Printer friendly .pdf file

CHRISM MASS, 2007  -  Bishop’s Homily

1.                        Have you noticed an unusual feature in today’s Readings?  Jesus takes up, as it were, where the Prophet Isaiah leaves off.

v     Isaiah had spoken about his mission as servant of the poor and how the Spirit of the Lord was in his ministry.

v     Jesus enthusiastically embraces, endorses and fulfils this mission: He chooses to preface His own synagogue address with the words of Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for He has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight”.

v     But Jesus doesn’t stop there – He implies much more in this chapter - namely that He is Servant of God and the Messiah. It is that which really angers His listeners. 

2.                        In the early chapters of his Gospel, Luke is at pains to tell us that Jesus comes to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit”, already baptised in the Spirit (3.2), led into the desert by the Spirit (4.1).  And now He is commissioned for mission by that same Spirit. His credentials are absolutely perfect and impeccable.

v     The people are ecstatic - they speak highly of Him and are ‘amazed at the gracious words coming from His lips’. Here at last is someone “speaking with authority” (4.32) and they are impressed and delighted.

3.                        The mission of Jesus is to bring Good News to the Poor - and announces that they will have a place in His Kingdom and He is its Herald.

v     His use of terms such as: ‘poor’, ‘blind’, ‘oppressed’, ‘captives’ must be taken literally but also metaphorically.  Who then are the poor?

Ø      first and foremost they are those who lack the necessities of life, for instance, clothing, shelter, food and the like.

Ø      They, too, are the marginalised – the outcasts of society, the impoverished and oppressed.  The poor are those thirsting for justice, hungering to be understood, seeking the truth but burdened by life. Sometimes the poor are in fact the rich who do not recognise their own poverty of spirit nor do they acknowledge that they, too, are captive to sin. It was at this level that things went awfully wrong in the relationship between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees.

4.                        Jesus wanted them to think ‘outside of the frame’, opening their minds and hearts to a fresh understanding of poverty, blindness, and captivity.   The poor and downtrodden are found not only among the Jews but also among the Gentiles and there must be a concern for all. This, of course, was anathema to the mind-set of the Scribe and Pharisee.  For them there was no light outside of Judaism.

v     Is it any wonder then, that they were furious when Jesus spoke about the Lord coming to strangers, like the widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian, a leader in the army of the enemy.  The initial admiration for him now turned to fury and hostility – they are blinded, imprisoned and impoverished by the narrowness of their own vision, thought and behaviour.

v      All of this foreshadowed the rejection of Jesus by His own people at the end of His public ministry in His crucifixion and death on Calvary. They were blinded as to His identity.

5.                        This passage in Luke, Chapter 4 brings to the fore three great themes so important for our understanding of the gospel:

(i)                 The call empowering us for mission comes not from ourselves but from the Holy Spirit within us.

(ii)               The Good News is available to all including the poor, the impoverished, and those blinded and held captive in a thousand ways by sin.

(iii)             If these people are not the focus of mission then the vision of the community of believers is blurred and blinded.

v     The Mission of the Evangeliser, you and me, extends beyond those already in the Church. It is our task to seek out and embrace them:

o        sinners looking for the Light

o        those on the margins of life desperately trying to find a way home,

o        those searching for the Way, the Truth and the Life,

o        the many longing to believe in the Gospel

o        those thirsting for justice - for themselves, the impoverished and the vulnerable around them

v     Naming these people, and attempting to respond to their needs, may mean that we too have to pay the price of the prophet, often derided, harassed and rejected, by those of narrow or impaired vision.

v     Jesus was run out of town when He raised some of these issues and you and I may suffer a similar fate.

6.                        Our Mission Review Guide, of which I’m very proud, endorses openly and clearly what is being said in Chapter 4 of Luke today.

v                       When we say, from our love of the Church, that preserving and passing on the faith is infinitely more important than preserving buildings, beautiful though some may be, expect opposition!

v                       When you dare to tell parents, teachers and governors that many of our Catholic schools are fast losing their identity, and may not be with us much longer, you will be castigated!

v                       When, you speak up for the ‘illegal immigrant’, the Traveller or indeed question the Trident Project, you will be damned at not really understanding the issues!

v                       When, as priests with your Bishop, you call for an alignment of Mass times with neighbouring churches, resulting in fewer Masses, expect the threat of parishioners going elsewhere!

v                       When you speculate about yourself as possibly the last resident parish priest, or that the parish will be twinned or amalgamated with another, then ‘all-hell’ will be let loose! It’s well to remember that no parish in the diocese will be unaffected in one or another!

v                       When we talk, as Catholics, about the bigger issues – lapsation and the absence of young people from our churches, difficulties in communicating the faith today, lives lived without prayer and meaning, dangers to the faith and the growing pressure and intimidation of aggressive secularism, we will be thought to be ‘going round the bend!’

v                       When you raise justice and environmental issues, or call for much more collaborative ministry with our lay people and mandating them to speak for, and out of love of Christ and His Church, in all sorts of issues – education, morality, environment, the sciences, justice and peace, you will be accused of lacking faith and hope. But to be forewarned is to be forearmed!

7.                        Remember, however, that the Gospel cannot be imprisoned, blurred, crushed or defeated - for the Spirit of the Lord has been given to us.  He has set us free and He is on our side.

8.                        Finally, I was much touched by something that Pope Benedict XI said only yesterday at his weekly audience:

“Today, too, Christ overcomes sin and death with his love. Evil, in all of its forms, does not have the final word. The final triumph belongs to Christ, to truth, to love!"

"In the coming days, we will commemorate the supreme battle between Light and Darkness, between Life and Death."
 
"We will experience that the Church is always alive, always renewing itself, always beautiful and holy, because its foundation is Christ, who, having risen, will never die again."

+Patrick

Back