Our Lady of the Rosary Parish - Blogs

Gaudete Sunday

11/12/2020

We are at the halfway make of the season of Advent. This Sunday is called "Gaudete" Sunday, meaning "Rejoice," after the theme of the First and Second Readings. The liturgical colour today is rose, a rare sight indeed in our liturgy. The liturgical sense is to capture the "spirit of joy that heralds the coming of Jesus.
In the year of Mark's Gospel we return to John the Baptist. But Mark is brief about the Baptist and all that he writes was considered last week. The liturgy today gives us two parts of the first chapter of John, the great prologue.
"A man came sent by God, his name was John." After John introduces the "word made flesh" eternal and consubstantial, John introduces us to the Baptist. "He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him." John, in his Gospel, speaks much about the Baptist. He is at great pains to show that John was not the light. John still had great numbers of followers at that time and a few even till today. John is questioned about his identity and proclaims: "I am, as Isaiah prophesied, a voice that cries in the wilderness: 'make a straight way for the Lord'."
This passage is shortened considerably. There are eleven verses missing! One section has John proclaiming that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

2nd Sunday of Advent

3/12/2020

Mark Introduces Jesus
We begin today our study of the Gospel of Mark. We start at chapter one, verse one. Mark is the first of the Gospels chronologically, and he introduces us to Jesus: "the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God." This phrase we will see again at the Baptism of Jesus and Tabor and Calvary. The climax in Mark's Gospel is the Centurion who proclaims "this is truly the Son of God."
John the Baptist is introduced to us by Mark. Mark quotes from Isaiah and Malachi. A messenger is to come to prepare the way. In the Gospel, the messenger is the Baptist, Jesus is the coming of God... "the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord."
The credentials of John are clearly established from the Old Testament. Mark now introduces John's teaching. John is a preacher. John's message is repentance, the very message that Jesus will take up and will be preached by his disciples. John and Jesus and his disciples are related in that they all preach repentance. The whole reference to John as the one who preaches to prepare for the coming of God is focused on Jesus when John points to the One who is stronger than he, who works out of the Spirit of God.
John lived in the wilderness. This is in contrast to his parents who lived in the hill country of Galilee. He left the soft life for the barren lands. He lived off the land. His penitential life was well known. Later the Pharisees were to challenge Jesus about this!!!
John is only the messenger. He always pointed to the One who is to come "who will baptise you with the Holy Spirit."

John the Baptist in the Scriptures
Called "the Baptist," this John was born when Zechariah and Elizabeth, his parents, were already old. Hid mother was a relative of Mary, Jesus' mother, making john a cousin of Jesus. Although descended from long lines of priests through both his mother and father, John the Baptist followed the role of the prophet, retreating into the desert (perhaps in response to the death of his aged parents), reflecting on the unfaithfulness of his people, and emerging to preach a compelling message of repentance. He probably had some associations with the Essene community; in any case John, like the Essenes, was ascetic and insisted upon self-immersion to signify cleansing from sin. His manner reminded everyone of the earlier prophets, and stirred the population deeply. Most startling, however, was his announcement that God's message was about to come, and that the hour of judgement was upon the people. Another was to follow him, John announced, who would bring in the new era. John was particularly harsh on the religious authorities for their failure to repent. Great crowds were baptised in the Jordan, among them Jesus. It was not until later, however, that John understood that Jesus was the promised deliverer. He continued his stern preaching until he was arrested by Herod Antipas for daring to denounce the scandalous royal marriage. John the Baptist was beheaded by Antipas, but his influence survived for years. Some of his followers joined Jesus; others continued to revere him. he was the last of the prophets and the forerunner of the Saviour, and, according to Jesus; the greatest man born to woman.

The Parable of the Talents

12/11/2020

Some explanations: The word "talent" is used by us to mean giftedness. At the time of the Gospels it meant a coin of considerable value. Our modern-day usage helps us to understand the parable. The parable is about the wise use of our gifts for the glory of God and how we will be blessed by God for furthering the kingdom with even more gifts.
The parable is not about wasting our talents or our gifts. In all cases it is a given that nothing is wasted. Each of the gifted servants has at least managed to preserve all of his money. Nothing is wasted. The parable is about investing a talent for the benefit of the giver i.e. God. There are rewards and there are punishments.
We are each given different gifts. One servant is given five, another two, another one. Different gifts are given to different people as God chooses. We know that to waste a gift would be to offend the giver. But here, the parable is teaching us "that to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough: but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
If you don't use it you will lose it!!!
The kingdom of God is like this! We remember that the kingdom of God in Matthew's parables means the Church. The punch line is about using gifts. The more we use them, the more God is glorified and the more we are given. If we keep them for ourselves and don't use them for the Body of Christ there will be no reward, indeed there will be a dreadful accounting.
This is the second last of the parables in Matthew for 2020. Next Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King and the great parable of Matthew 25 - the Last Judgement. Then it will be Advent and Mark's Gospel for 2021.

The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids

6/11/2020

We begin the last chapter in Matthew before the Passion narrative. There will be three parables. Today is the first of those.
Remember the parable about the Ten Bridesmaids are invited to a wedding. Five are wise and five are foolish. the bridegroom is late and they fall asleep. The oil runs out. The wise ones have an extra supply of oil. They get into the wedding. The other five are locked out!
This is a good example of looking for the moral of the story in the parable. It is not about the selfishness of the five who are well prepared and do not wish to share. Details do not matter in a parable. It is about the punch line: "stay awake for you do not know the day nor the hour."
Matthew's Gospel is in the last week of Jesus' life on earth. He is constantly calling his disciples to be ready. We have to be prepared for the bridegroom. We do not know the day nor the hour. We are called to wait. This is the same story as those invited to the King's son's wedding. The bridesmaids are invited as special guests. They are expected to be there.
This is precisely Jesus' own situation. He will be called to make a commitment, to face a certain death for teaching God's word. we are called to do the same. The comparison must not be missed.
One comnmentator says: "What is thought provoking is that Jesus presents the choice in terms of a joyous and light-filled celebration - a wedding feast - not the threat of an unfair trial and execution."

The Sermon on the Mount

29/10/2020

A very frequent question to me is: "What does 'poor in spirit' mean?"
The Beatitudes are part of the three chapter long 'Sermon on the Mount' in the Gospel of Matthew. The sermon is a collection of the moral teaching of Jesus.
the sermon is not addressed to the crowds. It is directed to the disciples. Jesus is the Rabbi. "He sat down." Rabbi's sat down to teach!
The word 'Blessed' is sometimes translated as 'Happy'. Also note that Jesus does not each in any negative way. There are no "Thou shalt nots." His instructions are fulfilling the Old Law. "I did not come to destroy but to fulfil." All of the Old Law is in the Beatitudes.
By going up the mountain as Moses went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, Jesus is shown as the new Lawgiver. What is this new Law?
"Blessed are the poor in Spirit." The first commandment in the Old Law is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind. Poverty in Spirit is to have no material thing more important than the Lord. The Spiritual is more important than the material. God is more important than our family or our wealth or anything else. This will be further explained with the verse: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice and all these things will be added."
A good paraphrase of the verse could be: If you want to be happy, put God absolutely first. The kingdom of heaven is already yours.
I repeat. This message was to those who came up the mountain to be taught by Jesus. It is not my job to explain the message. It is the evangelist's job to get people to leave the crowd and come up the mountain!! Jesus is the teacher.
We can never be totally poor in Spirit in this world. But we can aim to be. We will be poor in Spirit in eternity. The Beatitudes are not commandments. They are ideals of happiness promised by Jesus to disciples. We will reach them in heaven. In the meantime, we can be canonised for trying.

Three More Parables

24/7/2020

Today we have three short parables – a treasure hidden in the field, a merchant finding a pearl and a net cast into the sea. All of them are descriptions of the Kingdom of God. We saw last week that this means the Church.
As before, the parables are very simple. They are taught in the outdoors to big crowds. The message is for those who have ears to hear.
Working from the last to the first, the net cast into the sea explains an aspect of the church that we are very familiar with. The church is full of good fish, but it also can contain bad fish. Jesus’ warning in the Parable is simply this: it is not our work to sort out the good from the bad. It is the job of the Fisherman, the Lord. The punch line of the parable is simply: do not judge others. Mind your own business.
The merchant who finds a pearl of great price is clearly Jesus Christ who paid a great price for the church, the people of God. He has given his life on the Cross.
Again, the treasure hidden in the field is an image of the Church. What we said about the pearl also applies here.
Parables are simple, but they can be applied many ways. For example, each one of us is the treasure hidden in the field or the pearl of great price. A great price has been paid for me. This is my Salvation History. I am redeemed, paid for by the precious Blood of Jesus. I am priceless!
The parables are simple but profound. They are meant to bring us to commitment. A good story teller will bring stories from the storeroom, both new and old. This is how a scribe becomes a disciple.
The Kingdom of God is the Church. The Church has good people and not so good. The Church is priceless in the eyes of its owner-a pearl of great price. It has small beginnings with many problems as it grows, but grow it will.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

16/7/2020

The harvest is the Lord's. It is not our business. He will deal with it at harvest time. Keep sowing the seed.
A few thoughts on the mustard seed. It is the yellow one in the canary seed packet. It is very small, but it is not the smallest. The seed for the Sequoia, for example, is smaller. In Jewish Law, the mustard seed was the example of smallness when considering ritual impurity from bleeding. If you cut yourself shaving, for example, the cut had to be larger than a mustard seed to be ritually unclean. This gives rise to modern English Law that "the Law doesn't matter about little things."
The Parable simply means that great things have small beginnings and will meet opposition.

The Transfiguration of the Lord

2/3/2020

This miracle is always the scripture reading for the Second Sunday of Lent each year. Seemingly the Liturgy wishes to give life to any depressive memories that might be left over from last week's temptation stories! This is a promise of glory.
This Gospel will remind us of other Gospel stories. Firstly "This is my Son, the Chosen One," relates easily to the words at the Baptism of the Lord. They also answer the evil one's triple question: "If you are the Son of God...?" There are other occasions when Peter and James and John are singled out. Notably we remember the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus' prayer and agony.
this miracle is a special manifestation of the divinity of Jesus. It is in the order of a special miracle, a special grace for three people. It is in the order of a private audience granted as a special favour to special individuals for reasons that we can only imagine, but we can ponder in deep meditation.
This miracle is different. It is not abut healing nor deliverance, about sickness nor health. There are no petitioners. There are no crowds. Peter and James and John are taken by Jesus and led by him to be alone. They are given a private audience and they see the glory of God shining on the face of Jesus. They witness echoes of God revealing himself as thunder and lightning and storm. They are linked with the great figures of the Old Testament like Moses and Elijah. They hear the voice of the Father anointing Jesus as Son, the Beloved - listen to him. No wonder they kept silent.
We know from the second letter of Peter that the apostles remembered this encounter all their lives. (2 Peter 1:18) "We beheld the splendour of God shining on the face of Jesus."
We all have religious experience of one kind or another. I believe this Gospel is meant to encourage us to remember and share our experience of the glory of God. It is a special grace given or a future need. It is one thing to be in awe of the glory, it is another to tackle the day to day effort of living. I believe Peter and James and John were given special graces to help them in future difficulties. We remember again the teaching of Jesus that his gifts are not prizes for our virtue, but presents from his love.

The Lenten Journey

28/2/2020

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
This is a very important phase in the journey of Jesus. The context is just after the baptism of the Lord in the Jordan by John the Baptist. Jesus was filled with the Spirit and he is now led by the Spirit. Where does the Spirit of God lead him? Into the desert.
I would like to stay on this point for a while. What does the word desert mean in the Scripture? The desert experience of the Chosen people was a very well-know salvation history story for Matthew's community. They knew the story of their liberation from Pharaoh in Egypt and the 40 years of the travels in the desert. Their desert experience was one of being led by God through the Red Sea, being protected from Pharaoh, being fed by the Lord with manna and water from the rock for 40 years. It was a time of learning to depend totally on God, a time of waiting for the promise of the land of milk and honey.
Matthew's community understands that the Spirit of God leads Jesus into a good place. The desert is a safe place. It is a testing place. It is a learning space. Jesus will learn to depend entirely on God. He will be tested. Prayer and the word of God from the Scriptures will strengthen him.
We are living in the desert. 40 years or days is symbolic of the time between our Baptism when we were set free from darkness and our arrival in the Promised Land. Now is the desert time. Now is the time of testing. Now is the time to learn how to depend on God for everything.
The desert is a good experience for the Christian. It is better than it was (darkness). It is not as good as it is going to be (eternal happiness). If we learn to put all our trust in God, we will be like Jesus.

The New Law of Jesus (2)

20/2/2020

It is important to answer three questions in the teaching of Jesus. When Jesus says: "You have heard that it was said to those of old," I need to ask who said that in olden times? The first question is: Who said, "Thou shalt not kill"? The answer is - God said that. The second question is: Who said "Thou shalt not commit adultery"? The answer is the same. God said that. The third question is: Who said: "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"? The whole meaning of the passage is that God said that!! (cf Ex 21:14) When people were fighting and their resentment and wish for revenge was out of control, God tried to placate them by setting limits. If they poke you in the eye, do not go and blow up the village. Just an eye for an eye! Jesus is now making new rules. On the mountain of the Beatitudes, Jesus is claiming the authority of God.
This is important to illustrate that Jesus is proclaiming a New Law that does not destroy the old Law but fulfills it. The New Law is not about revenge and getting square. The New Law is about love. Jesus legislates for loving our enemies. All of the Commandments are in the Beatitudes, and very much more.
Let us look at the last verse. You must therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. This is a big clue to the Sermon on the Mount. To be as perfect as the heavenly Father is surely an impossibility. To be poor in spirit, pure in heart, love the enemy are likewise impossible dreams for any of us. We will always be short of that. But the Law of the New Covenant is that we should aim for that. We are promised the Holy Spirit's help. We will be canonised for trying.
You can keep the Ten Commandments by will power on a good day! You can never live the Beatitudes without the grace of God!! You will live them fully in heaven.

About Our Lady of the Rosary

Since its inception in 1947 the parish has grown and today boasts one of the most beautiful and prayerful Churches in our Diocese. Substantially designed by Fr Reg Reynolds, the parish church caters for the permanent Catholic population as well as the many visitors who holiday here.

Site designed by Lisa O'Sullivan

Our Location

Our Lady of the Rosary Parish
239-243 The Entrance Rd
THE ENTRANCE NSW 2261
T: +61-2-4332 2216
F: +61-2-4333 5344