Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney
Mob: 0417 279 437
Mob: 0417 279 437
Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon
Mob: 0438 562 731
paschalokpon@yahoo.com
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack
Mob: 0437 521 257
Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au
Secretary: Annie Davies
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
PLENARY COUNCIL PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia
and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age.
Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia
and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age.
Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Weekday Masses 27th - 30th November
Tuesday: 9:30am
Penguin
7:00pm Penguin
7:00pm Devonport
Devonport: 
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M
Gerrand, P Shelverton
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week –Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Year B)
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
Readings next week –First
Sunday of Advent (Year C)
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time:
23rd – 30th November
Weekly
Ramblings
Please
take care on the roads and I look forward to seeing you next weekend.
MACKILLOP HILL: Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe - Monday 26th November 10:30am - 12pm Come along and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! Final gathering for the year. Resumes 25th Feb 2019.
Phone: 6428 3095 email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
ST VINCENT
DE PAUL:
EMPTY STABLE - OUR LADY OF
LOURDES CHURCH:
Parishioners are invited to place
gifts, non-perishable goods in the empty stable at Our Lady of Lourdes Church.
The items donated will be placed in the many Christmas Hampers St Vincent de
Paul Society will be distributing in the communities. Your kindness and
generosity is appreciated and will make life a little more joyful for families
and isolated people.
HEALING MASS:
BBQ & BOOK CLUB:
Michael and Grainne Hendrey invite you to join them in
their home each first Friday of the month for an evening of conversation and
spirituality-ness. BBQ starts at 6:30pm, BYO meat and drinks and something to
share. Book club is from 7:30pm to 9pm (small groups). RSVP Michael 0417 540
566 or Grainne 0414 968 731
SACRED HEART CHURCH CHRISTMAS EVE MASS:
‘Calling all children’ you are very welcome to participate in the
nativity play at the 6pm Christmas Eve Mass at Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone. Practise will take place during 9am Mass at Sacred Heart Church Sunday 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd December. If
you would like more information please phone Charlie Vella 0417 307 781.
CHRISTMAS
PARTY – ULVERSTONE:
ADVENT 2018:
PIETY SHOP OLOL CHURCH:
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
A VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM
This article is taken from the Daily Emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM and the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the emails here
Jesus’ basic justice agenda was simple living, humility, and
love of neighbor. We all have to live this way ourselves. From that position,
God can do God’s work rather easily. Unfortunately, even many who claim to
follow Jesus have deviated from this path.
In almost all of history, the vast majority of people
understood the “view from the bottom” due to their life circumstance. Most of
the people who have ever lived on this planet have been oppressed and poor. But
their history was seldom written except in the Bible and in recent books. [1]
This relatively new thing called “the middle class” gives
many of us just enough comfort not to feel the pinch or worry about injustice
for ourselves. Many of us in the Northern Hemisphere have a view from the top
even though we are nowhere near the top. Many Americans can afford to be
politically illiterate, rarely vote, and be terribly naive about money, war,
and power.
Only by solidarity with other people’s suffering can
comfortable people be converted. Otherwise we are disconnected from the
cross—of the world, of others, of Jesus, and finally of our own necessary
participation in the great mystery of dying and rising. People who are
considered outsiders and at the bottom of society—the lame, poor, blind,
prostitutes, tax collectors, “sinners”—are the ones who understand Jesus’
teaching. It’s the leaders and insiders (the priests, scribes, Pharisees,
teachers of the law, and Roman officials) who crucify him.
When Constantine made Christianity the established religion
of the Roman Empire starting in AD 313, the Church’s interests also started
becoming imperial interests: power, money, status, control. Once aligned with
power, it’s hard—if not almost impossible—to let it go.
Brian McLaren is not afraid to say directly that it is time
for us to acknowledge Christianity’s past fraught with imperialism and
colonialism:
In addition to this doctrine, selective use and
interpretation of the Bible was used to justify slavery for centuries.
Scripture is still used by some today to exclude and judge LGBTQIA individuals,
even though Jesus said very little about sexuality and a great deal about other
things we conveniently ignore. How could we have twisted Jesus’ example and
teaching into something so inhumane and unjust? But we did.
[1] See, for example, Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the
United States (Harper Perennial Modern Classics: 2015, 1980), and Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Beacon
Press: 2015)
“Widows, orphans, and strangers”, that’s code in scripture for the three most vulnerable groups within a society at any given time. And both the great Jewish prophets and Jesus, himself, assure us that ultimately we will be judged by how we treated these while we were alive.
It’s interesting to look at any given book in the bible ask this question: “What did the author of this book consider as the very essence of religion? You’ll get different answers. For example, if you had asked that question to the authors of Exodus, Deuteronomy, or Numbers, they would have answered that what was central to their faith was proper religious practice, keeping the Commandments and being faithful to the other prescribed codes of religious practice of their time.
However when the great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Joel) came along they painted a different picture. For them, true religiosity was not identified simply with fidelity to religious practice; it was judged rather on how one treated the poor. For them, the quality of your faith is to be judged by the quality of justice in the land; and the quality of justice in the land is always to be judged by how “widows, orphans, and strangers” fare while you are alive. For the prophets, the practice of justice took priority over proper religious belonging and fidelity to religious practice.
We see numerous sayings by the prophets that warn us that what God wants from us is not sacrifice on altars but fair wages for the poor, not the recitation of prescribed prayers but justice for widows, and not the honoring of religious festivals but the giving of hospitality to strangers.
It should be noted, of course, that, after the prophets, we have the great wisdom figures in Jewish history. For them, the essence of religion was neither faithful religious practice nor simple outreach to the poor, but having a wise and compassionate heart, out of which you would then be faithful to both proper religious practice and outreach to the poor.
This is the tradition that Jesus inherits. What does he do with it? He ratifies all three. For Jesus, true religiosity asks for all of these: faithful religious practice, outreach to the poor, and a wise and compassionate heart. For Jesus, you don’t pick between these, you do them all. He tells us clearly: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14); but he also tells us that we will ultimately be judged on the basis of how we treat the poor (Matthew 25); even as he tells us that what God really wants from us is a wise, compassionate heart. (Luke 6 & 15)
For Jesus, we are true disciples when we have compassionate hearts out of which we keep the commandments, humbly worship our God, but make it a religious priority to reach out to the most vulnerable groups in our society. Indeed, on this latter point, Jesus’ warnings are much stronger even than those of the great Jewish prophets. The prophets affirmed that God favors the poor; Jesus affirmed that God is in the poor (“whatsoever you do to the least, you do to me”). How we treat the poor is how we are treating God.
Moreover (and I doubt we’ve ever taken this seriously) Jesus tells us that, at the final judgment, we will be judged for heaven or hell on the basis of how we treated the poor, particularly on how we treated the most vulnerable among them (“widows, orphans, and strangers”). In Matthew 25, he lays out the criteria upon which we will be judged, for heaven or for hell. Notice that in these particular criteria there aren’t any questions about whether we kept the commandments, about whether we went to church or not, or even whether our sexual lives were in order. Here we’re to be judged solely on how we treated the poor. It can be rather frightening and confusing to take this at face value, namely, that we will go to heaven or hell solely on the basis of how we treated the poor.
I highlight this because today so many of us, sincere, church-going, Christians do not seem to have either an eye or a heart for the “widows, orphans, and strangers” around us. Who are the most vulnerable groups on our world today? Who today, as Gustavo Gutierrez defines the poor, does not have a right to have rights?
Let me risk stating the obvious: Among the “widows, orphans, and strangers” in our world today are the unborn, the refugees, and the immigrants. Happily, most sincere Christians are not blind to the plight of the unborn. Less happily, too many of us are religiously blind to the plight of millions of refugees looking for someone to welcome them. Every newscast we watch tells us that we’re not much welcoming the stranger.
How soon we forget God’s warning: “You are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners.” (Deuteronomy 10, 18-19)
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Arrangements are made by contacting Parish Office. Parents attend a Baptismal Preparation Session organised with a Priest.
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)
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: First Friday each month.
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart of Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Mondays 7pm Community Room Ulverstone
Weekday Masses 27th - 30th November
Tuesday: 9:30am
Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am
Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
7:00pm Penguin
7:00pm Penguin
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone … St Andrew
7:00pm Devonport
7:00pm Devonport
Weekend Masses 1st & 2nd December
Saturday Mass: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
6:00pm Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 1st & 2nd December, 2018
Devonport:
Readers Vigil: M Stewart, M Gaffney, H Lim 10:30am: E Petts, K Douglas, K Pearce
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil: D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M
Gerrand, P Shelverton
10:30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S
Arrowsmith
Cleaners: 30th Nov: B Paul, D Atkins, V Riley 7th Dec:
M.W.C.
Piety Shop: 1st
Dec: H Thompson 2nd Dec: D French
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: B O’Rourke Ministers of Communion: B Deacon, K Reilly, E Stubbs
Cleaners: K.S.C. Flowers: M Byrne Hospitality:
Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters: G & N Pearce Commentator: J Barker Readers: Fifita Family
Ministers of
Communion: P Lade,
T Clayton Liturgy: SC C Setting Up: F Aichberger Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Port Sorell:
Reader: G Gigliotti, G Duff Ministers of
Communion: P
Anderson Cleaners: G Bellchambers & M Gillard
Readings this week –Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Year B)
First Reading: Daniel 7:13-14
Second Reading: Apocalypse 1:5-8
Gospel: John 18:33-37
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
Before my prayer, I try to find some stillness, gently
putting aside the concerns of today to rest in God’s presence. The Holy Spirit
will aid me and, with confidence, I ask for help. After a while, I read this
dialogue between Pilate and Jesus. I may like to imagine that I am present with
them, listening to their words, hearing their tone of voice, watching their
gestures. What do I notice … about Pilate? … about Jesus? Perhaps I speak with
them, asking about their words and meaning? Jesus speaks of a kingdom “not of
this world”, with values of another kind: his followers do not fight for power,
but are on the side of truth. As I reflect on what it means for me to be part
of this “kingdom”, I talk with Jesus our Lord just as one friend might speak to
another. Perhaps there is some particular way that Jesus calls me today, to
labour with him for the kingdom of God? I listen. I ask for whatever grace I
need. I end by thanking Jesus for his presence with me. Glory be ...
Readings next week –First
Sunday of Advent (Year C)
First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:12- 4:2
Gospel: Luke
21:25-28. 34-36
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Jill Di Pietro, Vic Slavin, Bill Beard, Lionel Faustino, Marg
Stewart & ….
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Karen Farr, Denis
McCormack, Betty Croft, Margaret Clarke, Brendan Kelly, Gabriella Colpo, Sr Angela Dance, Jillian Brooks, Audrey Glover, Fr Peter Nicholls, Ken Sutton
Let us pray for those whose anniversary
occurs about this time:
23rd – 30th November
Georgina Colliver, Jim Suckling, Christopher Davey, Mark
Davey, Mary Coventry, Harry Wilson, Joseph Thi, Rita Pompili, Gwen Thorp, Muriel
Peterson, James Lowry, Stanley
Hennessy, Allan Morley, Cyril Knaggs, Margaret Delaney, Sergia Bag-ao, Maria Jesabeth Cajigas.
Weekly
Ramblings
On Friday evening the Parish Pastoral
Team presented an overview of the responses that parishioners made to the
question - ‘What is God asking of me and of us in our families, our Parish
Community, our Church at this time? Quite a deal of time was
taken looking how to summarise the
material that you presented so that it could form the basis of our reflection
back to the Parish but it was a worthwhile process and we believe that it will
be an great opportunity for us to further develop ideas into 2019 and beyond.
Our
summary is just that – our summary – and not every point from every reflection
is included but please be sure that all the material that was presented will be
forwarded to the Plenary Process. A point that was emphasised on Friday and
which I’d like to make here – this isn’t an end of the listening and reflection
process – everyone is encouraged to continue to pray about the question and if
you have further thoughts please feel free to make your contribution to the
Plenary website (http://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/resources/have-your-say/)
or by contacting me or one of the members of the PPT and we will ensure your
contribution is recorded.
A
reminder that there will be the Memorial Mass for the late Fr Peter Nicholls
next Friday (30th) at Our Lady of Lourdes commencing at 7pm – this
will be an opportunity for parishioners to give thanks for the life of Fr Peter
and his contribution to both the Devonport and Penguin Communities during his
time on the North West Coast.
The
Advent Reflection Booklets (Saviour) are available this weekend. The Daily
Reflections commence next Sunday, 1st Sunday of Advent, and continue
through until the Feats of the Baptism of the Lord. We are asking a donation of
$3 to cover costs and the money can be placed in the containers in each Mass
Centre either when you take your copy or in the next week or so.Please
take care on the roads and I look forward to seeing you next weekend.
MACKILLOP HILL: Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe - Monday 26th November 10:30am - 12pm Come along and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! Final gathering for the year. Resumes 25th Feb 2019.
Phone: 6428 3095 email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
Phone: 6428 3095 email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au
ST VINCENT
DE PAUL:
A Mass for deceased members will be held on Thursday
29th November at Our Lady of Lourdes Church at 12noon with Fr Phil as
the celebrant. We welcome your attendance. Our three conferences: Sacred Heart
Ulverstone, St Joseph’s East Devonport and Our Lady of Lourdes Devonport are
finding it challenging to continue our work, as numbers are down. If you would
like to find out about conference work, with perhaps becoming a member, please
call Veronica Riley on 0418 244 725. Thank you for your assistance towards our
monthly collection at Mass Centres. As at 31st October this
financial year we have received $780.00. Veronica Riley,
Regional President.
EMPTY STABLE - OUR LADY OF LOURDES CHURCH:
Parishioners are invited to place gifts, non-perishable goods in the empty stable at Our Lady of Lourdes Church. The items donated will be placed in the many Christmas Hampers St Vincent de Paul Society will be distributing in the communities. Your kindness and generosity is appreciated and will make life a little more joyful for families and isolated people.
EMPTY STABLE - OUR LADY OF LOURDES CHURCH:
Parishioners are invited to place gifts, non-perishable goods in the empty stable at Our Lady of Lourdes Church. The items donated will be placed in the many Christmas Hampers St Vincent de Paul Society will be distributing in the communities. Your kindness and generosity is appreciated and will make life a little more joyful for families and isolated people.
HEALING MASS:
Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a HEALING MASS
at St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 29th November 2018
commencing at 7pm. After Mass, teams will be available for individual
prayer. Please bring a friend and food for supper afterwards. If you wish to
know more or require transport please contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043,
Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068 or Tom Knaap 6425:2442.
BBQ & BOOK CLUB:
Michael and Grainne Hendrey invite you to join them in
their home each first Friday of the month for an evening of conversation and
spirituality-ness. BBQ starts at 6:30pm, BYO meat and drinks and something to
share. Book club is from 7:30pm to 9pm (small groups). RSVP Michael 0417 540
566 or Grainne 0414 968 731
SACRED HEART CHURCH CHRISTMAS EVE MASS:
‘Calling all children’ you are very welcome to participate in the
nativity play at the 6pm Christmas Eve Mass at Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone. Practise will take place during 9am Mass at Sacred Heart Church Sunday 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd December. If
you would like more information please phone Charlie Vella 0417 307 781.
CHRISTMAS
PARTY – ULVERSTONE:
‘Come one – come all’ to our annual Christmas Party on Tuesday
4th December starting at 1:45pm at Sacred Heart Church Community Room Ulverstone. We hope you will join us for some light entertainment, a cuppa and a
chat. Once again we are asking for help with cooking. RSVP 2nd December to Juliet Smith 6425:5854, Debbie Rimmelzwaan 6425:1384, Elizabeth Cox 0400 179 297.
ADVENT 2018:
I have come that you, the whole of humanity, the whole of creation, may
have life and life in all its fullness (Gospel of John) You are invited to two gatherings;
Thursday 6th December and 13th December, 10am – 11:30am at
Parish House, Devonport. Contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 0418 100 402
PIETY SHOP OLOL CHURCH:
A variety of Christmas Cards are now available $4 each and
2019 Columban Calendars $10.00 each.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers Thursday 29th
November, Rod Clark & Graeme Rigney
A VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM
This article is taken from the Daily Emails from Fr Richard Rohr OFM and the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the emails here
Jesus’ basic justice agenda was simple living, humility, and
love of neighbor. We all have to live this way ourselves. From that position,
God can do God’s work rather easily. Unfortunately, even many who claim to
follow Jesus have deviated from this path.
In almost all of history, the vast majority of people
understood the “view from the bottom” due to their life circumstance. Most of
the people who have ever lived on this planet have been oppressed and poor. But
their history was seldom written except in the Bible and in recent books. [1]
This relatively new thing called “the middle class” gives
many of us just enough comfort not to feel the pinch or worry about injustice
for ourselves. Many of us in the Northern Hemisphere have a view from the top
even though we are nowhere near the top. Many Americans can afford to be
politically illiterate, rarely vote, and be terribly naive about money, war,
and power.
Only by solidarity with other people’s suffering can
comfortable people be converted. Otherwise we are disconnected from the
cross—of the world, of others, of Jesus, and finally of our own necessary
participation in the great mystery of dying and rising. People who are
considered outsiders and at the bottom of society—the lame, poor, blind,
prostitutes, tax collectors, “sinners”—are the ones who understand Jesus’
teaching. It’s the leaders and insiders (the priests, scribes, Pharisees,
teachers of the law, and Roman officials) who crucify him.
Power invariably coalesces and corrupts. After Jesus’ death
and resurrection, the first Christians went “underground,” meeting in the
secrecy of the catacombs to avoid persecution. During this time, the Church was
largely of the poor and for the poor, sharing resources equally.
When Constantine made Christianity the established religion
of the Roman Empire starting in AD 313, the Church’s interests also started
becoming imperial interests: power, money, status, control. Once aligned with
power, it’s hard—if not almost impossible—to let it go.
Brian McLaren is not afraid to say directly that it is time
for us to acknowledge Christianity’s past fraught with imperialism and
colonialism:
About forty years before 1492, Pope Nicholas V issued an
official document called Romanus Pontifex . . . which serves as the basis for
what is commonly called the Doctrine of Discovery, the teaching that whatever
Christians “discover,” they can take and use as they wish. . . . Christian
global mission is defined as to “invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and
subdue” non-Christians around the world, and to steal “all movable and
immovable goods” and to “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery”—and not
only them, but their descendants. And notice the stunning use of the word
convert: “to convert them to his and their use and profit.” [2]
In addition to this doctrine, selective use and
interpretation of the Bible was used to justify slavery for centuries.
Scripture is still used by some today to exclude and judge LGBTQIA individuals,
even though Jesus said very little about sexuality and a great deal about other
things we conveniently ignore. How could we have twisted Jesus’ example and
teaching into something so inhumane and unjust? But we did.
[1] See, for example, Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the
United States (Harper Perennial Modern Classics: 2015, 1980), and Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Beacon
Press: 2015)
[2] Brian McLaren, The Great Spiritual Migration: How the
World’s Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (Convergent:
2016), 76-77.
Adapted from Richard Rohr: Essential Teachings on Love,
Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger, eds. (Orbis Books: 2018), 74-75, 88.
OUR LACK OF WELCOME
This is an article from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
“Widows, orphans, and strangers”, that’s code in scripture for the three most vulnerable groups within a society at any given time. And both the great Jewish prophets and Jesus, himself, assure us that ultimately we will be judged by how we treated these while we were alive.
It’s interesting to look at any given book in the bible ask this question: “What did the author of this book consider as the very essence of religion? You’ll get different answers. For example, if you had asked that question to the authors of Exodus, Deuteronomy, or Numbers, they would have answered that what was central to their faith was proper religious practice, keeping the Commandments and being faithful to the other prescribed codes of religious practice of their time.
However when the great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Joel) came along they painted a different picture. For them, true religiosity was not identified simply with fidelity to religious practice; it was judged rather on how one treated the poor. For them, the quality of your faith is to be judged by the quality of justice in the land; and the quality of justice in the land is always to be judged by how “widows, orphans, and strangers” fare while you are alive. For the prophets, the practice of justice took priority over proper religious belonging and fidelity to religious practice.
We see numerous sayings by the prophets that warn us that what God wants from us is not sacrifice on altars but fair wages for the poor, not the recitation of prescribed prayers but justice for widows, and not the honoring of religious festivals but the giving of hospitality to strangers.
It should be noted, of course, that, after the prophets, we have the great wisdom figures in Jewish history. For them, the essence of religion was neither faithful religious practice nor simple outreach to the poor, but having a wise and compassionate heart, out of which you would then be faithful to both proper religious practice and outreach to the poor.
This is the tradition that Jesus inherits. What does he do with it? He ratifies all three. For Jesus, true religiosity asks for all of these: faithful religious practice, outreach to the poor, and a wise and compassionate heart. For Jesus, you don’t pick between these, you do them all. He tells us clearly: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14); but he also tells us that we will ultimately be judged on the basis of how we treat the poor (Matthew 25); even as he tells us that what God really wants from us is a wise, compassionate heart. (Luke 6 & 15)
For Jesus, we are true disciples when we have compassionate hearts out of which we keep the commandments, humbly worship our God, but make it a religious priority to reach out to the most vulnerable groups in our society. Indeed, on this latter point, Jesus’ warnings are much stronger even than those of the great Jewish prophets. The prophets affirmed that God favors the poor; Jesus affirmed that God is in the poor (“whatsoever you do to the least, you do to me”). How we treat the poor is how we are treating God.
Moreover (and I doubt we’ve ever taken this seriously) Jesus tells us that, at the final judgment, we will be judged for heaven or hell on the basis of how we treated the poor, particularly on how we treated the most vulnerable among them (“widows, orphans, and strangers”). In Matthew 25, he lays out the criteria upon which we will be judged, for heaven or for hell. Notice that in these particular criteria there aren’t any questions about whether we kept the commandments, about whether we went to church or not, or even whether our sexual lives were in order. Here we’re to be judged solely on how we treated the poor. It can be rather frightening and confusing to take this at face value, namely, that we will go to heaven or hell solely on the basis of how we treated the poor.
I highlight this because today so many of us, sincere, church-going, Christians do not seem to have either an eye or a heart for the “widows, orphans, and strangers” around us. Who are the most vulnerable groups on our world today? Who today, as Gustavo Gutierrez defines the poor, does not have a right to have rights?
Let me risk stating the obvious: Among the “widows, orphans, and strangers” in our world today are the unborn, the refugees, and the immigrants. Happily, most sincere Christians are not blind to the plight of the unborn. Less happily, too many of us are religiously blind to the plight of millions of refugees looking for someone to welcome them. Every newscast we watch tells us that we’re not much welcoming the stranger.
How soon we forget God’s warning: “You are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners.” (Deuteronomy 10, 18-19)
Christ the King
The Church’s year concludes with a feast which looks towards the holiness and grace of the Kingdom of God. Roger Dawson SJ explains how the readings for the Feast of Christ the King in Year B juxtapose the rule of Christ with a more familiar – and, if we’re honest, often more appealing – expression of earthly power. ‘This feast is not to flatter a king with a fragile ego in need of reassurance, but to celebrate in gratitude the love and kindness of someone who is so committed to us that he will not baulk even at death itself.’ Roger Dawson SJ is Director of St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in North Wales. This is an article taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can read the complete article by clicking here
On the last Sunday of the liturgical year, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. It is a magnificent title, and in Year B the readings from Daniel and the Book of Revelation show us dreams and visions of a new and everlasting kingdom. But what about the Gospel? Well, the reading that the Church has given us is of a nightmare. We are plunged into the Passion. Jesus is alone; the crowds who sang ‘hosanna!’ as he entered Jerusalem just five days previously are now shouting, ‘Crucify him!’ He has been accused unjustly. His mission has all but collapsed. His friends have run away; one of them has sold him, another says that he does not even know him. And now he stands before the most powerful person in the land on a falsified charge. This is a really bad day, and it is about to get worse. He will be flogged, he will walk the way of the Cross ... what happens next is well known to us all. It is a day which seems, by our normal standards, to be characterised by failure and abandonment. This is not our usual idea of what happens to a king.
This is an article taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can read the complete article by clicking here
The Church’s year concludes with a feast which looks towards the holiness and grace of the Kingdom of God. Roger Dawson SJ explains how the readings for the Feast of Christ the King in Year B juxtapose the rule of Christ with a more familiar – and, if we’re honest, often more appealing – expression of earthly power. ‘This feast is not to flatter a king with a fragile ego in need of reassurance, but to celebrate in gratitude the love and kindness of someone who is so committed to us that he will not baulk even at death itself.’ Roger Dawson SJ is Director of St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in North Wales. This is an article taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can read the complete article by clicking here
On the last Sunday of the liturgical year, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. It is a magnificent title, and in Year B the readings from Daniel and the Book of Revelation show us dreams and visions of a new and everlasting kingdom. But what about the Gospel? Well, the reading that the Church has given us is of a nightmare. We are plunged into the Passion. Jesus is alone; the crowds who sang ‘hosanna!’ as he entered Jerusalem just five days previously are now shouting, ‘Crucify him!’ He has been accused unjustly. His mission has all but collapsed. His friends have run away; one of them has sold him, another says that he does not even know him. And now he stands before the most powerful person in the land on a falsified charge. This is a really bad day, and it is about to get worse. He will be flogged, he will walk the way of the Cross ... what happens next is well known to us all. It is a day which seems, by our normal standards, to be characterised by failure and abandonment. This is not our usual idea of what happens to a king.
This is an article taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website. You can read the complete article by clicking here
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