fr Robert Gay suggests that we need to recognise who we are in order to know who Christ is.

Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to meet Jesus? Or perhaps wondered about what it would have been like to be sat in front of him as he spoke his parables and explained them? It would have been such a privilege to have heard him, to have seen the things that he did.

Yet time and again in the Gospel, we find that when Jesus speaks to people, or when he teaches and preaches, people simply didn't get it. It is easy to get frustrated when we read or listen to the Gospel, because people don't understand who Jesus is. They don't seem to understand what the message is about, and the power that the message might have. How could they be so blind?

Today's Gospel is just such a frustrating passage. Jesus is acclaimed as one with wisdom and an ability to work wonders that does not match with his background as the simple carpenter, the son of Mary. The people are so distracted by their own ideas about who and what Jesus is, and cannot allow themselves to really listen to what he says, and look closely at what he does. They are not attentive enough to be able to truly see, and through seeing, truly believe.

If we are frustrated by this passage and by similar Gospel passages, we must take care that we do not fall into a trap. It would be all-too-tempting to pity these poor people who could not understand who Jesus was and come to believe in him. In doing so we might end up thinking that we are so much better than them. This would be to succumb to pride, something which St. Augustine refers to as the 'love of our own excellence'.

Pride is certainly not good news, because it gives us the illusion that we already know it all, and prevents us being disposed towards receiving from God. We may think we know all about Jesus, about who he was, and about the message that he preached, yet how often do our lives fall short of the demands that following Jesus makes of us? We may think that we get the message, but our lives so often suggest otherwise.

So what are we to do? Well, we should take heart from our second reading. Paul had a dramatic conversion experience when he saw the risen Lord on his way to Damascus. This one profound experience was sufficient to change the whole course of his life, from being a person who persecuted the Church to being one of the greatest preachers and Church leaders.

Yet he understood that what he knew of Jesus might lead him to pride, and that God had his own way of keeping him in check. Paul's weakness was God's way of reminding Paul of who and what he was. The reality of Paul's weakness shaped this energetic man into one who was truly zealous for the things of the Lord. It kept him humble, kept him in need of God's grace.

And so it is for us too. The word humility comes from the Latin word for earth, or soil. To be good Christians we need to have our feet firmly on the ground, and this means knowing who and what we really are. This is important, because we are then open to looking more closely at Jesus, and recognising who and what he was. Then we can start living Christian lives that are shaped by God, attentive to his word, and open to the change that the Gospel message calls us to.

The next time we are tempted to think that we know all there is to know about Jesus, let us pause for a moment and think again. Let us dare to take a second look, and strive to live the Gospel at a deeper level, asking that we might receive that life which Christ has promised us.

Picture details - He laid his hands on a few sick
TISSOT, James
1886-96
Watercolour

The Holy Gospel, Fourteenth Sunday of the Year (B) and Deacon Ken says

My thanks to fr Richard Ounsworth O.P. (Order of Preachers). Editor of torch.op.org.
Please visit their web site
for permission to reproduce the complete sermon by fr Robert Gay O.P.
fr Robert Gay was ordained to the diaconate on 2nd July 2009,
and is completing his studies at Blackfriars, Oxford.
© The English Province of the Order of Preachers 2009

How Old Is Your Church?

For 1484 years there was ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC (UNIVERSAL), APOSTOLIC Church, all were together.

The Eastern Orthodox kept Catholic doctrines but were Schismatic in that they did not accept the authority of the Pope. Individuals heretics such as Arius (Arianism), Pelagius (Pelagianism) had challenged Church doctrines but none of these heresies lasted more than 300 years. It is only the Protestant heresy that not only does not accept the authority of the Pope but challenges essential doctrine that is now that longest lasting heresy (490 years).

If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517 and now has many divisions.

If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry. Queen Elizabeth is now the head of this church.

If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.

If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England, founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century.

If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582 and consider the church a democracy.

If you are a Methodist, your religion was launched by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744. By the way, they believed in the need for holiness and believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

If you are Unitarian, Theophilus Lindley founded your church in London in 1774 and today more than half of them are atheists.

If you are a Mormon (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, N. Y., in 1829 after allegedly discovering golden plates. Mormons also deny the deity of Christ and the Trinity.

If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606. You are now divided into thousands of sects.

If you are of the Dutch Reformed church, you recognize Michaelis Jones as founder, because he originated your religion in New York in 1628.

If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865 and you deny the sacraments.

If you are a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.

If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as "Church of the Nazarene", "Pentecostal Gospel", "Holiness Church", "Pilgrim Holiness Church", "Jehovah's Witnesses", your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years or more.

If you are a Roman Catholic, you know that your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ the Son of God, and that it's line of Popes can be traced back to Peter himself.
The Papacy is the longest existing office in the world and the Catholic Church is now over 1 billion strong.

According to the Oxford University World Christian Encyclopedia there are now (as of 2000) 33,820 denominations and para-denominations worldwide. Did Jesus intend there to be 33,820 competing and contradicting Christian denominations? Please read John 17* where Jesus prayed for the Church to be one as he was one with his Father - that they would be perfected in unity.

* “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us:
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:21.

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