Before the beginning there was God, a being of pure love, infinitely good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, infinitely just.

Love delights to pour itself out. This Love who created us in His own image and likeness taught us, ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself’ did it first. Love loved itself first, understood itself perfectly, and such was the power of that Love that Love begat itself, and the perfect outpouring of Love (The Father) to Love (The Son) and the perfectly reciprocal outpouring of Love (The Son) to Love (The Father) together begat Love (The Holy Spirit).

The harmony and unity of this being of pure love is perfect and spectacularly beautiful, and so amazing that determining where The Father ends and The Son begins, and where The Son ends and the Holy Spirit begins, and where the Holy Spirit ends and the The Father begins, and where the The Son ends and The Father begins, where the The Father ends and The Holy Spirit begins, where The Holy Spirit ends and The Son begins is more difficult than pin-pointing the exact location of an electron within an atom.

Love delights to pour itself out, and Love delights even more when its Love is reciprocated. Love is life-giving and fruitful, so the infinite being of pure love began the vast plan of creation. The sheer scope of the intelligence which created matter out of nothingness, and the infinite variety of inanimate things, animate creatures, creatures with souls and creatures of pure spirit, is breathtaking and we only experience a tiny part of it.

Everything created by Love is full of goodness. But for Love to be reciprocated, the creatures with souls and the creatures of pure spirit needed to have the capacity to choose Love or reject Love, and that choice had 3 aspects, to love or not love itself, Love, and other creatures.

Some of the creatures of pure spirit got so caught up in love of themselves that they began to believe that they surpassed their creator and had superior intelligence to their creator and rejected Love by refusing to obey and by refusing to trust in Him. These sad creatures we call demons.

Choosing to not love is a destructive force, and the demons knowing that they could not hurt God Himself, set themselves to destroying creation and especially set themselves to destroying the creatures with souls.

The creatures with souls were tempted not to obey (eating fruit that was forbidden) and tempted not to trust (that God’s instructions were not for their complete good and that God’s instructions were holding them back from better things). They gave in to temptation.

But Love’s plan was much bigger.

The Son consented to enter into creation as a creature with soul and by a sacrificial and expiatory death to pay the infinite price of reparation to the being of pure love, the only offering capable of giving creatures with souls the opportunity to regain the power of choosing Love.

When that Price was paid, The Spirit consented to enter souls who welcomed Him, and wherever He found goodwill in those souls The Spirit empowered them to resist temptation and to choose Love; He empowered them to live the Love that The Son had modelled to them, a life of complete obedience, trust and generosity (a.k.a. outpouring). It is a triple empowering, to love ourselves, to love God, and to love each other; to love in ways beyond our natural abilities due to His sacramental gifts, His spiritual gifts and His charismatic gifts. It is allowing The Spirit full freedom to love through us; to love ourselves, God and others as only The Spirit can.

The Plan of The Father, The Son and The Spirit is to bring each of us fully into the divine communion, unity and harmony of His being.

Every action that is a Yes to Love is a step closer to that Plan.
Every action that is a No to Love is a step away from that Plan.
       
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​A one page PDF version of this is available below:                                                

Yes, this isn’t a Sunday Gospel. It is actually the first part of Friday’s Gospel (29th Week Ordinary Time Year I), and I was given it to reflect and ponder upon – an unusual penance indeed.

But God’s ways are brilliant.

Luke 12:54-59 is where Jesus is among the crowds and He says to them that they can predict rain if clouds loom in the west, and they can predict hot weather if the wind is from the south. We can all understand this bit.

But then Jesus goes on to say, ‘How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?’

I’m sure this has had you stumped too.

What do we know?
That Jesus was referring to Himself, His miracles, His teaching as being a sign.
That Jesus considered that literally everybody should have been able to decode this sign and what it predicts.

Was Jesus right? Actually, Yes.

It has to be simple, it has to have been an observable repeatable pattern, and it has to be rather obvious – and it is fruitful for predicting the outcome of future signs.

(It might help to reveal that over the past many weeks we’ve been reading 1st Samuel, 2nd Samuel, 1st Kings and we are almost through 2nd Kings.)

Is there a pattern? Yes, there is, and it isn’t confined to these parts of scripture either.

Look at why God raised up leaders, and why God raised up prophets.

God raised up Joseph. God’s purpose was to preserve the lives of Abraham’s family.
God raised up Moses. God’s purpose was to rescue His people from slavery in Egypt.
God raised up Joshua. God’s purpose was to defeat the peoples who inhabited the promised land.

These are the primary purposes for which they were raised up, other purposes came to light after the big bad’s of famine, slavery and occupiers of the promised land were dealt with.

God raised up Gideon. God’s purpose was to save Israel from the Midianites.
God raised up Deborah. God’s purpose was to save Israel from Sisera and his army.
God raised up Jephthah the Gileadite. God’s purpose was to save Israel from the Ammonites.
God raised up Samson. God’s purpose was to save Israel from the Philistines.

Are you beginning to see the pattern?

God raises up the boy Daniel to save Susannah and bring judgement to the two corrupt elders.
God raises up the boy Samuel to bring judgement to the two corrupt priestly sons of Eli.
God raises up the boy David to save Israel from the Philistines.
God had raised up Saul to do this too, but Saul only partially fulfilled the mission given to him.

Let’s look at some other prophets.

God raised up Ahijah to bring judgement on Jeroboam.
God raised up Elijah to bring judgement to Ahaz.
God raised up Elisha to bring judgement to Jezebel.
God raises up Nathan to bring judgement to David, and call David to repentance.

God raises up Esther and Mordecai to bring judgement on Haman.
God raises up the prophet Daniel to bring judgement on Belshazzar.

Jesus is quite right.

When John the Baptist arose everyone should have been asking ‘What is God about to deal with?’

When Jesus, so much greater than all the others arose, everyone should have been asking ‘What super heavy duty stuff is God about to deal with?’

The answer, of course, is sin and death and the evil one.
The greatest enemies of all creation.

God’s modus operandi did not stop with Jesus.

Whenever we see a great prophet or an especially anointed leader arise, we know that God is about to deal with something big.

In modern times you could say that God raised up St John Paul II to bring down the iron curtain.
You could also say that God raised up St Teresa of Calcutta to deal with poverty.

You could also say that He raised up St Francis of Assisi to ‘Go rebuild My Church’, and Constantine and his mother Helena to end the early cycles of persecution.

Sometimes he uses unlikely suspects to bring about relief to His people, and Jehu son of Nimshi known for driving his chariot like a mad-man was one of these; Cyrus king of Persia is another.

What does this mean for us?

It means that if we see God raising up a great prophet or an especially anointed leader, that God is about to do something big. It also means we should put whatever support we can muster behind these chosen instruments of God.

And in our own day, Donald John Trump seems to be the one God has raised up to deal with the evils of the deep state.

Now you know what to look for.
Now you know what to do when you see these anointed ones emerge.
​
And when you do, go help them,
and also pray assiduously that they fulfill the whole mission God has given them.

The Gospel for this Sunday, the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, is taken from the beginning of St Mark Chapter 10. In it a group of Pharisees set a trap for Jesus on the controversial issue of divorce.

The trap was set as this question for Jesus, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’

We have to assume, since this is a trap, that there was some controversy about this question.
If Jesus says Yes, they will refer to the 10 Commandments re adultery.
If Jesus says No, they will refer to Moses and Deut 24:1-4, and He will also have to endure the displeasure of the crowd – human nature being the same then as now, having a ‘get out of marriage’ option would have been popular.

Jesus responds, in true rabbinic fashion, with a question.
‘What did Moses command you?’

For Jesus this question is a stepping-stone to discussing deeper truths, but their answer will also tell Jesus how well this group of Pharisees understands the law of Moses; or more precisely the law of God as given through Moses.

Their answer was, ‘Moses allowed us to draw up a writ of dismissal in cases of divorce’.

While this is true, it isn’t the full truth.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4
If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house. If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies, the husband who divorced her first may not marry her again after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the Lord. You must not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

This passage from Deuteronomy is more about deterrents to divorce than permission for divorce.

The first deterrent is the writ of dismissal itself. Only the very educated could write this kind of legal document, so a scribe would have been involved, and he’d have to be paid for his services. The scribe also would hopefully ask, ‘do you really want to do this?’ and point out the pros and cons.

The second deterrent is that once he has dismissed his wife he can never, ever take her back again. Therefore he has to be very, very sure that he will never change his mind on this. It is also a deterrent to dismissal on trivial pretexts. It is highly likely that any sent-away-wife will become defiled.

This law is also a protection for wives, preventing any ‘yo-yo’ scenario where two or more men swap wives on a regular basis.

Then there is the stern warning that God cannot abide defiled relationships. That the very land on which they live will be adversely affected by such sins.

Extremely serious stuff, that deserves far more pondering than is possible here.

Although we know from history that places and civilisations with strong family values prospered, and that places and civilisations where strong family values eroded and were lost entered a downward spiral ending those places and those civilisations.
Which is yet another major deterrent.

Divorce was a matter of life and death, particularly for the wife.

Without a husband, a woman had no home, no security, no income, and became extremely vulnerable. Poverty, being reduced to begging, prostitution, and all the other evils which can befall the vulnerable, were the lot of a dismissed wife, as well as the ruin of her reputation because ‘she was a horrible wife’ is going to be believed more than ‘he was an unreasonable husband’.

To be clear, a writ of dismissal was a message from husband to wife that meant, ‘I don’t care anymore if you live or die, in fact I hope you die’.

How do you get to such hard-heartedness?

By degrees; a harsh word here, a derogatory comment there, which leads to treating her as less than a person worthy of respect and honour, and little cut by little cut, love gradually dies, concern for the welfare of the other, dies, and generally we are oblivious to it happening until the loss of love is so stark that it cannot be ignored.

But no matter how bad it has got, God can resurrect it.
Resurrecting marriages is one of His specialties, and something He takes great delight in doing.

You may object, but what about arranged marriages?
True, some arranged marriages would have been arranged better than others, but they were still entering into an intimate partnership. If you are a man with a farm or a business, what’s the easiest way to get ahead in life? A large family, since children are unpaid labour, and the easiest way to obtain children is to found a family with a wife. The wife also takes care of all those details that make a husband’s life easier; meals, managing household servants, interior decorating, shopping, clothing, the needs of children etc.

It would still take a hard-hearted brute to be lacking in appreciation for such services.

How do you stop going down that ‘growing less in love’ spiral? Forgiveness.
Regular forgiveness, forgiveness from the heart, for the little hurts received, real or imagined.

All of us have foibles and little habits that rub each other up the wrong way.
None of us are exempt.
Without regular forgiveness and looking for the good in each other, our hearts gradually grow coarse and hard, our ability to love grows cold.

Jesus tells them, and us, that from the beginning, God’s plan was that the male and the female become one flesh; and a more accurate translation would be, to exist as one flesh. This is a reality in truth and in God’s eyes, even if we find it difficult to perceive.

Jesus also says, ‘What God has united, man must not divide’.
The word used for ‘united’ is ‘synezeuxen’, which means to yoke together.

When you put a yoke on two farm animals to do a task eg plowing, the best result is achieved when the two farm animals are evenly matched. That means that marriage is a team of two, put together specifically by God, for a common purpose, a common mission, with a common vision. Two yoked animals must needs look in the same direction at the same time.

Wow, what a vision for marriage as God sees it!

Divorce destroys that team of two brought together by God as a team with a single existence, and also destroys the God given purpose and mission for that team.

Divorce also disfigures the man and the woman. You cannot destroy a union like this without some destruction of both the man and the woman. It produces gaping wounds where seamless unity used to be.

In God’s eyes, divorce is a horrible evil that He never ever wants any of His creation to experience.

Yes, sometimes separation is necessary for a short or longer time, with a view to reunion.

Unless violence of the grievous bodily harm variety is present, in which case the separation could be life-long, but still holding out the hope of God’s grace of conversion upon the one prone to violence.

No wonder the enemy of our souls wants to destroy and disfigure marriage as much as possible.

Jesus then goes on to tell the Pharisees, and us, that divorce followed by marriage to another, no matter whether you are male or female, is adultery.

Thou shalt not commit adultery is one of the 10 Commandments.

Any infringement of the 10 Commandments calls down the curses of Deuteronomy 28 upon a person.

God is very serious about His plan for marriage.
That’s because it is the vehicle through which He can bless us, and our society, abundantly.

Like divorce, adultery conveys the same message to the repudiated spouse, ‘I wish you were dead, and I’m going to act as if you were dead, and as if I was free to marry again’.

That’s bad enough, but as we’ve just seen, adultery is also saying a very big No to God’s plan for that married couple and a very big No to God’s mission for that couple.

It isn’t ‘just having a fling’; it is a very serious rejection of the spouse, of God, and of God’s plan for the couple’s greatest happiness and greatest fruitfulness.

Just like the other time the Pharisees confronted Jesus, (Mark 7, 22nd Sunday Ordinary Time Year B) they got far more than they bargained for.

We’ve all been mightily challenged.
God cannot bring full healing to our land until marriages are fully restored and reconciled.
This matters more than we can possibly fathom.

So let’s turn to God and ask for His help:

May God bring healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, and flourishing to those marriages that are hurting and to those marriages that are under threat of divorce and under threat of adultery.
May God bring healing to all those whose marriages ended without their consent.
May God grant repentance to the hard-hearted who initiated divorce.
May God forgive us for the times we supported divorce and didn’t pray and encourage reconciliation.
May God grant to married couples the grace to discover the mission and purpose for which God teamed them up together, and to fully co-operate with it.
May those tempted to divorce and to adultery be given the grace to permanently turn away from these temptations and to take measures to prevent such temptations growing again.
May God grant us His help to value and honour marriage as He does, and to valiantly protect it.
May God grant us the grace to soften our hearts towards each other, and towards our spouses, through acts of kindness, love and forgiveness.

Thank You Almighty and Eternal God for the amazing wonder that marriage is in Your eyes.
Amen.

Mary, mother of Jesus, Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Joseph, protector of families, pray for us.

In a few days’ time the first session of the Plenary Council of Australia will begin. From Sunday 3 Oct to Sunday 10 Oct there will be all kinds of online meetings going on.

The timetable is here (if you scroll down a bit)
https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/assembly-1/

(But as that website page has been a bit glitchy, this is the timetable as it was online as at 30 Sep 2021.)

And the YouTube channel where you can find the livestreamed Masses and ‘open to all’ sessions is here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPKFmOZcjJfMQ9SfcotyZJg

The second session will happen mid-2022.

If this goes according to normal Vatican Synod precedents, the first session tends to be a bit of an ice-breaker, and sets the conversation going, and then second session is where the nitty gritty stuff happens – because the first session gives everyone a handle on where the battlelines are and what the stakes actually are.

Yes, the first session is necessary, just like a football game the first half is where you size up the strengths and weaknesses of the other team, and the second half – like the second session – is where the game is decided.

It is a process that involves real people, with their own talents, responsibilities and agendas; the prayers of the church local; national and universal, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do not underestimate the Holy Spirit;
we know from holy scripture that He is just as adept at bringing God’s plans to fruition through the evil, the skullduggerous, the fool, even through a donkey, as well as through the well intentioned and the truly good and holy.

Obviously the Holy Spirit can do far more with willing collaborators than with the unwilling ones. The degree of willing collaboration determines whether the Father’s base plan, His better plan, His outstanding plan or His jaw-droppingly-wonderful plan is enacted.

l want to see the jaw-droppingly-wonderful plan happen,
don’t you?

Yes, there are massive forces working against this,
including the enemy of our souls and his minions as well those who independently want to shape the church in their image rather than in God’s image, and the potent zeitgeists of our era.

Yet this is the great south land of the Holy Spirit.
We have yet to see anything here that would deserve a smidgeon of that epithet.
But that’s what gives us hope, that this is the time,
among the chaos and lockdowns,
among the inability to freely and publicly access the sacraments,
when it most certainly can’t be by our doing,
that God can do it,
that He can do it in such a way that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God alone did it.

That’s why beyond all our fears that this is going to be a secular-agenda-led talk-fest and a complete waste of time,
that it will be known as the Plenary Council of the Holy Spirit.

That doesn’t mean we stop praying.
It means we intensify our prayers.

One way to do that is to join in with the full rosary (20 decades) being livestreamed through St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney from 3pm to 4.30pm on Sunday 3 Oct 2021.
https://www.stmaryscathedral.org.au/event/holy-rosary-with-the-cathedral-clergy-3rd-october-2021/
(Remember Daylight Saving starts in NSW that morning! Fix your clocks.)

Another way to pray is to do what Archbishop Polding did when times were tough on the sea voyage from Sydney to London via the bottom of South America in 1846, when they risked being becalmed for weeks.
He got everyone to pray 5 Our Fathers, 5 Hail Marys and a Memorare for suitable wind.

We certainly need the wind of the Holy Spirit in our nation Australia,
and in the people of God who reside here,
in the Plenary Council of the Holy Spirit,
and in those who are on the path to seeking Him
but don’t quite realise it yet.

It seems like a good plan,
and achievable between now and 10 October,
especially as a family or household group,
to pray the 5 Our Fathers, 5 Hail Marys and a Memorare daily;
and if you feel so led,
to continue to pray them daily until the close of the second session in 2022.
…………………………………………
Our Father
Our Father, Who art in heaven,
hallowed be Your Name.
Your kingdom come,
Your Will be done,
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary
Hail Mary, Full of Grace,
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now,
and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The Memorare
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known
that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help,
or sought your intercession was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my mother;
to you do I come,
before you I stand,
sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in your mercy hear and answer me. Amen

The Gospel for this Sunday, the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, is taken from the end of Chapter 8 of St Mark. Between last Sunday and this Sunday (Mark 8:1-26) there has been a second multiplication of loaves, a demand for a sign, a warning against the leaven of the Pharisees and the healing of a blind man at Bethsaida. In this part of Mark:8, while they are on their way to the villages around Caesarea Philippi, Jesus interrogates His disciples.

But before we get to that, if the ministry itinerary of Jesus seems strange, well it kind of is. Why would Jesus push on to Sidon after going to Tyre, and why is He off to Caesarea Phillipi?

The answer is in the map of Israel at the time of Joshua, and where the territory of the various tribes were apportioned within Israel.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/a6/de/e6a6dec8f6ced5c5fcc09f40fe6df877.jpg

Tyre and Sidon are where the tribe of Asher settled, and the area around Caesarea Phillipi is where the tribe of Dan settled. In the time of Jesus these places were foreign territory, but if you were looking for descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, you would look in these places. This speaks of an incredible commitment of Jesus to seek out the lost, and of God giving a message through these missionary journeys that God has not forgotten His covenant with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even if they have forgotten Him.

Jesus opens up this deliberate interrogation by asking ‘Who do men say I am?

The answers are interesting:
John the Baptist is one answer, recognizing that Jesus and John preached the same message ‘The kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the good news.’
Elijah is another answer, recognizing that with His miracles Jesus is on a par with the greatest prophet of Israel. Remember that at the Transfiguration, Moses represented the law, and Elijah represented the prophets.
Or one of the other prophets was the third answer the disciples provided, recognizing that Jesus carries a powerful message from God, and is a catalyst for the destiny of Israel, and this will bring Him into conflict with those who do not fear God and don’t walk in God’s ways.

Then Jesus puts them all on the spot and asks;
‘Who do you say I am?’
Peter responds, ‘You are the anointed one’.

When Israelites were hoping and longing for the anointed one of God, the Messiah, what did they expect the Messiah to be and to do?
-That the Messiah would usher in a new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31
-That the Messiah would be a prophet like Moses. Deuteronomy 18:15-19
-That the Messiah would be the Son of Man. Daniel 7:13-14
-That the Messiah would be greater than David. Psalm 110:1-4
-That the Messiah would be a descendant of David. 2 Samuel 7:12-16
-That the Messiah would be the coming one to whom the scepter belongs. Genesis 49:10
-That the Messiah would be the descendant of Abraham through whom all nations would be blessed. Genesis 12:3

When David was King, an extraordinary king who took God as His commander, Israel was united, and Israel had rest from the enemies that normally besieged or enslaved them. David carried that triple calling of priest (worshipper of God), prophet and king; and was seen as a type of the Messiah to come.

Peter and the others were likely to be hopeful of being close retainers of king Jesus in a new earthly Davidic kingdom following a swift and painless overthrow of the Roman occupation.

But Jesus starts teaching them about the Messianic prophecies they’ve never ever considered before. All of that suffering servant stuff in Isaiah, and some of that gruesome stuff in Psalm 22 and other places.

Whoever we think Jesus to be
Jesus Himself insists that God’s plan for the Messiah is rejection, suffering, death and resurrection
and that to belong to Him
and indeed even necessary for salvation,
we have to be willing to walk exactly the same path.

That’s exactly what the scriptures have foretold that the Messiah will be.

In effect Jesus is saying here we are at A, the destination is B.
You think getting from A to B will unlock lots of glory with little effort.
Whatever you think B is, the B is bigger than you can ever possibly imagine.
God’s plan isn’t earthly and temporal, it is divine and eternal.
You are thinking far too small if you are thinking about a terrestrially based kingdom.
You are thinking far too small if you are only considering the salvation needs of this generation.

Getting to the fulness of the kingdom of God is going to take total commitment from Me, the pathway is not straight forward, and it is going to require significant suffering and rejection, and yes even an ignominious death, to get there.

The requirements for you to enter into the fulness of the kingdom of God are no different.

If you are going to come with Me from here on in,
this is what it is going to cost you.
No compromise is possible.

Either you are 100% with Me, and do it 100% God’s way,
no matter how heavy the ultimate personal cost turns out to be,
or you walk away now.

I will follow God’s path for Me even if none of you stay as My disciples.

It is decision time.

To stay with Me you have to accept this path of the Cross,
you have to live it wholeheartedly.

Are you coming with Me all the way?
Or do our ways part now?
​
On your answer hangs the salvation of countless others.