07/09/2025

Sunday Week 23 Ordinary Time

Today's Gospel records that Jesus tells us that to be his disciples we have to  "hate" all  created beings including ourselves.

It is easy for me to "hate" myself for I know that I am a pretty useless person who has never been able to retain the grace that the Crucifixion spread throughout the being that each of us receives and shares as "image and likeness".

"To hate" family, friends, the beauty of creation, however, is a totally different matter.

St Luke tells us  that Jesus interpreted his own "Hard Saying" with two similitudes which soften the force of the word "hate" but he still leaves us with the stark instruction to resist being overcome by what we have received from his providence in this world. 

In my case, I am quite happy to have been born into the "This World", the England that was resisting the German assault on Europe that we call World-War 2. "This world" in the UK became a joyful place in 1945. 

I have often wondered what Pope Benedict could have felt about his own Germanic Heritage as he wrote his seriously deep reflections on "The Life of Christ". As he wrote "Eschatology", did he remember Bavarian Dachau or his own Anti-aircraft gun?

Hans Urs von Balthasar had an extremely comfortable "This World" provided for him at birth and his pride at the historical accomplishments of German Aristocratic Art and Philosophy was no less than that of Wagner. In one of his sermons he speaks of the Swiss nation as being entrusted by "This World" to care for its gold. He does not condemn or refuse the evil results of Swiss "This Worldly" Secrecy.

At the end of the Old Testament, something was seriously wrong with the implementation in  "This World" of God's Word by His Chosen People. It was so wrong that it could only be rectified by the Incarnation. 

Since then there have been many times that the Church founded on St Peter seems to have acted in "This World" every bit as hypocritically as was the Temple of the Priests, Scribes and Pharisees acting when condemned by Jesus. We, however, in 2025 have had God's completed revelation with us for 2000 years now. There is nothing greater that can be done to bring us closer to Our Father than has already been completed on Calvary. 

Dear Lord, help each of us to hold onto your Word and with the aid of Mary and all the saints may the Church of Peter become  divested of all worldly entanglements. We receive your gifts to enable us to distribute them. Help us to disperse all patrimony and open our hearts to receive the Love, "woman behold your son, son behold your mother" created as the New Holy Family" by you from the cross.