4 Sunday Ordinary Time, 30 January 2011, Matthew 5:1-12

Graduation is a great day. It's a great and proud day for parents, for the graduands and for the whole institution. It is also one of the only days when academic dress is worn. Lecturers and Professors, President and Registrar, and for the first time, many graduates wear the distinctive academic dress. It is an indicator to everyone who looks on that something has changed. The distinctive black academic gown accompanied by a coloured hood lets everyone know that the wearer has achieved a particular degree of education, that they have 'arrived'. So important was this process that, for many years, pictures would be published in local papers of the new graduate, wearing their academic gown.

This Sunday, Jesus all but puts on an academic gown. The simple action of sitting down tells that Jesus is about to teach. And this is no ordinary teacher; the gospel tells us that Jesus 'went up the hill.' This compares Jesus to Moses coming down off the mountain with the ten commandments.

Jesus the teacher is an image that we can identify with fairly easily, because many of the images we have of Jesus show him wearing a robe of some kind or another. They indicate to us that Jesus is no ordinary individual. He is presented to us as the wisest of teachers.

Of course, the clothes do not make the teacher, it is rather his wisdom.

Last Sunday, we heard that Jesus began his preaching with the words: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.' This Sunday we hear the nine-fold teaching of the beatitudes. Preaching and teaching go hand in hand. The beatitudes begin a process of teaching in Matthew's gospel that is at the root of our Christian understanding of the world.

It is in this teaching that Jesus makes clear to us that what is needed is not so much a minimalist following of the rules, but rather a conversion of the heart.

It is good to live our lives by the law, but it is better to live our lives by the heart, when our hearts have been formed by God's Word.

Today we begin Catholic Schools Week. This is an opportunity for us to give thanks for the dedication of teachers, boards of management, trustees and parent organisations.

We celebrate the passing on of wisdom that Jesus calls us to listen to.

And we open our minds and hearts to the truth about our world and about life that is to be found all around us.

3 Sunday Ordinary Time, 23 January 2011, Matthew 4:12-23

Your Word is a lamp for my steps

When I was a child, during the summer we would go and help out on my Uncle's farm in Gurteen. My brothers and I were fascinated with the machinery, none moreso than at silage time when all the neighbours would get together and draw in the silage. 
 

A very important part of this process was that dinner would have to be made in the middle of the day for the farmers. Given that my Uncle is a bachelor, my Mother would inevitably end up cooking the meal.

And then the men would arrive in from the fields. As children, we were sent scurrying, our meal would come afterwards. We watched, fascinated, as mountains of bacon, cabbage and potatoes disappeared into hungry mouths. This was accompanied by steaming hot, sugary tea peppered with laughter. Wisdom about the process of cutting silage was passed from the older to the younger.

You have made their gladness greater,

you have made their joy increase;

they rejoice in your presence

as men rejoice at harvest time,

as men are happy when they are dividing the spoils. (First Reading, Isaiah 8:23-9:3)

The memory of the rejoicing at harvest time is the memory chosen for us today. It is one of the ways for us to understand what it is like to walk in the light of Christ.

Perhaps our image of trying to live the Christian life is peppered with difficulties and hardships, oppression and abusive authority. And yet here, another image is presented, an image of sharing in the riches of life that God has offered to us.

Our image of all of life is challenged in the light of Christ. How we see and experience life is challenged – our image of our whole life is changed in the light of Christ. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? We have to rub our eyes and take another, fresh, new look.

In this fresh understanding, when the call of Jesus comes: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand." we are ready for it. Our understanding has changed, and we are ready, like Peter and Andrew, James and John, to share the Good News with everyone.