making important decisions! Jesus did, though, and one such occasion was the night before he chose the twelve disciples. The motto here of course is: big decision – big prayer. We don’t know how Jesus prayed on the mountain but we can be sure that he praised his Father, that he acknowledged him as the Lord and the Creator, and gave him glory and honour. Jesus’ choice was perfect because the Twelve went on to transform the world – they set the world alight with their faith and witness. They demonstrate that God’s grace can take hold of anybody and mould them into effective instruments of the gospel.
Prayer helps us to see and understand things differently. Prayer offers us light where there would otherwise be darkness. Prayer allows us to receive God’s wisdom and guidance so that our minds are not governed by our own views and prejudices. Through prayer we see people differently and understand things from a new and more enlightened angle. Indeed, given what we know about the disciples, Jesus’ choice is testimony to the power of God to change and transform. Peter was far from being a rock, James and John were ambitious and fanatical, Matthew’s financial dealings were dubious, and Thomas was a sceptic and cynic at heart.
Today we celebrate the feast-day of two other fine apostles: Simon and Jude. Simon was nicknamed ‘the Zealot’ either because of his zeal for his nation’s independence or his passion for the Torah. Tradition has it that he laboured for the gospel in Egypt and Persia and was eventually martyred there. The New Testament refers to Jude only three times (Luke 6:16; John 14:22; Acts 1:13). He must not be confused with other Judes, namely the Galilean revolutionary (Acts 5:37), the owner of a house Paul stayed in (Acts 9:11), the emissary to Antioch (Acts 15:22) and the brother of Jesus (Mark 6:3). Very little is known about Jude: tradition has it that he served God in Persia and Mesopotamia where he was martyred. A popular devotion has grown up around Jude and he has become the patron saint of hopeless causes – needless to say, many of us invoke his help, protection and intercession.


Jude, patron of hopeless causes, pray for us. Jude, patron of frail humanity, pray for us. Jude, patron of the fraternity of the fallen, pray for us.

Wednesday 29 October


Luke 13:22-30





22 Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, 24‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” 26Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” 27But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” 28There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. 29Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. 30Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’



It is said that the door into the kingdom of heaven is so low that the only way through it is on our knees! Jesus has some very interesting things to say about doors, but we will come to that later. Jesus was asked one of those everlasting and searching questions – you know the type – pertinent, astute and relevant for every age and every generation. The question was not trite, light or shallow but deep, profound and fundamental: ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’ (v. 23).
What precipitated this question we do not know. Perhaps the questioner had noticed that many followed Jesus but few became disciples. The Lord’s response is sober and direct: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able’ (v. 24). We can be unclear in the way we think about salvation. Many people say things about salvation. They say things like: ‘I’ve never hurt anybody’, ‘I’m a good person, I haven’t murdered or committed adultery’, ‘I think I deserve to go to heaven – there are a lot of people far worse than me.’
This kind of attitude is fatally misguided and wrong. As C.S. Lewis so shrewdly observed: ‘We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.’ We need to understand that we cannot save ourselves – we are incapable of making ourselves right with God. Billy Graham was spot-on when he said: ‘There is no more urgent and critical question in life than that of your personal relationship with God and your eternal salvation.’
The gate or door to salvation is Jesus himself (John 10:9). He knocks on the door of our souls (Rev. 3:20) and invites us to acknowledge that he is the Lord. God created us without us but he does not save us without us. How then can we be saved? By turning to Jesus every day, acknowledging our need of him and asking for the grace to live out our vocation.


Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Way of Salvation, the Truth of Salvation and the Life of Salvation. In following you we find the key to life and we are guided and led by the Light of Life.