When I was on holiday in Spain last week, all I did was eat, sleep and read. As far as the first two are concerned, there isn’t really much to report, but, as the week passed, I began to see a connection between what I was reading and this week’s Gospel. As always, the books I had taken with me were about Spain, its politics and its history. The more I learn about them, the more interesting they become, and yet, interesting and fascinating as they are, they never fail to stir in me, too, feelings of deep sadness, a sadness which is all about the role of the Church in Spain’s long and often tortured history.
The two books I read this time dealt with the years between 1833 and the present day, a period during which, right up to the death of General Franco in 1975 and the beginning of democracy, the Church in Spain was consistently and firmly on the side of the rich upper classes and landed gentry against the poor. As a result, especially during the years of the Franco dictatorship, it enjoyed great privileges, exercised considerable power and influence over people’s lives and, until the final years of the Franco regime, resisted every kind of modernisation which might have improved the lives of people who were often literally starving. And yet, like the scribes in today’s Gospel, who also exercised great influence over people’s lives in their time, the Church spoke with no authority whatsoever as far as large sections of the population were concerned. On the contrary, there grew up a huge underground resentment of what the Church stood for which, from time to time, broke out into anti-clerical violence. There was one occasion in 1931, known as the tragic week, when, especially in Barcelona, there was a frenzy of church-burning and killing of priests and nuns. There are stories from that time of people digging up the bodies of nuns and dancing with them in the street, scenes which were repeated again all over Spain in 1936 in the early months of the Civil War. And even today, although incidents like this are a thing of the past, many people in what was once thought of as Catholic Spain are fighting to have their names removed from baptismal registers, so deep is the resentment still felt in many quarters about everything the Church has stood for over the years. Like the religious leaders in Jesus day, it had great power and influence over people’s lives, but the end result is that, for millions, it has long ago ceased to speak with any authority. So what has all this been about, and what was it about Jesus that made such a deep impression on the people of his day, giving his words authority and credibility which the religious leaders of the day did not have? And what are the implications of this for us now?
Well, the first thing to say about Jesus is that his authority was not based on anything to do with status or position in society. He had none. Jesus was a man with no links to the establishment of his day, no influence in high places, and so the authority the people recognized in him was something different from what they were used to having imposed on them from above. And especially for those of you who are doing the Church History Course, it’s worth remembering how much damage has been done to the Church over the centuries when it has lost sight of the kind of authority Jesus exercised and has copied instead the ways of the world. As a result it has got caught up over and over again in the scandals, corruption and abuses which always accompany power politics and which have robbed the Church of genuine authority in the lives of millions down through the ages, a problem which is far from resolved even now.
But it would be a serious mistake if the role of the Church throughout history were the main focus of our reflection today. Because, in the end, the Gospels are about us and not about other people. Several words come to mind when we try to describe the kind of authority exercised by Jesus; words like real, genuine or authentic. But, at the heart of it, lies one thing above all others: Jesus practised what he preached. There was no gap between his words and his actions. He didn’t do one thing and say another. What he taught came from deep inside himself. He believed it and he lived it, and, as a result, what he said made a deep impression on the people. St Mark tells us that they were astonished and started asking each other what it all meant. And in this we have the great challenge facing all followers of Jesus in today’s world.
The simple truth is that the Church of the 21st century does not speak with this kind of authority. And so millions do not listen to us, accusing us instead of hypocrisy, even going so far as to blame Churches and religion for all the trouble in the world. And while this is going a bit far, there’s a certain amount of truth in it. And so what we need today is what the people needed in the first reading from Deuteronomy; that God raise up in the world a prophet like himself to whom people would listen; except that he has already done that. Because, as a baptized people, we are called to be that prophet. It is our task, our vocation, our privilege and our responsibility to make the teaching of Jesus a reality in today’s world; to speak, not so much through words as through actions, with the kind of authority people saw in Jesus himself.
The Gospel tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and so on. So it is our job to do it, not just talk about it. Jesus tells us not to judge others but to take the plank out of our own eye first. So we are called to do it, not just talk about it. He tells us that if we only love those who love us we are no better than the pagans. And so we are called to reach out beyond the people we know and, beginning in the parish and reaching out to the world, create something new which will be for others a sign of the kingdom in which all barriers between people will be broken down and we shall see every person as God see them.
Its a huge responsibility and I leave you with a simple but important question. Had you known at the time what baptism involved, would you still have gone ahead with it?
We begin our prayer today by holding up before God the Church making its slow and sometimes painful way through history. We ask God to give it at this time the grace it needs to let go of the trappings of power which have caused so much trouble down through the ages and embrace, instead, the spirit of humility, service and self- emptying we see in Jesus, so that it can, once again, speak with the authority that comes from truth and integrity....................Lord hear us
One of the great signs of what has gone wrong in the Church over the centuries is the division between Christians which, in the case of the Reformation, goes back five hundred years and in the case of the split between East and West, a thousand years. And so, as a new millennium begins, we pray that, in the not too distant future, the world will see a healing of these two historic rifts and that the followers of Jesus around the world will be once again united......................Lord hear us
In the Gospel this week, we find in the synagogue at Capernaum a man possessed by an unclean spirit, reminding us that unclean spirits are often to be found in churches and other places of worship. Their name is legion: power, pride, vanity, hypocrisy, self-seeking, shallowness and many others. Often they use holy, religious language and are not averse to quoting the Scriptures when it suits them. And so we pray for the grace we need to spot them wherever they are lurking here.........................Lord hear us
In recent years, we have seen many countries throughout the world begin the difficult and dangerous journey from dictatorship to democracy. But, sadly, many of our fellow human beings still live under oppressive and violent regimes. This is made worse when, for political reasons, dictators are kept in power by governments from the developed world who should and do know better. And so we pray again that a new century will see greater freedom for people everywhere.....................Lord hear us
Over the next two weekends, the children preparing for Confirmation and First Communion will be introduced to us so that we can publicly recognize and acknowledge the responsibility we have as a parish to be the kind of community where their young faith can be nourished and grow to maturity. And so we pray that we will not fail them and that there will be no need to tie millstones round our necks and throw us into the depths of the sea.....................Lord hear us
As people throughout Scotland celebrate Catholic Education Week, we pray for all who work in our local schools. But the primary responsibility for the education of children in faith lies with their parents, supported by the parish. Where there are Catholic Schools, they have a part to play. But where there are none, the responsibility of parents and parish remains. And so we pray for the wisdom to understand this and the courage to take it on board............... Lord hear us
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