16th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Wisdom 12:13.16-19; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43

The gospel tells us of a field. The field is the world. Jesus is the master of the field. Jesus sows seed - good seed, of course - the subjects of the kingdom. Hopefully that's us. The seed grows and matures until the harvest. At the end of time the angels will come and gather it into the kingdom - that is, into heaven.

That's a pretty good story, isn't it?

But there's more - there's a nasty surprise! Secretly, in the dark of night, Satan has come to the field and sown another crop among the good seed - darnel - a horrible weed which is useless to anyone.

Satan is the enemy of Jesus. He wants to spoil everything, not just the field but us as well. All those in whom this seed takes root become the subjects of the evil one. Hopefully that's not us. They will be gathered into bundles and burnt - or in other words, thrown into hell.

That, simply put, is the parable Jesus offers us today. It's really a great teaching parable and has echoes, which I'm sure you've noticed, of the account in Genesis of the creation of the world. God made the world and the first two people and saw that it was good. Then Satan came along behind God's back, so to speak, and succeeded in sowing his seeds of evil in God's good creation.

So what can we draw from this parable? Who is it for? Let's just name a few categories of people who might find this parable speaks strongly to them.

• Firstly, it is for that group of people who can't see their own goodness.

This group of people is so conscious of sin that they can no longer see goodness. They really need to pray for an experience of that love of God from which all self-love and a sense of self-worth comes. God loves the good in us much more than he hates evil and that's why he is willing to put up with it for so long - giving us lots of time ‘til we ripen and are ready for the harvest. At this point I can only affirm that God made us good, he loves us, and he patiently waits for us to respond to his love.

• This parable is also for those who can't see their own evil.

Another great tragedy! I've been called to anoint people who haven't been to Confession for 40 years and who confidently tell me they have no sin to confess. I always tell them they are very lucky people! But, really, it's a tragedy. If after all that time you have a good conscience, you probably have a short memory too.

Part of a healthy relationship with ourselves is to be able to recognise and admit to the darnel that is growing within us. Perhaps this is why Jesus said to the Pharisee: I have come for the sick, not for the healthy. Jesus came for sinners, and if we don’t recognise ourselves as sinners we won't see any need for Jesus.

• This parable is also meant for perfectionists.

Are you a perfectionist? Remember that Jesus told us to be perfect, not perfectionists.

A perfectionist is one who can't bear to live with imperfection, either within himself or in his immediate environment. These people drive themselves silly - and often a whole lot of other people as well because they are always trying to be who they are not.

It's not that we are supposed to ignore the darnel, of course we have to struggle for conversion, but in the meantime we have to accept the darnel is there and learn, somehow, to live with it, even as we stuggle against it, until the Lord removes it for us. The great temptation for perfectionists is to give up altogether. They say 'Well, if I can't be all good I'll be all bad'.

• This parable is also meant for those of us who make a habit of judging others.

I remember when I left the cathedral parish to take up a new appointment. There was a couple there who's baby I had baptised but who were not coming to Mass on Sundays and were not in any way involved. I don't mind admitting that I thought some unkind things about them. When I came back to that parish three years later as Administrator and was processing in for the first Mass I was met at the front door by that same couple who were now handing out the bulletins and welcoming people as they came in. What a lesson for me! Don't judge!

Don't pull up the darnel because you might be pulling up wheat. Don't say 'I want them punished and I want it NOW!' When we do this we are playing God and we forget that only the powerful can show mercy. Your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.

• Finally, this parable is meant for those who don't believe in hell.

Only a few weeks ago I was told of a priest who read the Gospel and just 'left out' the word hell. He just edited Jesus’ words. This is a crime! There is wheat and darnel and there is heaven and hell.

Jesus says the darnel will be burned. At other times he is more explicit, like last week in the weekday Mass, he said, You will be cast down to hell.

Hell is also the solid de fide teaching of the Church. This means that to be truly a Catholic we must believe in and fully accept this teaching, even though we may not understand it. A mature Christian humbly accepts the full package otherwise what happens is that we reduce the Gospel to the level of our understanding. This would be fatal and soon there would be no Gospel left.

Faith is a wonderful thing when it is complete. Then it sets us free and promises life. We will all struggle with parts of our faith from time to time but let us then ask for light and understanding and believe that it will be given.

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Isaiah 22:19-23; Romans 31:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

Hierarchy comes from two Greek words, hieros, meaning sacred, and archein, meaning rule or order. Hierarchy, therefore, means sacred order. It is essential to the Church. We have spoken of it before.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, whose cause is underway in Rome, used to speak on the three signs of the diabolic, three signs which accompany the presence of the devil. Can you imagine what they might be? Archbishop Sheen said they were nudity, violence, and confusion (disorder). Without delaying to go into the first two let’s look at the last one because that touches on our subject of sacred order.

Wherever the devil is there is confusion. In fact, one of the classic ways of discerning whether a supernatural experience or vision or locution is of God or of Satan is to discern whether it brought peace or confusion. Satan does not like hierarchy because the peace which sacred order brings makes it easier to recognise truth and he passionately hates truth. So in order to successfully spread error he needs to first create confusion.

Now we may need to pause here and let this sink in. Order makes it easier to see truth, to recognise it, and to immediately identify its opposite - falsehood. Hans Urs von Balthazar said that truth is much like a symphony. All the notes have their proper place - all are arranged in order. It is precisely because of this order that a false note can be easily spotted. It draws attention to itself because it is not 'in order', so to speak.

If all the notes of the music were scrambled up and confused so that each musician played them in whatever order he liked, the false note would be almost impossible to spot.

Everything in the world is hierarchical because God made it so.

The plants are higher than the rocks and the water; the animals are higher than the plants; humans are higher in the hierarchy than animals; angels higher than humans - and all are infinitely lower than God himself.

And everything in the Church is hierarchical - because Jesus made it so. The Church has the sacred order Jesus gave to it - to his teaching, to the Mass, to authority, the Magisterium, prayer, and so on; it’s all hierarchical.

The opposite of hierarchy is either anarchy, or dictatorship.

Anarchy is no order at all and dictatorship is a false order, usually imposed with the gun. Naturally enough, Satan loves both anarchy and dictatorship. Hierarchy is true order and it alone leads to peace, health and growth. Therefore we should love hierarchy and protect it and thank God for it.

Remember I told you on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul how when the Anglicans first started the debate on the ordination of women my Anglican minister friend told me with great distress: It's tearing our communion apart and we have no one with the authority to stop it.

Today we see Jesus in the Gospel giving Peter hierarchical authority in the Church. Peter professes the truth of who Jesus is and this becomes the foundation of our Catholic faith: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

This truth came to Peter from above – hierarchically - from God the Father himself. The democratic, consultative model with which some of us want to adorn the Church failed dismally to recognise who Jesus was: Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. In other words: we haven't got the foggiest idea who he really is.

Truth, like revelation, true authority and true communion, comes from above.

Jesus gave Peter custody of the Church and sole authority over it - and what a great blessing it has proved to be down the centuries! With one word the Pope can settle any dispute or doctrinal debate. When he teaches ex cathedra, i.e. from the chair of Peter, on a matter of faith or morals, he cannot be contradicted. When he speaks definitively, as he has on a whole range of issues, his teaching must be assented to.

At times this can be difficult for some but this hierarchical authority of the Pope has ensured the survival of the Catholic Church down through the ages and given it a guarantee of truth for those seeking full communion.

The Pope can make mistakes in his private life. He can do all sorts of things that show he is only a human being. Benedict's glasses, sitting very crookedly on his nose when he read his first speech after becoming Pope, made me smile with the realisation, ‘Yes, he’s just a man, but given an extraordinary task.’ Crooked glasses, or even actual sins, will not spoil the guarantee God has given in the gift of the papacy: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Isaiah 56:1.6-7; Romans 11:13-15.29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

Almost every Monday night at 7pm we have an evening in the presbytery for those who wish to become Catholics or who wish to update their knowledge of the Faith. Actually it’s one of my favourite times of the week.

Last Monday we studied the doctrines of the Catholic Church on the Blessed Virgin: the Immaculate Conception, Mary as the Mother of God, the virginity of Mary, and the Assumption. We read also from the book of Genesis where God said to the serpent: I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel (Gen 3:15).

The serpent is Lucifer, the fallen angel now known as Satan.

In her mystical book City of God Mary of Agreda tells us that when God revealed to the angels that he intended his Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, to become man through a human woman, Lucifer objected and grew angry with God. He claimed that since angels were higher than humans and since he was the greatest of the angels he, Lucifer, should be chosen for this honour. For this rebellion Lucifer was cast out of heaven and ever since has been working to ruin the plan of God.

Indeed there is enmity between Satan and the woman. She is totally without sin; he is pure wickedness.

By the merest coincidence we are taking a break from the hard work of the catechumenate this Monday to watch a movie – The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It is about diabolical possession and is based on a true story but handled in a very honest and acceptable way. It can be said to be a wonderful story, in fact, and has a wonderful ending. There is a growing number of visitors to the grave of the young hero and even reports of miracles.

Well, since the Gospel this week conveniently speaks of a woman coming to Jesus and shouting, 'Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.' I thought I would continue the theme today and say something about the Church’s teaching on the devil. Actually, for the most part, I’ll let the Catechism of the Catholic Church do the talking and just make some comments.

391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice…

Yes, that’s so true - a seductive voice! Satan is above all a seductive voice in our lives, tempting us to take paths other than the one God wishes for us. The devil is a fallen angel and he wants nothing more than to make others fall along with him. This is what the Catechism says:

The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing."268

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.269 This "fall" consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: "You will be like God."270 The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of lies".271

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels' sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."272

The tragedy is clear enough. The devil and the other demons were created good but freely chose to reject God and this choice was irrevocable, or, in other words, permanent. Even now, given the chance, the demons would not change their mind. The Catechism continues:

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from the beginning", who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father.273

Can you imagine that? Satan, in his pride and conceit, imagined that he could tempt the Redeemer into rebelling against God’s Will, just as he had done. All through history he has been tempting others and ensnaring them in his own evil.

395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature - to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but "we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him."275

Now, I’m imagining that some of you are a bit lost in all of this and I want to quickly tell you that it’s not because you are simple it’s because this is really complex and dense writing. It’s meant to be a summary of Catholic teaching, not a leisurely and developed explanation of each of the many points that are involved. To find such explanations we need to go to a good catholic bookshop and do further reading.

Occasionally I hear it said we shouldn’t focus on Satan because it ‘frightens’ people. Well, we should at least be informed and certainly alert to the dangers of his presence. Satan is real and therefore should not be ignored. He is working flat out – 24 hours a day – without sleep, because he doesn’t need sleep.

We should be careful to avoid anything to do with the occult, even so-called ‘harmless’ games involving the occult because they are far from harmless. Stay away from all occult practices. Ouija boards, Tarot cards, mediums, witches, any practitioner of the occult. These things are sinful and an invitation to Satan and his demons to approach us.

Satan leads his victims step by step and the first steps are usually small ones. The more we open ourselves to the occult the greater the danger we are in and then we too might one day find ourselves like the daughter in today’s Gospel – tormented by a devil.