FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

1. Each Tuesday and Thursday I go to two schools in our parish. I take the Second Graders for First Communion Classes. Last week I was trying to show them the connection between Sacrament and Sacred -



through the Sacrament we meet Christ who makes us sacred, makes us holy, makes us special. In baptism, besides the actual rite when the Priest pours water and baptises the child, there are three other rites which emphasise how special we are to God at the very beginning, the priest says, "By the sign of the cross I make on your forehead I claim you for Christ". He then invites the parents and godparents to do the same after the litany of the saints and the rite of exorcism, he again makes a cross, this time with oil on the baby's chest. He asks God to strengthen this child in faith. Later on through the other sacraments of initiation: Eucharist and Confirmation: we are further strengthened by a God who cares for us finally after the actual baptism: we are sealed with another special oil: the chrism - and we are anointed as we heard Jesus being anointed in Last Sunday's Gospel: "the spirit of the Lord has anointed me" - We are anointed Priest, prophet and of Royal Blood.

2. At a school gathering, some children were taunting a little girl who had been adopted. These are our real parents, where is yours? Holding her adopted mother's hand, the child beamed, This is my real mother, you were born from your mother's tummy, but I was born from her heart. Through Baptism, we are born from the heart of God. And God could very well sing the words of Sting: Every move you make, every step you take, I'll be watching you. You belong to me. - Not in the sense of Possession, but in the sense we are special to God.

2b Jeremiah and Jesus were also very special to God. The Spirit of the Lord was upon them. They were consecrated. They were to be kept apart, they were kept separated from others for a special task. They were to make known the goodness of God to people who gradually began to forget God. But Jeremiah was warned of the opposition he would meet, "they will fight against you." While in the gospel we see the opposition that Jesus has to face. They believed that Jesus belonged to them, because he was from Nazareth. They expected special privileges. They wanted him to share the wealth with them. But they were not thinking in the way God thinks. They got it all wrong. And when their expectations were not met , they tried to kill Jesus.

2c Pedro Arrupe the late Superior General of the Jesuits, said that working for the Kingdom of God meant persecution. He was speaking precisely of the spirit of the readings today. In fact, he said if there are no persecutions - and even physical ones at that, then there was something wrong in our working for the Kingdom of God. He was not a masochist asking for punishment and pain, he was a realist. When we preach the word of God, when we witness to the Kingdom of God, it will stand in contrast to the standards, the principles and values of the world around us. When the Word came into the World, John tells us in the first chapter of his Gospel, the World received him not. Today they still do not want to receive his message that

 - The Kingdom of God is to be preached to the poor.
 - The Kingdom of God is to make the blind see and the lame walk.
 - The Kingdom of God is to set captives free.
 - The Kingdom of God is not one of violence, but of peace and justice.
 - The Kingdom of God is one of Love, open to all peoples.

3. In our second reading, Paul spells out what Love is. Some of his descriptions are in negative form: It is NOT rude, irritable, envious, resentful. On the positive side: it is kind, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. But the key note of that description of Love is right in the centre. Love rejoices in the truth. Ah, that is crux of the matter. Whether it comes from Jack Nicholson in a "Few Good Men." - He yells, You want the truth. You cannot handle the truth. Strangely enough he could not handle the truth himself. He doctored it to serve his ends. But the moment we decide to Love. The moment we decide to live up to the Truth, then we have pay the price. When Jesus spoke the Truth to the High Priest the day before he died, he was slapped in the face.

4. We have been separated from the World - to preach the Kingdom of Truth. To preach the Kingdom of Love, we have been consecrated like Jeremiah and Jesus for nothing less and nothing more. The truth sets us free. But it hurts in doing so. I have realised it when I have told lies to get out of trouble. Each one made me tell another - got me into more trouble and more pain. When I finally told the truth I realised it would have been less painful - more economical, and healing for everyone, if I had started with the Truth. And that would have come from a Heart that was meant to love. Or as Blaise Pascal said, "We arrive at truth not by reason alone, but also by the heart."

God is not ungenerous if I could use that word - with the Grace to make us walk in truth and love. God has anointed us at Baptism, and strengthens us through the Eucharist, Confirmation and our other vocations - to single life, married life, or consecrated lives as religious and priests. May God continued to bless us as live out our calling.