Mons Frank – Page 2 – Teams Oceania

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2 August 2020

And we think we have troubles…

Especially in Victoria! Perhaps the way forward this week is to ponder the Scripture in the context of Jesus’ “troubles”!

Matthew places today’s excerpt in the immediate context of the beheading of John the Baptist. Barbaric. Cruel. Hopefully, embarrassing to some attending the banquet in a sumptuous palace, laden with food that the majority of the populace, especially in Galilee, could not even imagine. A room full of arrogance, power, heartlessness and, seemingly, indifferent to the value of human life.

This story sickens me more and more as I grow older. The scheming, plotting and the whole concept of “give me here, on a platter, the head of John the Baptist” and it was done and delivered within the hour to the banquet. It reflects acutely the “what do I want?” rant of so much of modern society.

This scenario is often played out in our world today. Often not reported, details seem to emerge years and years later.

And John was Jesus’ cousin! No wonder he wanted to “head for the hills” in the face of such atrocity.

People then looked for answers, for leadership, for a way forward, for HOPE. As we do in Victoria, and as elsewhere in our world today.

So, what does Jesus do?

Apart from leaving his “bolt hole”, he began to talk with those who sought him. He took pity on them and healed their sick and, surprisingly, said to the disciples…”Give them something to eat yourselves”.

The Royal Palace is exchanged for a grassy landscape, service replaces command, genuine pity replaces indifferent arrogance, and they all ate the lake fish and the land bread as was offered.

All ate as much as they wanted…the abundant Son of the abundant Father at work!

How do we, today, begin to act likewise…Each will have to look into one’s own circumstances.

A couple of suggestions…

+We need to raise our eyes to heaven and ask for a blessing on our work.

+Perhaps it is time for a weekly interfaith prayer meeting in every street.

+Have we a street roster to check on the neighbours?

+ If you have an idea, let your Council or local MP know.

+Perhaps read the Second Reading (Romans 8: 35, 37-39) every day this week.

Remember Isaiah’s words, “Listen, listen to me and you will have good things to eat”.

Mons Frank

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 26 July 2020

More parables this weekend! These are about the future, more precisely, a concept dear to the heart of Jesus… the Kingdom.

In my early youth, we were often taunted with the words, “there will be pie in the sky when you die”. I did not understand what the taunts were about. Later the realisation that we Catholics were often talking about heaven, and its rewards and its blessings, that perhaps many thought we were so indifferent to the current needs of the world. “Put up with it now…for your reward will be great in heaven”.

Much of that has passed, some still remains.

Some suggest that in a world of scarcity inhabited by most of his disciples and their families and their fellow citizens, that Jesus set out quite deliberately to proclaim a world of abundance that foreshadowed the Kingdom. He was sent by an abundant Father. Jesus gave abundant wine at Cana, loaves upon loaves at the feeding of the five thousand and so on. Be of the abundant school, he seemed to say.

Recent events in our local Australian world highlight the world of fear of scarcity. The stories of pasta, flour and toilet rolls being hoarded during the first wave of fear of the unseen virus and repeated to a lesser degree in the current second wave, all confirms the observation that hoarding produces enemies!

You know the mantra “you have more than me”. It is no good replying that “I need it for an emergency…”. The quick reply will be of the order, “but I am in need, I want it…now!”

I think we need a big dose of Solomon’s request made in reading one today, “Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil”.

It is a good time to be reminded about, in a sense, the illogical world of the Kingdom. Our logical world, trying to balance supply and demand and forgetting the poor and homeless, is not performing much better than the world of Herod, Pilate, John the Baptist and Jesus.

Perhaps we ought to take a deeper look at the Kingdom of heaven.

Mons Frank

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 19 July 2020

One ought to be able to sleep in peace. But, as the parable indicates, sleep for some means time for evil; work for others.

In the doing of good, do we, occasionally, fail to keep an eye open, to be on our guard, to do the rounds and, sadly, fall into the trap of “Well, I have prepared the soil, I have selected good seed, I have planted appropriately, so now I can rest”.

Some of these parables were written against the background of confusion in the new emerging communities, particularly for Matthew. His people had enthusiastically embraced the Good News of Jesus. Many of their relatives and friends had rejected the same Good News. Why, and what will happen? We often want immediate answers to our needs and questions. Our age is often characterised by the slogan:

“What do we want?

When do we want it?

NOW!”

Matthew’s community may, or may not, have been so noisy as us today, but to help answer the dilemma, Matthew brings out parables that approach the dilemma from various viewpoints. Ultimately, the answer provided is patience, tolerance…and leave the resolution to God.

Sound advice. However, some would see this as a cop out! It is not totally satisfactorily for many in our time.

We want a vaccine…NOW.

We want answers…NOW.

We want everyone to be vegetarians…NOW.

We want all of our conflicts solved…NOW and on our conditions!

Maybe some of the anger, some of the disillusionment with a seeming lack of progress can be attended to if, when we do good things, we don’t go to sl164eep and, in a sense, leave the night open to the work of the evil ones. Be reminded of the other word of Jesus, “If you had known what time the thief was coming etc.” The thief has the advantage, but the parable suggests that all will be accorded justice in time.

Allow the Spirit to assist us in our weakness, after all, it is his work that we are called to partnership. What a privilege.

Mons Frank

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 12 July 2020

Is it the sower?
Is it the soil?
Is it about farming practises? Or is it about the need to continually sow?

One day, as we say, the penny might drop and I…..

might listen (at last)

might see (at last)

might understand (at last).

The seed is good.

When sown, it is at the mercy of the elements; wind, rain, and where it lands.

In one sense the parable is asking me:

Am I a path?

Am I a rock?

Am I a thorn bush?

Am I good soil?

In another sense, it is about perseverance. The true sower keeps throwing out seed!

Against the background of the current Covid-19 pandemic, a juxtaposition of the instructions to ‘Keep Safe’, the four rules can be seen as a seed thrown, and all can fall in the four landing grounds. We will not dwell on the harvest at the moment.

Our seed is the vision of the Kingdom of God. Matthew’s community was grappling with this reality. Not all the Jewish community longing for the Messiah, accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Not everyone today will accept Jesus and his teaching.

But, we keep working for justice.

We keep working for respect.

We keep working for the poor.

We keep working for reconciliation.

We keep working for peace.

Seeds do land in fertile ground and people and society are the beneficiaries. Thorns are plentiful. Rocky paths abound. Paths are paved with concrete.

There is still good soil.

We must persevere with the sowing!

Mons Frank

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 5 July 2020

Many of us have been to Hong Kong. We have watched the action in that city, pre and post Covid-19. We have seen footage of brutal power being exercised since July 1.

I feel saddened for the families and my church-going friends still in that city facing the future. The chariots, horses and bows of the first reading are being rolled out again as we write… and there is no sign of a king coming to the people riding on a donkey!

We know that hundreds of years after this was written, Jesus himself rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, demonstrating his approach to power based on his teaching. Yet again, many dismissed this approach. But he did not back off. He kept proclaiming another way and, knowing that his way was revolutionary and people centred, he reminded those who choose this path that they will grow weary and feel overburdened. He, thus, calls us to come to him again and again. To our ears it sounds crazy. His yoke easy? His burden light?

Once again, the paradox of the Gospel.

Here in Australia and particularly Victoria, we are enduring, like the world, the hardships of Covid -19. Nothing to be compared with many other countries. That is not of great consolation when you live in certain designated postcodes, nor is it to be compared with the suffering of the poorest of the poor sifting through the tailings of the jade mines in Myanmar.

So…………

Can we smile a little more this week?
Can we offer a cheering word to those overburdened?
Can we petition more earnestly for the downtrodden of the world?
Can we ride into people’s lives…on a donkey?
Can we proclaim peace for the nations?
Can we help all we meet to find rest for their souls?

Mons Frank

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time 28-6-2020

Another turbulent week in Australia. Whatever the word ‘ordinary’ means in our Liturgical usage, the Dictionary tells us the word is used to express “regular, normal customary usual” etc. On that definition, our Australia has had a rather ‘ordinary’ week.

A High Court Judge exposed by the High Court, an MP raided by ASIO and the Federal Police and suspended immediately by his leader, a spike in Victoria, mostly in Melbourne, of reported Covid-19 cases, tales of people refusing to be tested, and travel bans on Victorians by most of the other States (just in time for school holidays). Today’s report of 40,000 new cases in one day in America helps the perspective.

Against all that, we are called to consider in part, “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and those who welcome me, welcome the one who sent me.”

It is the call to mission and to spread the good news, news which if we all adhere to it and try our best, would really see a different world and that world would become ‘ordinary’ for all.

Paul reminds us of the way forward…our Baptism in Christ. Mysterious, yes, but unlike the mystery of Covid-19 which brings disease, sickness, suffering and death, Baptism in faith leads us in the resurrection of Christ “to live a new life.”

On the surface, the seemingly harsh sayings in the Gospel really call us to get our priorities right. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Augustine loved his mother Monica more when he discovered his love for God. So too for us.

Covid-19 may ultimately be a call to wake up and be reminded that “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy people.”

Our mantra this week, amidst all the doom, gloom and bad news, is to recall that we have been called out of darkness and into his marvellous light.

Hence, we pray:

“Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.”

Mons Frank

P.S. As I celebrate 58 years of Priesthood this Monday, it is a bit confronting to realise that I have been a priest longer than our new Bishop has been on the Earth. Peace to all.

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time - 21-06-2020

e return to the Liturgy in ‘Ordinary Time’, as our world suggests we are returning to ‘normal time’. There are some doubts about the latter and one might say that our ‘Ordinary Time’ should not be the same each year, even if the cycles of prayers and readings remains the same. We were drawn into the Mystery of the Passion and Death of Jesus, exploding with the gift of Pentecost. It ought to mean something different, perhaps truths more refined or honed each year. That, then, enables us to look at the readings with enriched lenses.

We are told that Matthew’s Gospel was written bearing in mind his mainly Jewish community, now under attack from the old guard who would not accept the teaching and revelation of the Jew, Jesus. So, life was increasingly difficult. Hence “Do not be afraid.” That injunction may be read quite differently in Hong Kong these days!

What goes around, comes around is our saying. Jesus puts it a little differently, “For everything that is now covered will be uncovered.” Many have discovered that truth in public life this week in Victoria, as our Church similarly experienced in the Royal Commission. Truth has a habit of surfacing. The enticement to secrecy is alluring; the pain of subsequent revelation is often excruciating. The machinations of “friends”, as Jeremiah states, still exists. Fake news exists not only in America; but in Covid-19 time, some in our city are blaming the Karen refugees for importing the virus into Australia!

Like Jeremiah, we have recommitted our cause to the Lord and reinforced that commitment in the Easter celebrations. Paul reminds us that “It is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.” That is our inheritance.

Today:
*Recommit to the values of the Gospel,
*Declare yourself for him in the presence of men, and
*Do not be afraid.

Mons Frank

Corpus Christi. The Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ 14 June 2020

Some ages burn books. Some ages destroy cities; to build their city. We seem to be entering an age of pulling down statues. We then spend fortunes creating, if possible, the burnt books, excavating the buried cities and rescuing the statues…in many cases to try to recover the knowledge so burnt, buried or smashed.

Our Church takes another path. Liturgically, we are in the midst of a Triduum celebrating Trinity, Communion, and, with the Sacred Heart on Friday, the true humanity of Jesus. All relate back to Pentecost and the inauguration of these feasts spans over 1500 years. All build on the life experiences of people trying to ponder anew, or for the first time, what the gift of Pentecost meant. You may say we are slow learners. The formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity took nearly three hundred years of, sometimes, bitter debate. We made it eventually. God showed patience in that debate as with many others. Slowly we reflected and passed on insights to the next generation; remembering the trials and battles, trying not to forget what had been handed on, be it truth or falsehood until the truth was hammered out.

All this is towards asking you to read the second reading for this Sunday, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17.

Jean, my next-door neighbour some 80 metres away, is fast approaching her tenth decade. She was still driving to the service station, for milk and the paper and to St KiIlians Church, just around the corner, until Covid-19 grounded her. We nodded for some years, waved, and now talk over the front fence, occasionally. The other day she bailed me up and we had a serious conversation…”I am really missing Mass, I am missing my friends. We have good chats at Mass. It is OK to speak in the Church isn’t it?” And so we chatted. “I am really missing Mass”.

It took nearly 1000 years for Thomas Aquinas to be asked to write the Mass for this new Feast of Corpus Christi. Clergy and people had become a little lax. A new liturgy was created, processions were introduced, and the true meaning of the Gift of Communion was reinforced and clarified. In a rather local way, Jean provided me with a valid insight to what Paul wrote about 2000 years ago.

“…though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.”

We hope Communion can soon be returned to all our people!

Mons Frank

The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity - 7 June 2020

The photo shot of the U.S. President standing outside St John’s Church in Washington has provoked a huge reaction at home and abroad…but it might just serve as a useful backdrop to this week’s reflection for all.

The Bible for Christians contains the revealed words of God. Remember Paul’s injunction to Timothy…”all Scripture is inspired by God.” The section in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 also reminds us that Scripture can be used “for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives.”

So, what sort of God was being proclaim by the above action?

We proclaim truths about the God we believe in and worship in a very robust way today.

For a start, we believe, as Moses discovered, that the Lord our God is “a God of tenderness and compassion”. Would this headstrong people accept that truth for imitation; then we might be a people “slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness”, and our world would become a better place.

We may not be able to “greet one another with the holy kiss” at this moment; covid-19 has put a temporary halt to that. Nonetheless, we believe that the God of love and peace “is with us” and urges us to “be united; live in peace”.

And if that is not enough to keep us pondering, then the Gospel today reminds us that “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son”. Surely not the action of a dictator, or of many leaders in our world at the moment. God protect Hong Kong!

Today is a good time to reflect on our own personal image of God and, if necessary, to revise it in the light of the scripture. We cannot ignore the plight of people in the world. Our ancestors, at times, like Moses’ people as indeed ourselves, have acted like headstrong people. We have a different God to that proclaimed by many in power. Real power is not from the gun but is given and received in lovingly working for truth and justice.

Happy revisiting the Trinitarian God this weekend.

Mons Frank