Posted on by atfurse

Sexagesima 2025

The majority of human civilisations, religions, and philosophies champion some version of the phrase ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. This doctrine is known as The Golden Rule, and it is good advice. If we want other people to be nice to us, then being nice to them is a good place to start. However, is it enough? No, not as far as Our Lord is concerned. He calls us to something deeper, something more radical, and more world-changing.

‘Meddai’r Iesu wrth ei ddisgyblion, “Ond wrthych chwi sy’n gwrando rwy’n dweud: carwch eich gelynion, gwnewch ddaioni i’r rhai sy’n eich casáu, bendithiwch y rhai sy’n eich melltithio, gweddïwch dros y rhai sy’n eich cam-drin.”’

‘Jesus said to his disciples, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”’ (Lk 6:27-28)

At the heart of Christianity is an idea: love your enemies. To love one’s enemies seems completely counter-intuitive. Our enemies often want to harm us. Naturally, we want to resist them, even crush them. But instead we are told to love them! We do this because love is at the heart of the Gospel. God loves us and God is born as one of us in order to transform each and every one of us, by His Grace. Jesus dies on the Cross for love of us, that we might be healed and reconciled with God. Love wills the good of another, and has the power to end conflict. This is what Jesus shows us. He bridges the gulf between God and humanity by dying for us. As Christians we are called to follow Christ’s example and put His love into practice in our lives. Jesus asks us to follow His example, living lives which are radically distinct from the ways of the world.

Just as Jesus calls us to live differently and provides us with an example of how to put the theory into practice, He also teaches us what God expects of us in terms of generous love:

‘Pan fydd rhywun yn dy daro di ar dy foch, cynigia’r llall iddo hefyd; pan fydd un yn cymryd dy fantell, paid â’i rwystro rhag cymryd dy grys hefyd. Rho i bawb sy’n gofyn gennyt, ac os bydd rhywun yn cymryd dy eiddo, paid â gofyn amdano’n ôl. Fel y dymunwch i eraill wneud i chwi, gwnewch chwithau yr un fath iddynt hwy’

‘To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.’ (Lk 6:29-31)

The generosity Jesus expects of His followers is exacting. We are told not to react to violence with violence, to give away what we have, and also to follow the Golden Rule, treating others as we would wish to be treated. 

The world around us is not very good at forgiveness, or turning the other cheek. It prefers to write people off than to admit the possibility of change: that’s how someone is, and that’s how they are going to stay. In showing forgiveness and generosity we recognise the fact that we too are human, that we too are flawed, and that we too make mistakes. Change is possible; things do not have to stay the same. People tend to love those who love them back, and hate those who hate them. The point is to also show love to those who do not love us, so that they become lovely to us, and loveable in themselves. Only love can transform something filled with hate and anger. Love and generosity are how God in Christ shows humanity how to live. Jesus’ life and death demonstrate what love in action means.

Jesus then reiterates His teaching to His disciples:

‘Nage, carwch eich gelynion a gwnewch ddaioni a rhowch fenthyg heb ddisgwyl dim yn ôl. Bydd eich gwobr yn fawr a byddwch yn blant y Goruchaf, oherwydd y mae ef yn garedig wrth yr anniolchgar a’r drygionus. Byddwch yn drugarog fel y mae eich Tad yn drugarog.’

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Lk 6:35-36)

There is a paradoxical quality to what Jesus demands of us. We are to expect nothing, and yet we are told that we will receive everything. God’s love and mercy are to be experienced rather than understood. We can be merciful because God has shown us mercy, and continues so to do. The transforming power of God’s love and mercy is shown fully in the Mystery of the Eucharist, where we are fed by God and fed with God, so that His Love might transform us. This is God’s generosity, shown to us so that we might be generous in return. Through this generosity we have the opportunity to live in a different way, and encourage others to do the same. Jesus offers the world a way out of selfishness and sin, a chance to be God’s people living life in all its fulness.

As well as being non-violent and generous, Christ calls us to be non-judgemental:

“Peidiwch â barnu, ac ni chewch eich barnu. Peidiwch â chondemnio, ac ni chewch eich condemnio. Maddeuwch, ac fe faddeuir i chwi. Rhowch, ac fe roir i chwi; rhoir yn eich côl fesur da, wedi ei wasgu i lawr a’i ysgwyd ynghyd nes gorlifo; oherwydd â’r mesur y rhowch y rhoir i chwi yn ôl.”

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Lk 6:37-38)

If we want God to be loving and merciful towards us, then we need to demonstrate in our lives that we are living the way God wants us to live. What Jesus proposes is something costly and difficult, which requires us to go against the human instincts which lead us to be selfish, judgmental and unkind. But if we all try to follow this teaching together we will be built up as a community of loving generosity,making the Kingdom a reality here and now.

Each of us, on our own, is not able to do this. Even as a Christian community we will struggle. But if we trust God to be at work in us, with His Grace perfecting our nature, then it becomes a possibility. God asks the impossible of us, not so that we will fail, but so that we rely entirely upon our Creator and Sustainer to bring this miracle to pass. 

When we rely upon God together then we can be built up in love, as living stones, a temple to God’s glory. We proclaim God’s love and truth to the world, through forgiveness and sacrificial love. Clothed in the humility of our knowledge of our need of God’s love and mercy, let us come to Him. Let us be fed by Him, be fed with Him. Let us be healed and restored by Him, so that we can live lives which speak of the power of His kingdom. So that the world may believe and give glory i Duw Dad, Duw y Mab, a Duw yr Ysbryd Glân. I’r hwn y priodoler pob gogoniant, arglwyddiaeth, a gallu, yn awr, ac yn oes oesoedd. Amen.

Posted on by atfurse

Trinity XIX

When I was studying for my PhD, I was expected to gain experience in giving papers at conferences. After you have given a conference talk, there is a time for the audience to ask questions. What you quickly learn is that some people take a particular delight in posing the most difficult questions. It is the same in all areas of life, and it isn’t much fun answering this line of enquiry. Jesus is constantly running up against people who ask difficult questions. The Pharisees, experts on Jewish religious law, seem to take a particular delight in asking awkward things. They try to catch Our Lord out, to undermine His teaching and credibility. However, they are unable to do so.

In the Gospel today, Jesus and His Disciples are stopped by legal experts, who ask Him a tricky question:

‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’

‘oedd ym gyfreithlon i ddyn ysgaru ei wraig’ (Mk 10:2)

Our Lord answers their question with another:

‘What did Moses command you?’

‘Beth a orchmynnodd Moses i chwi?’ (Mk 10:3)

His strategy is a sensible one. They have asked if divorce is lawful, so Jesus refers them to Moses, the giver of the Jewish law. The Pharisees reply that Moses allowed divorce, whereupon Christ proceeds to explain the law to them. He contrasts the present situation with that established by God in the Creation. Marriage is a loving and faithful union which unites two people so they become one flesh. The concept of marriage is used throughout the Old Testament to describe the relationship between God and Israel. 

Later on Jesus’ disciples ask Him about divorce. In His reply Jesus calls marriage after divorce adultery. This represents a strengthening of the position, and has been understood as forbidding what had been previously allowed. What we are dealing with here is an ideal position, which humanity often fails to live up to. Sometimes Our Lord’s teachings are hard. The perfection that God expects of us can appear unattainable. However, this needs to be balanced by the fact that God is a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness. Christianity is a religion of love which recognises that people’s lives are often far from perfect.

Some time later people bring their children for Jesus to bless them. The disciples are unhappy about this and tell the people off. It has been a busy time and they are concerned that Our Lord is tired. Christ, however, rebukes them:

“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

“Gadewch i’r plant ddod ataf fi; peidiwch â’u rhwystro, oherwydd i rai fel hwy y mae ternas Dduw yn perthyn. Yn wir, ‘rwy’n dweud wrthych, pwy bynnag nad yw’n derbyn teyrnas Dduw yn null plentyn, nid â byth i mewn iddi” (Mk 10:14-15)

Jesus uses the children to make an important point. If we want to enter the Kingdom of God we have to be like children — simple, trusting, humble, unself-conscious, and dependant on others for our well-being. Our salvation, God’s grace, is a gift which we have to accept. We do not work for it, or earn it. By trying to stop the children coming for a blessing the disciples have overstepped the mark. So Jesus points out that we are all called to be joyful. Children play because it is fun and they love it. For youngsters, play is a serious business, done for its own sake, and no other. The same can be said about worship.

God does not need our praise. Worship is something that we need to do. Christians engage in prayer and worship not to change God, but to change ourselves: so that we might grow and develop, in the same way that children do. We come as children of God to be fed by God, so that we might grow into His likeness. This is the Kingdom, here and now, and we come in childish simplicity to be with God and each other, to learn, to pray, and to be nourished. This is what life is really about. This is what really matters.

That is why today we also hear the account of the Creation of humanity in the second chapter of Genesis. God knows that it is not good for people to be alone. Humanity is made for relationship: male and female, different and equal, made in the image and likeness of God, made for family. There is no greater kinship than the Church, where we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a relationship which extends through space and time, and includes both the living and the dead. The Church family is united in faith, and hope, and love, fed with the bread of Heaven — God’s very self.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we are loved by God, who longs for us to have life in all its fulness. Let us celebrate being members of the family that is the Kingdom, united with God and each other. Let us live lives of compassion and forgiveness, so that we attract others to know, and love, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To whom be ascribed all glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.

James Tissot: Suffer the little children to come unto me [Brooklyn Museum]