Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR A TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY - 4.9.05 Ez 33,7-9; Rom 13,8-10; Mt 18,15-20 Cherished
- Welcomed - Forgiven Happy
Father’s Day: To all our dear &
precious Fathers - those with us, those far away, & those who have died - we
love you & thank God for you. Today, may you be richly blessed with the
blessing of your family. And in turn may you be a blessing.
There is no better way to celebrate Father’s Day than seeing it in the mystery
of God’s fatherhood. Over the centuries, people have given many names to God:
all-wise & all-powerful, good & just, holy & merciful, creator &
life-giver, one & no-other, holy & merciful, sovereign & righteous
judge... But the best insight comes
from the Bible. We Christians say that God is a loving, caring, welcoming,
forgiving father: we pray to him as “Our beloved Father in heaven”; and we
addressed Him in the most endearing terms. Jesus taught that God is ‘Abba - Father’: for him & for us. Yes,
even in the Garden of Olives (as beautifully Mel Gibson’s movie reminds us},
Jesus prayed: “My Abba”. And in
Jesus’ prayer (we call it the “our Father”), he expresses feelings of
being close & intimate with God. Since our earliest years we have learned to
feel at home with God the Father. In the Liturgy we start & finish prayer
making the sign of the cross & saying: ‘In the name of the Father...’.
All our life circles around God our Father: We were baptized: ‘In the name of
the father...’. We pray the “Creed”, and say ‘I believe in God the
Father’; we believe that God has adopted us as his beloved children & as
‘begotten of the Father’. Through the horrendous suffering of the Cross (a
la Mel Gibson’s!), God -Father Son & Spirit- has sealed a New Covenant of
love with us, in virtue of which He remains, & will always remain,
infinitely rich in compassion, & his love is unconditional &
everlasting... At
time love hurts: for God & for us. Today, Father’s Day, we pray for our families, especially for
families, who right now are caught in the web of misunderstanding & hurt,
conflict & separation. As we pray for love, joy, strength & healing, and
as we present our own struggles & hurts to God, let’s remember the
horrendous suffering that God our Father & Jesus our Lord accepted, to
ensure that we became adopted into God’s Family, the Church. Think again about
Mel Gibson’s movie and reflect on the powerful words of St. Paul in Rom 8,
31+: “God (the Father) did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for us
all on the cross... If he has loved us so much, who will separate us from the
love of Christ?... nothing will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord”. In today’s Gospel, Matthew helps us discover that we are God’s
family, his beloved “Little Ones” -(the original Greek has ‘tapienos’, a
word for humility!). In it, we are constantly cherished, welcomed &
forgiven, just as we are. For Matthew, we form our Church-Community. In it, we
are God’s family - among us lives Jesus, beloved Son of the Father & Risen
Lord - He is at home with us, & we are his brothers & sisters and cherished ‘Little Ones’ of the Eternal Father... At the same time,
Matthew is aware that trials & conflicts, scandals & sufferings will
always be part of life: so he urges everyone to treat one another in the Church
(God’s family), as beloved ‘Little Ones’ of the same Heavenly Father. As
‘Little Ones’ we are all weak & vulnerable, but woe to those who create
scandal in God’s assembly. Sadly in the Church & in our families we often
experience divisions from within & accusations from outside; still our
heavenly Father knows & hurts with us. In his caring concern, we remain
cherished, loved & forgiven. In family & Parish, let us be pastorally minded, stay humble, work
toward forgiveness. ______________________________________ |
