The first reading last Sunday concerns the sufferings of the children of God who are persecuted by those who reject God’s grace and who live lives contrary to God’s Will.

This is evident in the world today where Christians are the most persecuted of all religions. The World Watch list 2024 reports that 365 million Christians are subject to “high levels of persecution and discrimination”. In certain countries this persecution is more openly hostile, but in the West it is more subtle. In Western countries such as Australia this persecution is carried out through the attack on the Moral Law as laid out in the Ten Commandments and traditional Christian values, through the passing of unjust laws such as abortion, euthanasia, same sex marriage etc. The flood of pornography and gender ideology is also a serious attack on Christian morality and marriage and undermines God’s Plan for marriage and family as laid out in the Scriptures.  The readings last Sunday teach us that lives of the just show up the lives of evil doers, so there is a resentment and jealousy against those who follow God’s Laws and Church teachings. This rejection of God’s grace and hardening of hearts by evil doers leads to disharmony and persecution. Evil doers are not at peace within themselves, and because inner conflicts lead to outer ones, they clash with others, especially those who are living holy lives contrary to their own. 

St Augustine said: 

My heart never rested until it rested in You, my God. He only experienced inner peace after his conversion.

St James, in the second reading teaches that Godly wisdom leads to meekness, mercy and peace. On the other hand, false wisdom leads to bitter zeal, rivalry and resentment. These kinds of people follow their nature as wounded by original sin. Deprived of the Holy Spirit many instead become inspired by the devil and there is frustration, endless conflicts and war.

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches that the path to greatness is service of God and neighbour. The Apostles had been discussing on the road, which of them was the greatest. There was selfish ambition and jealousy between them. The Lord teaches the opposite to this: 

If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all. 

One should be willing even to lay down one’s life for another. This is what Jesus did for all of us. All our gifts of nature and grace are meant for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God. We are simply stewards of those gifts and one day we will have to render to Jesus an account of how we used them. The secret is to forget oneself and never let an opportunity to help someone in need go by. It could be as simple as helping an elderly person who is struggling to carry their shopping or visiting a sick person. For example, I was recently in a shopping centre carpark, and I noticed an elderly person was struggling to get her car into the parking bay because someone had selfishly left their empty shopping trolley there. It only took a couple of minutes for me to go and remove the trolley back to its proper trolley bay and the lady was able to park and was very grateful. Little acts of service such as this are simple to do, and we shouldn’t let opportunities to help another go by. We all need to cultivate an attitude of humble service and grow in the essential virtue of humility.

In a sense the life of every Christian is like the Eucharist. On the outside, the Eucharist appears flimsy, pale, plain and fragile, yet beneath that appearance is God Himself, our Lord Jesus. Throughout the centuries, the Eucharist has inspired the most magnificent Cathedrals and  Churches, breathtaking works of art, exquisite music, chant, literature and the heroic self-sacrifice of the Saints and Martyrs. In a similar way, if we allow God to rule in our hearts, with His Will, He can work freely in our lives and create something truly beautiful as well out of them.  He has done this in the lives of the Saints, for example, St Teresa of Calcutta, who was a tiny, frail and humble Albanian Nun, yet Jesus reigned in her heart. Due to her deep union with the Lord and her fruitfulness in terms of works of mercy, she inspired the world and still inspires us. Her wisdom was not worldly, but instead she was endowed with divine wisdom and great purity of heart, which comes from divine wisdom.

We could think of the windscreen of a car. Who is able to drive better? The person with a dirty windscreen or the person with a clean windscreen? The clean windscreen of course, because this gives a purer vision of the road. Purity of heart enables us to more easily see and love God in our neighbour, as St Teresa did. But sin hardens the heart and clouds our vision of God. However, the anti-dote for sin is regular Confession which is available every day in our Shrine here in Chittering. 

Therefore this Sunday, the Church puts before us two ways:

1. The way of wisdom and selflessness, which leads to righteousness and peace with God, self and others.
2. The way of self-centred ambition and passions, which causes a disconnect with Jesus, and leads to inner conflict and discord with others

Let’s choose the way of wisdom and purity of heart which enables us to serve God in our neighbour and to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul.  Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever!