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“The Word of God” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, January 28, 2024

So busy was I with other pastoral issues that I neglected to bring to your attention that last Sunday was the Sunday of the Word of God. This was instituted by Pope Francis back in 2019 to mark the 1600th anniversary of the death of St Jerome, the great biblical translator and interpreter, who said once, famously, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Jesus Christ”. It is celebrated every year on the Third Sunday of the Year which was last week. My apologies for not bringing it to your attention then, but, however, as luck or God’s will would have it, the readings for this Sunday  also reflect, in different ways, the theme of the word of God.

 Pope Francis wants to make clear how important it is, in the daily life of the church and our communities, to refer to God’s word, which is not confined to a book, but which remains ever alive. The theme of this year’s Sunday of the Word of God is Christ’s exhortation to his disciples: “Remain in my word” (John 8:31). In his homily for last Sunday, the pope called Catholics to spend more time with the saving power of God’s word as society and social media amplify the violence of words. He spoke of the immense power that the word of God can unleash in people’s lives and referenced saints like St Anthony, St Terese of Lisieux and St Francis of Assisi, who all had their lives changed by hearing or reading passages from the Bible. Pope Francis said the same thing can happen for us, but we need to stop being deaf to God’s word and start spending time in prayer with the Sacred Scriptures. Do you see, brothers and sisters, how this is echoed in our responsorial psalm today, which pleads with us with great urgency: “O that today you would listen to his voice, harden not your hearts!”Read more...

“To Go, or Not to Go” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, January 21, 2024

On the surface, our first reading today, presents for us, in the person of Jonah, a model of readiness and availability to carrying out God’s will. Jonah seems to spring to the task of obeying God and preaching repentance to the city of Nineveh. Those who know the real story of Jonah know the reality is somewhat different. By the way, if you have never read the book of Jonah, you should. It is tucked away in the Old Testament and only runs four chapters, so it doesn’t take long, and it is an entertaining story.

To begin with, the editors of our first reading, have left out a very important detail. If you go to your Bible and look out the third chapter of the book of Jonah, from which this reading is taken, you will see that it reads: “the word of the Lord came to Jonah, a second time. This is not actually the first time that God has tried to get Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh. But when God first commanded Jonah to do this, Jonah actually ran away from God to avoid doing the task. (Yes, the book says that he boarded a ship for Tarshish, present-day Spain, away from the presence of the Lord” (Jon 1:3).)

 And why did Jonah run away? 

Was he scared of what the people of Nineveh might do to him if he goes and rebukes them for their wickedness? Or is he afraid he will fail the task? Not a bit of it. Jonah runs away because he doesn’t want to do what God asks of him, not because he is afraid that he will fail, but because he is afraid, he might succeed! Yes, you heard right. Let me explain. In the Old Testament, we read that Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, which lies north of Israel, and is Israel’s great enemy.… Read more...

“Two Little Words: Stay and See” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, January 14, 2024

You know, there is something almost presumptuous in Jesus changing Simon’s name just like that, the first time of meeting him. For parents, choosing a name for their new-born child is something that most take a deal of time to do. Imagine if, having gone to all that trouble to do it, a perfect stranger was to come along and demand to change that name. It was even more serious for Jews. They would choose their child’s name from the Bible, after much prayer and reflection, and only God Himself was allowed to change it. 

Changing someone’s name means to change their destiny, and purpose in life. “Simon” is a Hebrew name that means “one who hears”, which is a pretty good name already for someone who is called to be a disciple of Jesus. But now Jesus calls him “Cephas”. In Aramaic, this word means “rock”. In Greek it is petros, from which, of course, we get the name “Peter”. The one who listens now becomes the rock, which indicates his unique role in the community of believers. He will be first among the apostles and serve as the foundation of the church. Catholics believe that this role continues in the bishop of Rome as the visible center and teacher of the faith community. That this office did not end with Peter’s death can be deduced from the fact that this account, and another one in Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 16:18) of Jesus changing Simon’s name to Peter , were remembered and recorded by the faith community well after the apostle’s death.

We are OK with what Jesus does to Peter, because we already know Jesus is God. But the first disciples hadn’t quite got there yet. They were ready, as we see in the gospel today, to call Jesus a “rabbi” (or teacher) and Messiah (or anointed one of God), which was already quite the stretch of faith for a Jew, given that all Jews saw the coming of God’s Messiah as a world-changing event , and the inauguration of Gods’ kingdom or reign.… Read more...