Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Mob: 0417 279 437; mdelaney@netspace.net.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah
Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address:
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street , Devonport 7310
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au
Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Mary Davies
Pastoral Council Chair: Mary Davies
Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
Parish Magazine: mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au
Year of Mercy Blogspot: mlcpyom.blogspot.com.au
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Parents are asked to contact the Parish Office to make arrangements for attending a Baptismal Preparation Session and booking a Baptism date.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: Ulverstone - Fridays (10am - 10:30am)
Devonport - Saturday (5:15pm– 5.45pm)
Penguin - Saturday (5:15pm - 5:45pm)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is in need of assistance and has given permission to be contacted by Care and Concern, please phone the Parish Office.
MERSEY LEVEN CATHOLIC PARISH
Holy Week & Easter Ceremonies 2016
DEVONPORT: Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Good Friday: Commemoration of the Passion 3.00pm
 Holy Saturday: EASTER VIGIL 7.00pm
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 11.00am
PORT SORELL: St Joseph’s Mass Centre
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 10.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 8.00am
LATROBE: St Patrick’s Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday Easter Mass 9.30am
SHEFFIELD: Holy Cross Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 11.00am
ULVERSTONE: Sacred Heart Church
Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7.30pm
(Adoration till 9pm followed by Evening Prayer of the Church)
Good Friday: Commemoration of the Passion 3.00pm
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 9.30am
PENGUIN: St Mary’s Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 8.00am
Reconciliation
Monday 21st March - Our Lady of Lourdes 7pm
Wednesday 23rd March - Sacred Heart 7pm
|
Monday: No Mass
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe
Thursday: 10.30am - Karingal Nursing Home
7.30pm - Charismatic Mass Penguin
7.30pm - Charismatic Mass Penguin
Friday: 11.00am - Mt St Vincent Nursing Home
Next Weekend 20th & 21st February, 2016
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Eucharistic Adoration:
Devonport: Friday - 10am - 12 noon
Devonport: Benediction
Prayer Groups:
Charismatic Renewal - Devonport, Emmaus House - Thursdays at 7:30pm
Christian Meditation - Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays at 7pm.
Ministry Rosters 20th
& 21st February, 2016
Devonport:
Ministers of Communion
Vigil: T Muir, M
Davies, M Gerrand, T Bird, S Innes
10:30am: R Beaton, B & N Mulcahy, L Hollister
Cleaners 19th
Feb: B Bailey, A
Harrison, M Greenhill 26th Feb: K Hull, F Stevens, M Chan
Piety Shop 20th
Feb: R Baker 21st Feb: K Hull
Ulverstone:
Reader:
R Locket Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, J
Landford
Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce. Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: G & N Pearce Commentator: E Nickols Reader: Y Downes Procession: Fifita Family
Ministers of
Communion: T Clayton, J Barker Liturgy: Pine Road Setting Up: A Landers
Care of
Church: Y & R
Downes
Latrobe: Reader: G Lim
Ministers of Communion: M Kavic, Z Smith Procession: Music: Jenny
Port
Sorell: Reader: D
Leaman, T Jeffries Ministers
of Communion: E
Holloway
Cleaners/: G Bellchambers, M Gillard
Readings This Week - First Sunday of Lent
First Reading: Deuteronomy 26:4-10
Second Reading: Romans 10:8-13
Gospel: Luke 4:1-13
PREGO REFLECTION:
Perhaps it is best to pray this very rich text when I have
enough quality time to give it. I resist the temptation to read it too quickly,
telling myself that the passage is very familiar. I recall that the Gospel of
this 1st Sunday in Lent is always concerned with Jesus’ own temptations. I read
it slowly, perhaps stopping after each temptation. It may help to use my
imagination and be with Jesus in the wilderness. Am I able to feel his hunger,
his loneliness, his uncertainty about the way forward? How do I feel when I
come to realise that he has been tempted in every way that I am? It may lead me
to reflect on my own temptations, those in my past, those I struggle with at
the moment. I speak to the Lord about them, and ask him to help me overcome
them. I pray to be drawn to his values, to rely on him rather than on myself.
When the time comes, I conclude my prayer slowly and return to my everyday life
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Readings Next Week - Second Sunday of Lent
First Reading: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18
Second Reading: Philippians 3:17-4:1
Gospel: Luke 9:28-36
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Pat George, Anne Garlick, Nora Holly, Ali Drummond, Jane Allen, John Charlesworth, Kath Smith, Haydee Diaz, Geraldine
Roden, Joy Carter & …
Let us pray
for those who have died recently: Peter Deane, Bev Atkinson, Charles Holliday, Lance Cox, Lachie
Berwick, Robert Hatton, Barry Aulich, Bruce Peters, Brian Barrett,
Keitha Kean, Ans Swarte, Monica Darke, Justina Onyirioha, Mary Rice and Cavell Robertson.
Let us pray for
those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 10th – 16th
February
Sheryl Allen, Sharon Fellows-Glover, Ethel Kellcey, Colleen
Cameron, Christopher Cabalzar, Rita Wescombe, Mary Hunniford, Douglas Howard, Jacqueline Chisholm,
Michael Ravaillion, Venus Martin, Audrey Cabalzar, Lyell Byrne, Nancy Kelly, Carole-Anne Walker, Enid Stubbs, Cesar S Cortes
Sr. Also Filipe Monzales, Egmidio Monzales, Mark Anthony Monzales, Bruce Smith, Robert King, Jeffrey &
Genaro Visorro. Also deceased relatives and friends of Robertson & Ravaillion families.
May they Rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
It is Ash Wednesday as I write this
and I am looking at the Caritas Lent App on my iPad with the reflection for
today which picks up the response from Isaiah, Paul and Simon Peter from last
weekend’s reading – they were all aware that ‘I’ am unworthy and need God’s
grace in order to be able to make a difference in my life. God shows mercy to
these three great men and they reflect that mercy towards others.
We also need to be people who both
experience God’s mercy but also witness to that same mercy in our interaction
with others. Pope Francis has made mercy a significant part of his papacy
especially calling us this Jubilee Year of Mercy. During this Lenten Time he is
especially calling us to look towards the corporal and spiritual works of mercy
as a sign of our response to this call to a new beginning.
As an aid to your memory the
Corporal Works of Mercy are: Feeding the hungry; Giving drink to the thirsty;
Clothing the naked; Sheltering the homeless; Caring for the sick; Visiting the
imprisoned; and Burying the dead. The
Spiritual Works of Mercy are: Teaching those lacking knowledge; Advising the
doubtful; Correcting those who need it; Forgiving; Being patient; Comforting
and counselling; and praying for the living and the dead.
I pray that we will be able to
respond to this invitation and both experience God’s mercy in our own lives and
become instruments by which others may come to this same mercy in theirs.
Nomination forms for the Parish
Pastoral Council are available this weekend. The form lists the
responsibilities and the roles of a PPC member. Please think about a suitable
candidate and approach them re standing for the PPC for the next few years.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes.
Les
Enniss a happy 95th Birthday
which
was celebrated 9th February, 2016
And
Congratulations to Ross &
Helen Hodby
on their
50th Wedding Anniversary
celebrated 13th February, 2016.
PROJECT COMPASSION 2016
APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA: will be starting Stations of the Cross, Rosary and Prayers at Sacred Heart Church commencing 10:00am Tuesday 16th February.
CWL DEVONPORT: next meeting Wednesday 17th February, Emmaus House Devonport at 2.00 pm
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal, are sponsoring a HEALING MASS with Fr Alex Obiorah at St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin Thursday 18th February 2016, commencing at 7.30pm. Please bring a friend and a plate for supper. For more information please contact Celestine Whiteley 6424: 2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Zoe Smith 6426:3073 or Tom Knaap 6425:2442
MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE, WILLIAM STREET, FORTH
SPIRITUALITY IN THE COFFEE SHOPPE: Monday 22nd February 10.30 – 12 noon. Come along….share your issues and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! Phone: 6428 3095 or Email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au
LENTEN PROGRAM
This year’s Lenten Program Being Lost… Being Found has begun with small discussion groups. If you would like to attend one of the below groups please contact the Parish Office 6424:2783.
Groups currently Meeting:
Clare Kiely-Hoye, Emmaus House Devonport every Monday 10am
John & Glenys Lee-Archer, 126 Steele Street, Devonport every Wednesday 7:00pm.
Marie Byrne, Unit 7/9 Alexandra Road, Ulverstone every Wednesday 7:30pm
Thursday Nights OLOL Hall D’port. Eyes down 7.30pm.
Callers 18th February Jon Halley & Tony Ryan
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE
ARCHDIOCESE
WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016 – APPLY NOW!
Looking for an adventure? A faith-inspiring encounter? The buzz of millions of young people gathered together? An experience of Pope Francis? Have you considered World Youth Day 2016? Join other young Tasmanians on Pilgrimage through Rome, Assisi and Milan; Czestochowa, Auschwitz, Krakow & Prague for a life-changing experience you won’t soon forget! Applications are open and now is the time to jump on board! If you are 16-35 years (as at 31st December 2016) and are at all interested please contact Rachelle ASAP on rachelle.smith@aohtas.org.au or 0400 045 368. You can also find more information on this incredible opportunity at: www.wydtas.org.au
GRACEFEST TASMANIA 2016
‘Gracefest’ is an exciting event for Tasmanian Christian youth, ages 15-25, being run by the Archdiocese of Hobart. On Saturday March 5, 6-10pm, at St Peter’s Hall next to St Mary’s Cathedral, the evening of prayer and worship will include special performances from Christian singer, Steven Kirk. Food for sale, festival for free! Fully supervised. Attendance by registration: www.gracefesttasmania.org.au/
Misericordiae Vultus – The Face of Mercy
In section 6 of the Bull of Indiction, announcing the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis
declares that the “mercy of God is not an abstract idea.” He describes it as “a concrete reality through which He reveals his love as that of a father or a mother, moved to the very depths out of love for their child.”
He also quotes several extracts from the Psalms, which focus on the quality of mercy. We will share them during the next three weeks.
“He secures justice for the oppressed; he gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the
prisoners free.” (Psalm 146:7-9)
Saint of the Week – St Valentine (February 14)
Father Frank O'Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story of the man behind the holiday -- St Valentine.
"He was a Roman Priest at a time of the emperor Claudius II who persecuted the Church at that particular time," Father O'Gara explains.
"He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died."
"I think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine lived," says Father O'Gara. "Polygamy would have been much more popular than just one woman and one man living together. And yet some of them seemed to be attracted to Christian faith.
But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged. And so it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to do about this."
"The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the edict."
Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded for performing
marriage ceremonies against command of the emperor.
The Sacred
Heart
Part of the daily email series from Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe to his emails here
As a
Catholic, I was often puzzled by the continued return to heart imagery among
our saints and in our art. The "Sacred Heart" of Jesus and the
"Immaculate Heart of Mary," where both are pointing to their blazing
heart, are images known to Catholics worldwide. I often wonder what people
actually do with these images. Are they mere sentiment? Are they objects of
worship or objects of transformation? Such images keep recurring because they
must have something important, good, and perhaps even necessary to teach the
soul. What might that be?
Many have
described prayer as bringing your thinking down into your heart. Next time a
resentment, negativity, or irritation comes into your mind, and you are tempted
to play it out or attach to it, instead move that thought or person into your
heart space--literally. There, surround this negativity with silence (which is
much easier to do in the heart) and your pumping blood (which will often feel
warm like coals). In this place, it is almost impossible to comment, judge,
create story lines, or remain antagonistic. You are in a place that does not
create or feed on contraries but is the natural organ of life, embodiment, and
love. Love lives and thrives in the heart space.
This
practice has kept me from wanting to hurt people who have hurt me. It keeps me
from obsessive, repetitive, or compulsive head games. It can make the
difference between being happy and being miserable and negative.
Could this
be what we are really doing when we pray for someone? Yes, we are holding them
in our heart space. Do it in a physical, experiential way and you will see how
calmly and quickly it works. Now the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart have
been transferred to you. They are pointing for you to join them there. The
"sacred heart" is then your heart too.
Reference:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass:
2013), Appendix D.
ON READING DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original can be found here
A colleague of mine shares this story: Recently, after presiding a Eucharist, a woman from the congregation came up to him with this comment: “What a horrible scripture reading today! If that’s the kind of God we’re worshipping, then I don’t want to go to heaven!”
The reading for that day’s liturgy was taken from Chapter 24 of the Second Book of Samuel where, seemingly, God gets upset with King David for counting the number of men he had for military service and then punishes him by sending a pestilence that kills seventy thousand people.
Is this really the word of God? Did God really get angry with David for doing a simple census and kill seventy thousand people to teach him a lesson? What possible logic could justify this? As it stands, literally, yes, this is a horrible text!
What do we do with passages like this and many others where God, seemingly, demands violence in his name? To cite just one example: In his instructions to Joshua when they enter the promised land, God orders him to kill everything in the land of Canaan, all the men, all the women, all the children, and even all the animals. Why? Why would God so grossly want all these people destroyed? Can we believe God would do this? There are other similar examples, as, for instance, in the Book of Judges, where God grants the prayer of Jephthah, the Gileadite, on the condition that he sacrifices his own daughter on the altar of sacrifice. Texts like this seem to go against the very essence of the nature of God as the rest of scripture reveals it.
God, in scripture, is sometimes seemingly shown to be arbitrary, heartless, violent, demanding violence from believers, and completely calloused about the lives of anyone not among his chosen favorites. If one were to take these texts literally they could be used to justify the exact type of violence that extremist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaida carry out under the belief that God loves them alone and they are free to kill others in his name.
Nothing could be further from the truth and nothing could be further from the meaning of these texts. These texts, as biblical scholarship makes clear, are not to be taken literally. They are anthropomorphic and archetypal. Whenever they are read they could be preceded by the kind of disclaimer we now often see at movies where we are told: No real animals died while making this film. So too, no real people die in these texts.
First of all, these texts are anthropomorphic, meaning that in them we attribute our own emotions and intentions to God. Hence these texts reflect our feelings, not God’s. For example, when Paul tells us that when we sin we experience the “wrath of God”, we are not to believe that God gets angry with us when we sin and sends positive punishment upon us. Rather, when we sin, we punish ourselves, begin to hate ourselves, and we feel as if God has gotten angry with us. Biblical writers frequently write in this genre. God never hates us, but, when we sin, we end up hating ourselves.
These texts are also archetypal, meaning that they are powerful, primordial images that explain how life works. I remember a man coming up to me one Sunday after a liturgy, when the reading had proclaimed God’s order to Joshua to kill all the Canaanites upon entering the Promised Land. The man said to me: “You should have let me preach today. I know what that text means: I’m an alcoholic in recovery – and that text means ‘cold turkey”. As an alcoholic, you have to clean out your liquor cabinet completely, every bottle, you can’t be having even a single drink. Every Canaanite has to be killed! Jesus said the same thing, except he used a softer metaphor: New wine, new wineskins.” In essence, that’s the meaning of this text.
But even so, if these texts are not literal aren’t they still the inspired word of God? Can we just explain them away because we feel them inconvenient?
Two things might be said in response to this: First, all individual texts in scripture must be seen within the larger, overall framework of scripture and our overall theology of God and, as such, they demand an interpretation that is consistent with the nature of God as revealed overall in scripture. And, in scripture as a whole, we see that God is non-negotiably all-loving, all-merciful, and all-good and that it is impossible to attribute bias, callousness, brutality, favoritism, and violence to God. Moreover, scripture is binding and inerrant in the intentionality of its message, not in the literalness of its expression. We do not, for example, take literally Jesus’ command to “call no one on earth your father”, nor Paul’s command: “Slaves be subject to your masters.”
Context and interpretation are not rationalizations, they are sacred duty. We may not make scripture unworthy of God.
The Temptation of Jesus
This is an article by Fr Jack Mahoney sj. The original can be found on the Thinking Faith website by clicking here
When Jesus decided to leave his home and family in Nazareth and become a travelling preacher, he began by going to John the Baptist to be baptised by him in the River Jordan and to identify himself with his people as they confessed their sins (Lk 3:7). St Luke tells us that as Jesus was praying after being baptised, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit came and rested on him in the form of a dove, while a heavenly voice proclaimed: ‘You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased’ (Lk 3:21-22). Following this recognition and commendation by his heavenly Father, Jesus was full of the Spirit of God and he ‘was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil’ (Lk 4:1-2). This biblical account of the temptation of Jesus as described in Luke’s Gospel has been chosen by the Church as the gospel for the Mass of the First Sunday of Lent. It should put us in the right mind to approach Lent as a time for reflection, penance and prayer in preparation for Easter, as described in a previous article.
The idea of Jesus being tempted shows us how very human Our Lord was, and that it is perfectly human to be tempted, as he was. The basic idea, of course, is not that of being incited or encouraged to commit sin, but that of being ‘put to the test’ – which is the original meaning of the Greek word peirazo – and being given the opportunity to choose well and please God. Some commentators see the gospel description of Jesus being ‘tested’ and overcoming the devil’s temptations as a contrast with the testing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a test that they failed (Gen 3). However, the temptation of Jesus was more reminiscent of the tradition that for forty years the people of Israel, having been liberated from Egypt, were being put to the test in the Sinai desert, and continually failed God who was trying to form them into his own people before giving them the promised land. Now Jesus was representing his people and in his turn facing up to the challenges and the tests that the devil was putting before him, as he prepared to begin his mission to bring the God of Israel afresh to his people and to bring that people back to God.
Planning the ministry
Looked at in more human terms, the period spent by Jesus in the wilderness after his approval by his Father can be seen as his time to plan his ministry and pray for guidance about the campaign that he was preparing to undertake as a travelling prophet and preacher. We know from Luke’s Gospel that Jesus regularly withdrew to a quiet place to pray for support and guidance from his heavenly father (e.g. Lk 5:16; 6:12), particularly at the beginning of his ministry while he considered the options facing him and the steps to be planned. What was going to be his main purpose in his work? To convince his hearers of God’s love for them and of how God was about to assert his kingly presence and power in Israel, and eventually throughout the world? Jesus was to describe this overarching aim as the coming of the kingdom, or the kingship, of God.
How was Jesus going to frame this message and communicate it effectively to his hearers? Was he going to threaten fire and brimstone, as the Baptist seemed to prefer (Lk 3:7-9), or was he going to adopt an on the whole gentler and less ascetical approach; an approach aimed at removing oppression and injustice, and accepting sinners and social misfits, which Luke tells us John seemed to find puzzling, if not contradictory (Lk 7:18-23)? In the Sermon on the Plain (6:17-49) later addressed by Jesus to his disciples, which was based on an earlier version of Jesus’s teaching and which provided Luke’s equivalent to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7), Jesus is depicted as primarily encouraging the poor, the hungry and those people persecuted in his name to rejoice at being favoured by God, while by contrast warning those who are satisfied at being rich and comfortable and well thought of that they faced a very different future. However, Jesus chose to teach mainly through parables: brief stories or vignettes about everyday life with a religious or moral application, which would close by presenting his hearers with a discomfiting challenge about how they should react in such circumstances. In three weeks time we shall consider the famous Lucan parable of the Prodigal Son (15:11-32), which the Church has chosen for our Lenten reflection and prayer in the Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Lent.
In addition, as Luke shows us, Jesus decided that he would use his powers of healing and miracle working in order to manifest that God’s kingdom was not just about to come, but that it had already arrived in the presence and transforming words and actions of Jesus himself. As he was to point out: ‘In fact, the kingdom of God is among you’ (17:21). His God-given gifts were for the benefit of others, to meet their spiritual needs and bring about the kingdom of God; they were certainly not to be used for Jesus’s own convenience, for example to produce bread in the wilderness to satisfy the pangs of hunger brought on by his fasting, which Luke has the devil suggest to Jesus as his first temptation (4:3-4). Was this man really a ‘son of God’ as that voice had proclaimed from heaven? If he was, as the devil wanted to find out, why should he have to suffer from hunger in the wilderness when he could easily turn stones into loaves? After all, God miraculously provided bread for the Israelites in the desert (Ex 16:3-4, 15). As Jesus accepted this first testing, almost perhaps as a distraction from thinking about and planning his mission, Luke tells us that he countered it by quoting Moses’ comment on that manna in the desert (Dt 8:3), that there is more to life than bread: ‘One does not live by bread alone’ (Lk 4:4). The Gospel of John spells out for us that, for Jesus, ‘my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work’ (Jn 4:34).
Another major strategic issue that Jesus would have had to consider was that of towards whom he should direct his mission to bring about the kingdom of God. Should he, for instance, try to work through the religious and civil authorities, by aiming to convert the powerful and woo the Jewish and Roman establishment in ways which have tempted the Church through the centuries, and thus through ‘the powers that be’ seek to influence and programme the masses of ordinary folk? This option sounds quite like the second temptation that Luke has the devil put to Jesus: showing him ‘all the kingdoms of the world’ and offering to give Jesus complete power over them, provided he first worship the devil, who claimed to own them all (4:5-7). It was not true, of course, that the devil had really been given authority over the world’s earthly kingdoms as he claimed – we are reminded in John 8:44 that he is ‘a liar and the father of lies’ – but this offering of what we have become accustomed to know as a Faustian bargain of selling one’s soul to the devil in return for enormous benefits was countered by Jesus, again by quoting the word of God: that one should ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’ (4:8). In fact, the strategic decision made by Jesus was to take up the traditional role of the prophet in Israel (7:17; 24:19) and to act as a conscience towards those who had authority and power over others, rather than to identify or ally himself with them. He adopted a similar approach in the way in which he spoke to the great crowds he would attract, by respecting every one of God’s people, and addressing each member of his audiences directly in their own right and their inalienable dignity, rather than trying to manipulate them and secure their allegiance indirectly.
Next, who would be in these crowds whom Jesus would be addressing? Would he address everyone indiscriminately, including gentiles, or should he concentrate on the people of Israel, or even restrict himself to the people of his native Galilee? Jesus’s eventual aim, as we learn later in Luke, was that ‘people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God’ (13:29); Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, was devoted to describing the spread of the Church among Jews and Gentiles alike around the Mediterranean. At first, however, Jesus seems to have decided to concentrate on the Jews, addressing them in their villages and synagogues (4:44), and not to directly focus on gentiles, including Romans, although he seemed prepared to make exceptions, as with his healing of the centurion’s servant in Capernaum (7:1-10). After all, his first aim was to save and renew the people of Israel, as he proclaimed at his final supper with his followers before his death, by instituting a ‘new covenant’ between them and God (22:20). Then the universalist destiny of the new Israel could be allowed to take its course under the guidance and inspiration of the Spirit, as Luke set out to chronicle in the subsequent Acts of the Apostles.
Attracting a following
Jesus no doubt saw, or at least hoped, that inevitably in the various places which he planned to visit he would attract crowds of followers and supporters, men and women welcoming his teaching which would differ so much from the disdain and burdens they were subject to from their current religious leaders. He would have known that some people would be more sympathetic to his message than others; would he call some of these closer into his company and even invite a few to share his mission to ‘proclaim the kingdom of God’ (9:2)? Reading the gospel accounts of Jesus’s calling of the twelve apostles to join him, as described in Lk 5:10-11 and even more tersely in Luke’s source, Mark 1:16-20, one can easily get the impression that this was done without any preparation on his part and completely out of the blue. However, it seems in Luke that Jesus already knew Simon at least, since on an earlier occasion Jesus visited Simon’s house and cured his mother-in-law of fever (4:38-39). It appears to have been only later according to Luke that Jesus selected twelve men from his larger band of disciples to become his ‘apostles’ (from the Greek ‘sent out’, 6:13), settling on the number twelve to indicate that the close inner circle among his disciples will be a reminder of the twelve tribes of Israel and will come to exercise a leadership of service (22:26-7) in the new Israel which Jesus announced he was setting up (22:28-30). The implication seems to be that Jesus already knew these men as disciples, and that he had reason after spending a night in prayer (6:12-13) for choosing and inviting each one of them to join his inner band, perhaps because they had earlier shown themselves to be particularly receptive to his message. Not that the Twelve were a particularly impressive lot, at least before they received the Spirit of Jesus at Pentecost (Lk 24:49). Later in the Gospel, Jesus would teach them (11:4) to pray that they would not be brought into temptation – in fact, Lk 22:3 tells us that Satan was successful in winning over Judas – and Jesus had occasion to explain to Simon Peter that Satan had demanded to sift, or scatter, all of his apostles like wheat, but that Jesus had prayed for them that they would recover (22:31). It was on such an occasion as this that Jesus could have explained to his intimate companions how he too had been tempted by the devil from time to time, including during his early days of planning and prayer in the desert.
Among the many disciples who would be attracted to follow Jesus, we also read in Lk 8:1-3 that as he campaigned through the cities and villages he was accompanied by ‘some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities’ and by ‘many other’ women. Luke also tells us that the latter ‘provided for them out of their resources’ (8:3), so that would resolve another question which Jesus may have felt it necessary to consider in his planning: if he did gather a band of regular companions to accompany him, where would the resources come from to feed and accommodate and look after them all in their journeyings? (The Gospel of John, 13:29, informs us that Judas would be the treasurer of ‘the common purse’).
Meeting opposition
As he planned his mission, Jesus must have been well aware that he was going to meet with opposition from hostile individuals and with all sorts of vested interests in Israel, and that he would experience disappointment, disapproval, frustration and ultimately rejection. Nothing less, in fact, could be expected for a true prophet such as Jesus planned to be, and of this he was well aware. Having some sense of his future calling, Jesus would have studied keenly the history of his people, and would have been knowledgeable in the traditions concerning the Law and the prophets, recalling that bright young lad who had so impressed his teachers in the Bible classes in the temple in Jerusalem many years ago (2:46-7). So he would know also, as Luke has him observe, that ‘it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem’ (13:33), which accounts for the whole second half of Luke’s Gospel being centred on Jesus’s great journey to Jerusalem in the expectation of being put to death there (9:51-3; 18:31-33).
To counter such foreboding for the future perhaps what was wanted was a really spectacular event that the people and authorities of Israel simply could not ignore, one which would establish Jesus’s identity as the undeniable Son of God – something like appearing on the lofty pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem at a major feast in the sight of all the crowds and casting himself down dramatically into the courtyard, secure in being safely protected by his loving Father. After all, the Jews were going to be demanding regularly that this claimed Messiah produce a convincing sign of his genuineness (11:16), as indeed the devil now proposed in the third of Luke’s temptations (4:9-11): if God really was his father, let Jesus throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, confident in the protection of God’s angels to ‘bear him up’ safely, as proclaimed in Ps 91:11.
Evidently, the devil had now learned to quote Scripture to his purpose, but he was no more successful than in the previous two temptations recorded. Luke chose an order different from that of Matthew 4:5-7 to make this the third and culminating temptation, centring on Jerusalem, the nation’s capital, which would be the focus and climax of Jesus’s whole earthly ministry to Israel (9:51-53). But faced with this final, and almost puerile fantasy, Jesus’s only dismissive reply (4:12) was that it was again like Israel in the desert (Ex 17:2), simply tempting God. As he observed, ‘Again, it is written (Dt 6:16), Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
Now what?
Trying, as I have been doing, to explore the human thinking of Jesus in this passage of Luke’s Gospel is to put oneself diffidently face to face with the profound mystery of the Word made flesh (Jn 1:14), God in human form. But it is a genuine human form, and not a facade or a docetist make-believe, and so we are called on to respect the very humanity of Jesus while attempting to understand and appreciate it, and to learn from it. Luke ends his account of the temptation of Jesus by remarking that ‘when the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time’ (4:13). This could imply that Luke has described only three of a possibly greater number of proposals with which the devil was testing Jesus, then and later; and there would surely have been many other options which would occur to Jesus as he explored and assessed various ways of proceeding, either accepting or rejecting them as he planned and anticipated his divine mission. The gospel shows that Satan would return to plague Jesus and that he would suffer doubts and perplexities in the months ahead, culminating in the distressing scene in the garden when, echoing his earlier words to Peter (22:31-2), he twice exhorted his closest friends to pray that they would not be tempted (22:40, 46), and when he himself agonised in prayer to his Father over what he feared was about to happen to him (22:41-44).
After ending his description of the testing of Jesus in the wilderness as he planned his ministry, Luke reports his return to Galilee ‘filled with the power of the Spirit’ (4:14). He provides a powerful scene showing Jesus in action on the Sabbath in the synagogue in Nazareth where he had been brought up, in what we are probably meant to understand as a typical instance of the preaching programme on which Jesus had now embarked. He stood up to read, possibly invited as a returning member of the congregation, and he was handed the scroll of Isaiah. Whether he then chose a particular passage or it just so happened that this was passed to him, it could not have been a better or a more appropriate set of verses to sum up his work and his role in his Father’s plan, describing as it did, in the words of the great consoling prophet of Israel, Isaiah (Is 61:1-2), how the Spirit of the Lord anointed the prophet to bring good news to the poor, to free those in bondage, to restore sight, to liberate, and ‘to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’ (4:16-19). Ending his reading, Jesus sat down in the expectant silence, and began his sermon by announcing confidently: ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ (4:20-21). He was now firmly on his way.
As we now on our part think and pray about this striking passage from Saint Luke given to us as the Gospel at Mass on the First Sunday of Lent, we can appreciate how appropriate it is for the start of this liturgical season. It is inviting us to consider how we shall choose to behave in the next six weeks as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord, by reflecting on what ‘testings’, that is, what opportunities may occur to us or may come our way. The first and most obvious test will be whether to ignore Lent or to decide to do something about it, either by ‘giving something up’ for Lent or ‘taking something on’. This is a time in our religious life particularly suited to listening to the observation of Our Lord first given in St Mark’s Gospel, that ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Mk 8:34), to which Luke added significantly the qualification, ‘let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’ (9:23). In my previous article, I noted that radical self-denial is not to deny oneself some ‘thing’, but to deny, or negate, one’s self as the centre of our lives and preoccupations, as Jesus here invites all his disciples to do. We can follow Jesus in asking for the power of the Spirit to operate in our lives too, and help us make the right choices.
Jack Mahoney SJ is Emeritus Professor of Moral and Social Theology in the University of London and author of The Making of Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition, Oxford, 1987.
EIGHT (COMPLETELY REASONABLE) EXCUSES
WHY FIRST-TIME GUESTS
DON’T RETURN TO YOUR CHURCH
(This is an older blog from Fr Michael White, Pastor at the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. It is directed at the new school year in the USA but the points he makes are relevant for any parish. The original blog can be found here)
There are many reasons why people never come to church. But there are others who try coming and, based on their experience, decide not to come back.
Here’s a list of some of the most common reasons and responses given by first-time guests. They may sound superficial to the committed churchgoer, but they matter to the people you’re trying to reach more than you think.
- Mass didn’t start on time: Starting late makes a church service look like amateur hour. Besides that, the number one question a newcomer has coming in the door is “How long is this going to take?” Starting late answers that question “No one knows.” And that makes guests very uncomfortable.
- Couldn’t find a seat: It is actually the case in many churches, even half empty churches, that it is awkward and uncomfortable finding a seat. Regulars sit on the aisles and refuse to move. Bags and coats strewn across pews suggest saved seats which guests are uncomfortable inquiring about. There might also be an unspoken atmosphere suggesting that regulars have their regular spots, and most guests are very sensitive to sitting in someone else’s seat.
- No place for children: There is an old time attitude in Catholic culture that “children belong in church.” They don’t, if they’re not old enough to understand. But if there are no options for parents, what choice do they have? Many guests feel they are being judged when their children inevitably make noise or become restless. Angry stares can easily send them away with a resolve never to return.
- The facilities were dirty and cluttered: You wouldn’t invite company to your house and not clean it first. Same for church. Dirt communicates lack of hospitality or even basic care. Clutter is almost as bad. In all the various forms it comes in (posters, displays, sign-up tables), it is usually all about insiders. I was recently in a church lobby that was crammed with clutter and none of it had anything to do with visitors. Clutter is a reminder to visitors that they don’t belong and a confirmation that they don’t want to belong.
- Announcements were too long and irrelevant: Often in churchworld the announcements are chatty insider stuff that has no application or relevance for a guest. They’re typically too long too, and once has been established this has nothing to do with me, length is deadly.
- Lack of Signage: Most churches have a distinct lack of signage and it doesn’t seem like a big deal. It is for guests. Think about it: they don’t know where to go and they’re not yet comfortable asking.
- Bad music: This is a big one and unfortunately it is the hardest one to get right. It takes hard work and may require a larger share of your resources and that’s why many parishes just suck it up. Your regulars are willing to do that, your guests will not.
- Unfriendly churchpeople: Far and away, the number one reason people who have stopped going to church say they stopped is the unfriendliness of many church environments. Every church community thinks they’re friendly, but that’s not enough. You got to be very deliberate and intentional about it or you’re probably not friendly enough.
This weekend is the weekend in many parishes when unchurched people come church shopping. They’re giving us a try because they’re into a new school year, they’re back from vacation, they’ve been meaning to do it: lots of reasons. This is the perfect season to consider what kind of experience they’re going to have in your church.
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