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The universality of salvation: God invites us all
(Is 66:18-21; Luke 13:22-30)
21st Sunday, Ordinary Time, August 29th 2010, Year C

The great topic of the readings of today is: ”Who will be saved?” For the people of Israel, it had been clear that they will be saved. And they alone. With the prophet Isaiah, this narrow thinking was broken up: all peoples are called to be near to God, not only the people of Israel (Isaiah 66:18-21).
This was revolutionary. God is now presented as a God who does not know, who does not accept borders or frontiers. The message is: God is the God of all races, of all nations, of all men and women on this earth. And God wants to save them all, wants to be near to all of them.
Revolutionary. We can imagine that Isaiah’s message was not welcomed by many of his fellow Israelites. The reading says that many Jews are brought back to Yahweh by pagans, by people not of Jewish origin. This might have been humiliating for a pious Jew of that time; it was a kind of blasphemy. But Isaiah insists: God will choose priests and Levites among those non-Jews.
This is what we call now the universality of our salvation – and this universality had not been well accepted by all Jews at the time of Isaiah. And it had not been accepted by the first Christians in the first centuries. And this universality is still not accepted by many in our church of today.
The universality of salvation: God invites us all. God takes the initiative and sends messengers. He calls priests and Levites from among the non-Jews, from among all nations. Full of enthusiasm Isaiah writes that “all” nations, “all” peoples turn to God.
This is his vision, a vision that might frighten so many that need rules and laws and interdictions to control the access to God, to control who is worthy to approach God and be near to him.
And here we reach today’s Gospel (Luke 13:22-30) with its question: “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” Jesus explains who can trust in God’s salvation. Not those who say: We have an automatic right to be saved because we know you and your message and we never doubted. We are Christians. Not those who say: Abraham is our father, so we have an automatic right to be saved. Not those who say in later centuries: I have a right to be saved because I am baptized and because I did not resign from the Church and because I follow the laws of the Church.
No, these people have no automatic right to trust in God’s salvation. So: who can trust in God’s salvation?
It depends upon our very personal way of answering God’s invitation – with all our weaknesses, with all our failures and errors. Weakness, failure, error are not problems for Jesus or for God. We always have the chance of a new beginning; we always can turn to God anew, every day, every hour.
Jesus does not condemn anyone; God does not condemn anyone who turns to him. Jesus, God loves those who are aware of their weaknesses, who make the best of living with their weaknesses and who hand themselves over to the love and the nearness of God.
Jesus is a friend of those who ask for God’s will, who try to find out what project God might have for them in their lives, who want to discover their talents and try to put them at the service of all. These men and women thus get to know God better, and they get to know themselves better.
So this is the message of today’s readings for me: God is a God for all human beings, he loves all human beings, a God who takes the initiative. And we are invited to react, we are invited to become his partners – not in an error-free way, in a way without sinning, without failure. No, we are invited to react so that we really wish to live not separate from God but associated with God. Then we are among those described by Isaiah. We become persons who approach God and who even take others with them on their common way towards God and towards his infinite love. Maybe this is the most beautiful gift we can offer God: take others with us on the way to God and his love no matter who they are.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

Vigilance: “Trust life because God lives it with us”
19th Sunday, Ordinary Time, Year C

I would like to follow the three readings we just heard with you again under the topic of “vigilance”.
The first reading from the book of wisdom (Wisdom 18 6-9) says that those who are vigilant, who are attentive, see much more than those who just stick to what they see right in front of them. Those who are attentive, do not only live in the present moment, but they open their horizon, they anticipate things that are unlikely, extraordinary, surprising – and they are open to the fact that God might surprise them. This is our story: because Israel recalls God’s history with His people, Israel finds courage for the future. God’s people counts on God’s fidelity, they build their future on this fidelity in spite of present difficulties. Because Israel is attentive also to their past, they also see God’s presence in their suffering, they know that God will never break His promises. They know that God has chosen them and that God will never cancel or withdraw this choice.
The second reading is from the letter to the Hebrews (Hebr 18 1-2 8-12). Who is vigilant, who is attentive, has the courage to leave things behind, to begin a new adventure. This is the content of the story of Abraham: Abraham listens to God’s call, he is attentive to this call, to the new horizons it opens. Even if these horizons may be risky, even if Abraham does not know the outcome of this endeavor – he is still willing to do the first step and start something new. In Abraham’s story we see that faith means “to be on the way”, to be on the way with a promise, with a vision, with a new horizon. Abraham takes God at his word and God commits Himself to Abraham and his future.
Abraham gives up his security; he sets out for a new country, a country he does not know. Many of us here are Ex-Pats, Expatriates who left their country for some time or for good in order to live and work away from their native town or country. So we somehow know what was at work in Abraham. Abraham trusts in God’s live-giving power – in Abraham’s case this means that he shall not die without children. God offers the gift of life – in a very literal sense in the case of Abraham. This is the definition of faith in the letter to the Hebrews: “to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see” (Hebr 11 1).
Vigilance, attentiveness develops a feeling for God, for the persons around us, for ourselves. This is what today’s gospel (Luke 12 35-40) is about. To be open and attentive to God and to the persons around us creates community - a community that cannot be destroyed. When I am attentive and vigilant, then I see the chances and possibilities my life offers to me. I can see the chances to change my life – I can accept these changes because I have this profound trust in life because God lives it with us.
“Trust life because God lives it with us” – it is Alfred Delp, a fellow Jesuit, who wrote this in a Nazi prison here in Berlin in 1944. Or more precisely: “Let us trust life, since we do not have to live it alone, for God lives it with us.”
This is what I read in the three readings – an invitation to be vigilant, to be attentive in our lives, then we can see new chances, we can see God at work, and then we can “trust life because God lives it with us”.
“Let us trust life, since we do not have to live it alone, for God lives it with us.”

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

Calm down and be merry
18th Sunday, Ordinary Time, Year C, Luke 12:13-21

We just heard in the gospel how Jesus told a parable: "A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. And he said to himself: What should I do? I have not room enough to store all the harvest.” Jesus does not tell us what the people say in this village, he does not tell the rumors about this rich man. No, Jesus listens to this man.
The rich man calculates and decides to build a new barn. Economically, this is the right decision. But then Jesus gives an insight into the man’s innermost feelings, the man says to himself: Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!'
This is touching – isn’t this something we all wish – after hard labor, after many deceptions and failures: Sit down, eat, drink and be merry… In Jesus’ point of view this insight may have come a bit too late for the rich man: the rich man had calculated for too long, he had lived for his numbers and his business and his planning for too long.
That is why Jesus has God say: “You fool! You will die this very night”.
“Take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” - I say that this insight, this wish, this vision has come too late for the rich man. Wouldn’t it be a good idea just to do NOW what the rich man says: “Take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”
We do live with good and bad experiences, we do suffer from failures and losses, we do encounter difficulties in our lives – this is true. But couldn’t we take the time to enjoy our lives – now, during the holidays this should not be too difficult. And during the year we may take some evenings just to enjoy our lives, to relax, to be with others, to leave the problems of our daily lives behind, take a new breath, make a new beginning. Just take time to be human beings.
Thus what is said in the letter to the Philippians (4,7) may become true for us: Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (New American Bible)
or, in a different translation: If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus (New Living Translation).

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

Martha and Mary within us
16th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year C, Luke 10:38–42

Martha and Mary – we know this bible passage – and it often causes indignation and resentment because of the apparent injustice Martha has to endure. How can Jesus dare to question her work and effort? Martha means it well with Jesus – just as we mean it well with the persons for whom we care, the persons that are entrusted to us. Martha is so occupied with caring for Jesus that she does not even think of asking Jesus if he needs her care. She does not ask if what she does corresponds to what Jesus needs.
Do we not also take care of others, plan for others, decide for others, act for others without asking them? It is tempting to think you know what others need. This reduces the other to what we assess him or her. In the centre of the action is the one who helps, while the other becomes an object of a “good deed”. The other is degraded to an object.
This should not be the case. Before doing something for someone, I must perceive the other person and his or her needs. I must perceive this beyond all expectations I have and beyond all selfish interests I have. True love of neighbor does not impose good deeds on someone – good deeds that might be unsuitable or inappropriate. So if we depend upon the appreciation of our work – then something is wrong. If we do a good deed and we wait for a positive reaction – then something is wrong. Because then the good deed only reflects my own needs, and I do not act in order to help others for themselves.
Martha is a good example for this: "Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." For Martha it is absolutely clear: who works a lot is right – and she wants Jesus to confirm this.
But Jesus acts differently: He proves the other sister right, Mary who just sits and listens. He says: “There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it - and I won't take it away from her." So Jesus invites us to look at life from a different perspective.
Martha and Mary – aren’t they two sides within all of us? Both are necessary, none of them is more important than the other. Mary without Martha – this would be pious circling around ourselves without seeing the needs of the world around us. Martha without Mary – this would be actionism: you have to prove yourself by working and by doing and by achieving. Here love of neighbor may easily miss its point of putting the other in the centre.
Maybe in most of us, Martha is better developed – the need to do something you can present is very strong. When we try to be silent, try just to sit, just to listen what God wants to say, what our life wants to say, what others want to say then there is this voice saying: “Wouldn’t it be better to do the most urgent things, to carry out more important things, to take care of this and that? Don’t sit around doing nothing!”
We are in summer, most of us have holidays – wouldn’t this be a good time to act a bit like Mary, to sit down, to listen, to see the world around us, to get in touch with ourselves, in touch with those we love? To be silent. Maybe we shall encounter resistance within us, we shall encounter an emptiness, an inner restlessness… Restlessness and resistances are important. They show that there is so much that comes between us and Jesus. They show that the balance between Martha and Mary within us is not in place. Restlessness and resistances show us that we might change our ways, that we might give our lives a different orientation. And I assure you that you may well enjoy some moments of deep inner calmness and peace.
In these moments you may experience the deep truth of our story: It is enough to be before God and to let him look at us. We do not need to do anything to deserve God’s love – God’s love is just there – because God loved us into life.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

The human being always comes first
15th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year C, Luke 10:25-37

We all know this story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus invents this story to tell something very profound to his listeners. What is it about?
The starting point is the question of the expert in religious law: "Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?" The expert gives an answer that we all know: “You must love the Lord your God and you must love your neighbor as yourself.”
To us, this is not surprising, but for the colleagues of this expert in the time of Jesus this was extraordinary. Luke makes the man say that there is a link between love of God and love of neighbor. This was not linked for the pious Jews at that time – love of God and love of neighbor were independent from each other. Luke makes the man say this so as to show the new point of view of Jesus: the human person is in the center, the human person is the place where you meet God because God himself became one of us.
Luke wants us no longer to look into the skies, but to look at our world as it is. Luke says: Jesus wants you to find God not only in the temple, in the cult, but to find God in your neighbor, in other human beings. This is where you find your God!
Luke illustrates this somewhat idealistic idea by the story of the man who fell among the robbers. This story is a kind of program for a Christian life as it should be. And it is a pure provocation for the listeners of Luke’s gospel.
Luke presents three persons – they all show their attitude towards other human beings. They show their attitude towards people in need by their action. Two of them in a way that makes us shiver – they turn away.
The message of Jesus is clear: If you are looking for God honestly, if you want to love God, you can never avoid the human person besides you. For Jesus, the love of neighbor is at least as important as the law-abidance the pious Jews proclaimed. Certainly, we know that Jesus does have clear ideas about the relation to God, what we are supposed to do and to avoid.
But the human being always comes first. This is the point of the story of the Good Samaritan. The relation to God for a Christian can only succeed via the human person. And this has marked the Christian culture. This is the measure for our message. Our credibility as the Church of Jesus depends upon it.
There must not be any prejudices towards the human beings in this world from the side of the Church. There must not be any fear of contact with the human beings of our world. The Church needs to meet people at eye level.
The Church often pretends to know the people of our time thoroughly because the Church pretends to have eternal truths about humanity. This is not enough. Humanity develops, our society develops, our knowledge develops – so the Church needs to be in contact with the world in order to get to know it. The message of Jesus needs to have something to do with the people of our time. The liturgy we celebrate needs to have something to do with the life of the people.
I am happy that here in All Saints we have a structure that allows so much participation, that allows all of us to get together and celebrate together – here in the church, but also in the community hall.
This is what I read in today’s gospel: Jesus puts the human being in the centre of our faith. And: We need to open our eyes to the needs of others; they are the privileged way to God for us.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

Jesus meets people differently
13th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year C, Luke 9:51-62

I like it when Jesus meets people. In the second part of our Gospel, Jesus meets three persons – very different persons.

Let us have a look at the text: the first one says. “I will follow you wherever you go.” This person, a man or a woman, is enthusiastic about Jesus. He or she wants to give everything to follow Jesus. The second person says: “Let me go first and bury my father”. Jesus actively asks this person, but this person is clinging to everything he or she experiences as normal, as unquestionable. And he or she is prepared to protect this “comfort zone” where nothing should come and disturb, there is no room for surprises. This is the meaning of the word Jesus says: “Let the dead bury their dead” – there is no life without leaving behind things you are used to, there is no life without risking something. And the third person says: “I will follow you, but first let me say farewell to my family at home”. This is someone who hesitates, who thinks about everything in depth and who wants to keep everything in his or her hand.

Three very different persons. Do you recognize yourselves in one of these? The reaction of Jesus is different for everyone of the three, the reaction of Jesus is always very personal.

Remember the first one – the enthusiast. Jesus brings this person back to reality. Living and wandering with Jesus, proclaim his good news, is not easy, to follow Jesus is not always only happiness. And Jesus is realist enough to make this clear to those who have a wrong idea of what it means to be on Jesus’ side. Now remember the second one – the one who clings to his “comfort zone”, who tries to avoid surprises and hates risks. Here Jesus encourages to take the chance of the moment, to accept the invitation Jesus offers. And the third one – the one who hesitates. Jesus challenges this person directly. “Don’t look back. Go your way with me, now!”

Jesus would talk to each of us here in a similar way. Did I say “Jesus WOULD” do this? I should say: “Jesus talks to each of us here in a similar way.” This is my conviction – for Jesus we are partners, we are friends, he talks to us, we have a name and Jesus knows all our names – and he invites us to be his friends. Let us keep some silence and ask ourselves: Who am I in the eyes of Jesus, what would he tell me, what does he tell me now? Can I trust him, do I want to trust him? Am I sure that Jesus is my friend?

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Galatians 3:26-29
Year C - June 20, 2010

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité" - Liberty, equality, fraternity: this was the motto of the French Revolution in 1789. These terms depend upon each other. The concept of equality is the fruit of the period of Enlightenment, but it has its roots also in the Bible. In the letter to the Galatians we just heard, Paul speaks about equality: “There are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus“. Something new had come into being: the common faith and the life in one christian community was meant to abolish hierarchical orders. Each and every one in this community is wished and created by God. All have the same dignity before God.

We Christians are convinced that God is a friend of life and that God wants the happiness of all. All are invited to reach the fulfillment of our lives, to become what and who each and everyone is meant to be. We are convinced that all human beings have been drawn nearer to God through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We say we are redeemed: we do not need to seek redemption ourselves, but redemption is offered to us. Paul says: “All of you are one in Christ Jesus.“ This is not something very spiritual, but something very concrete: we form the body of Christ here in our world, and we belong to this body by our baptism. We are linked to Christ, and we are also linked to each other. So within the christian community we are equal.

Does this mean that those who are not within the Church are less equal? What about Jews and the so-called pagans? It is absolutely clear that they also can reach the fulfillment of their lives. And what is true for us Christians is true also for them: they can reach the fulfillment of their lives not out of their own effort, but because God wants it, because God loves all human beings with the same love.

And the measure for us all is to be found in Matthew: “What you did to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” This is what Jesus says – independently if the action or the omission is put in a relation to Jesus.

In history, the Christian teaching on equality abstained for too long from a political claim. It concentrated on individual admonitions for living together in small communities, in families. Equality before the law was achieved only after centuries of political struggle – often against the Churches. American and french constitutional law from the 18th century led to the formulation of the equality of men and women, and to the inadmissibility of discrimination because of one's sex, one's race, one's origin, one's language, one's faith, one's sexual orientation, one's political views etc.

Now these social and political developments influence in their turn the way the Church and the faithful see themselves. The concept of equality is an example how biblical and Christian values migrate into the historical and social evolution. There they grow and mature – and there they are rediscovered one day as originally biblical and Christian. That the official Church is not immediately willing to welcome this concept of equality is a fact, a fact that makes many of us sad. But on the other hand this biblical origin of equality allows the church to address its message not only to Catholics or to Christians, but explicitly to “all men and women of good will“. "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" - liberty, equality, fraternity - let us not forget their biblical meaning and let us implement them wherever we live and work.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

Pentecost Sunday – Year C
The spirit of the Lord holds all things together (Wis 1,7)

Today, I would like to start my thoughts with the opening verse of Pentecost Sunday: “The spirit of the Lord fills the whole world. It holds all things together and knows every word said. Alleluia.”
(Wisdom 1,7)
Why do I appreciate this verse so much? The readings of today, from the Acts of the Apostles and from the gospel according to John, speak of the spirit that comes upon the apostles after Easter, they speak about the spirit that enables them to preach and to forgive sins. So the spirit in these readings is a spirit that characterizes and authorizes services and functions in the young Christian community. What I fear a bit is that we see the Spirit of God only linked to the Church and to the Christian community. And indeed, I think the church is often claiming the spirit for herself and for her functions. But isn't there also a spirit at work in our everyday life? Isn't there a guiding spirit at work in our contact with other people, in our contact with the world?
Here, in our everyday life, we do not easily speak about the spirit. We are shy. The idea of the spirit at work seems to vanish and not to be too present. But let us listen again to the entrance verse: “The spirit of the Lord fills the whole world. It holds all things together and knows every word said” (Wisdom 1,7). The Spirit of God holds all things together, so it is not limited to the realm of the Church. The Spirit fills the earth. And the Spirit can be experienced also outside of the Bible.
“All Saints” is in the building of the former US American military chaplaincy. So I thought it might be a good idea to present you a prayer I found on the internet, a prayer of the Sioux-Indians. And this prayer seems to have a long tradition with this native First Nation in the US.

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds
Whose breath gives life to the world, hear me

I come to you as one of your many children
I am small and weak
I need your strength and wisdom

Make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
And my ears sharp to your voice.

Make me wise so that I may know the things
you have taught your children.
The lessons you have written in every leaf and rock

Make me strong
Not to be superior to my brothers and sisters,
but to fight my greatest enemy....myself

I do really like this conviction that human beings cannot get along without the spirit. And this spirit is God for the Sioux-Indians. Human beings need this spirit to overcome their egoism and selfishness. You may remember that the Old Testament also speaks of the spirit as the breath of the creator, a breath the creator breathes in all creatures. “You send out your breath and life begins; you renew the face of the earth. When you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust from which they came” (Psalm 104).
Our entrance verse is from the book of wisdom. Here the Spirit of God is synonymous with the gift of wisdom: “Strongly wisdom reaches from one end of the world to the other and wisdom governs all things well” (Wisdom 8 1).
I like the book of Wisdom because it sees the spirit of God at work in all good things and in all living creatures. And with Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit, I would like to say that all creation has its aim, its sense, its meaning and is developing toward this aim, this sense, this meaning. This direction is guided by the spirit – and for me one of the most important features of this direction is communion and community. Communion and community of parents and children, of groups, of states makes us leave our egoism, makes us work for a bigger purpose than just our own comfort. Everything that divides cannot come from God.
So again: the Spirit of God is not limited to certain denominations and religions. The spirit is like the wind: “The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going“ (Joh 3,8). The wind is not something abstract, the wind, the spirit blows and touches us in our very concrete lives.
For the Sioux Indians, their tribal tradition is the teaching of the great spirit. For the Jews, the spirit of the creator is visible and audible in the law of Moses. The law of Moses represents the wisdom of the world. For us Christians, Jesus is giving us the Spirit of God. From Jesus, we receive the fulness of the Spirit. And here comes the topic of communion and community again: in the spirit of Jesus, we can attain this final communion and community, this final communion and community that encompass everything. The spirit Jesus sends us is the spirit of the creator who wants to renew his world. The creator wants to renew his world, our world. If we keep this in mind, this will also mark our every day life.
As Christians we are living “in the spirit”, we breathe his atmosphere. But this life in the Spirit is not limited to Christians. So I would like to end with the entrance verse: “The spirit of the Lord fills the whole world. It holds all things together and knows every word said. Alleluia” (Wisdom 1,7).

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

See life with the eyes of God
7th Sunday of Easter, Year C – May 16, 2010

Some of the news we have been hearing these last weeks are alarming: the oil disaster in the Golf of Mexico is beginning to have an apocalyptic extension – it threatens not only the environment, but also the livelihood of thousands of men and women living upon fishery. The planned bombing on Times Square in New York would have had devastating consequences. New York is living in fear since September eleventh 2001. Another catastrophe is the state bankruptcy in Greece – all European states, and probably the whole Western hemisphere are touched by this. Another disaster, this time for the Church, is the abuse scandal in church institutions. Probably the bigger catastrophe is the way the responsible people in the hierarchy have been and are still dealing with these cases.

So the question is: are we living “apocalypse now”, is our life a catastrophe, is it a trauma where there is no healing? Let me quote Albert Camus, a French poet. He said: “Life down here cannot be endured. I need to believe in a better world.” Do we also believe in this? Is our life here only preliminary? Is it only an allegory of the “real life” to come?

Honestly, I do not believe this.
I do believe that heaven, hell and purgatory are beginning right here in our everyday life. Just as eternity is beginning right here in our everyday life. And we are called to cope with this world here and today, it is our world, it is our given task to cope with it, to make it more humane. In today's gospel, we hear Jesus praying: “Father, I want these whom you've given me to be with me, so they can see my glory”(John 17 24). And Stephen in today's reading says: “I see the heaven open” (Acts 7 56). hen does not look backwards – behind him are the stones that kill him. He looks towards the present and the future. Or as psalm 27 says: “I am confident that I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living” (Ps 27 13).

“Nothing can separate us from the love of Lord” (Rom 8 39). We should see our life with the eyes of God, we should see it from Easter. “See life from Easter” means to receive this new life God gave Jesus, this new life God gave us. This new life makes us able to endure catastrophes, this new life gives us a peace the world does not know yet. It is a hope that the world does not yet see.

So when we are facing catastrophes and when I think about my response as a Christian, some phrases of Jesus come to my mind: “Don't be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me“ (John 14 1) or „Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But be courageous because I have overcome the world” (Joh 16 33 ) or "I know about your suffering and your poverty -- but you are rich! Don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Remain faithful, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev 2 9-10).

One day before his death, Jesus said: “You have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy” (John 16 22 ).

Maybe this is the attitude why so many Christians of different denominations came together in Munich for the Second Ecumenical Kirchentag, the big church gathering since Thursday May 13th. Its motto is “That you may have hope” (1 Peter 1 21).

Wherever we are gathered in the spirit and in the name of Jesus, his word is fulfilled: “For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them” (Mat 18 20). This is what we believe in, this is our attitude towards the world of today, this is our hope and our faith – we do not believe in apocalyptic catastrophes, but we believe that God has given us life, His life as a gift and as a task.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

4th Sunday of Easter year C (April 25, 2010) - Revelation 7:9,14b-17

…a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language...

In these weeks after Easter, the lectionary proposes readings from the book of the apocalypse, also called the Revelation of John. Maybe you got used to the very special tone of these readings. They are about prophecies and visions. Of course they are never a description of anything that happened or that will happen. They are a stylistic means to convey insights of faith, to transmit the content of faith in images and pictures. So they are neither fairy-tales nor reports, but they are impressions of things the authors hoped for, they are expressions of their teachings and of the comfort they want to bring to their readers, to their community.
In today's narrative, our author sees the heaven open, he sees the throne of Yahweh in a way common to the imagination of the oriental countries. Does this mean we have to think of God like of an oriental sultan? No, of course not, the author knows that God is everywhere and nowhere.

I found this nice pun some time ago – with the same characters you can write
God is nowhere or God is now here.

The author knows that God is invisible, is transcendental, is beyond our senses. But nevertheless he has to find words and images to say what he wants to say about God. So he speaks of a heavenly throne and he speaks of “a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language”.
So these are the elected ones. Are they only few like some pretend? For some, the number of the elected ones is 144.000. No, here we are told that it is a vast crowd too great to count. All these men and women before the throne are there because they had led a life that was worthy to be lived. They had led a life before God and before the others that was a good, a just, a humane life to its best. And they are not few, but they are too many to be counted.
And if we imagine this crowd, we see men and women from all colors, peoples, traditions, professions, social classes. And we see men and women from all religions and confessions, we see Muslims, we see Hindus and Buddhists – and we see men and women not believing in God but living a life that can be called a just, a good, a humane life.
To be present at God's throne is not limited to an exclusive club of people with the right membership book of a certain denomination or religion. God's salvation is not limited to a club of pious people with exclusive rights. In this sense, God's grace and love are catholic, they are all-embracing, all-encompassing. God calls his holy ones from all peoples, from all cultures, from all religions.

All those who are standing around God's throne in our reading have a common past. They all come “out from a great tribulation”. A great tribulation, trial, ordeal or distress. Yes, this is common to us all. The book of revelation does not only speak of the persecution of the christian faith 2000 years ago, it does not only speak of the tortures, the sufferings for the sake of faith.
No, it speaks about our own sufferings. None of us can live a life without suffering, without crises, without being menaced. None of us can live a life without illnesses, loneliness, abandon, unfaithfulness and disloyalty. Sometimes we suffer from it, sometimes we cause it. Tribulations, trial, ordeals – they help us to cope with these crises of our existence. This struggle in our lives – we all have to fight it, not only Jews and Christians, but heroes of this struggle can be found in all peoples, in all cultures, in all religions. These men and women stand before the throne of God and as a sign of their victory they carry palm branches in their hands – says the image.

Jesus has reconciled all men and women with God when he died on the cross. Not only Christians.
So all men and women are given this promise in today's reading. God will help us cope when life gets difficult, when we struggle, when we risk to be broken by the conditions in which we life. This vision of the book of revelation helps us to focus on a target – and the target is to be aware that God is waiting for us, is waiting for us in a very active manner, he is accompanying us towards his eternal communion – and he does this at any given moment of our lives.

God is nowhere – God is now here.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

Third Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2010 at All Saints:

Astronomers have identified an asteroid as heading toward
earth. Yet astrophysicists are certain that they will be able
either to destroy or to divert that asteroid with a laser beam.
Residents on the International Space Station need constant
up-dates of masses of data from general relativity and quantum
physics. Those masses of data are communicated to the
International Space Station with laser beams.
The Star Wars defense that is supposed to shield the United
States of America from incoming missiles is supposed to be
possible because laser beams can destroy any incoming
missiles.

Brain surgery to remove tumors in 1969 required the surgeon
to invade and to "insult" the brain to the extent that years of
recovery were required before the patient would be able again
to assume social responsibilities. In 1995 brain surgery to remove
tumors requires only a few days of recovery before the patient is
able again to resume such responsibilities.
The wife of a friend of mine had a brain tumor removed on a
Monday morning. Four days later she was again working as a
nurse. The difference is that brain tumors are now removed by laser
beams.

My superficial understanding of laser beams -- harmonious
integration of all light in a beam -- is most probably inadequate.
Nonetheless laser beams have transformed most significant
experiences to the extent that formerly difficult and evil
occurrences are now changed into tolerable and good
occurrences.

We are challenged to trust that the Risen One among us
similarly transforms every experience, even difficult and
evil experiences, to be acceptable and good.

Father Daniel Liderbach SJ

5th Sunday of Lent Year C, March 21, 2010

Jesus condemns the bad deed, not the person (John 8:1-11)

When I prepared this homily, I found a very moving story about an adulteress. It is called “the net” and was told by a German author, Werner Bergengruen. He died in 1964. The story goes like this.

There once was a fishing village where the custom was to kill adulteresses by dumping them into the sea from a cliff. One day, there was an adulteress who the villagers planned to kill in the traditional way. It was customary for the accused woman to meet her husband one last time before being executed, but on this occasion the husband did not appear for this last meeting. So the villagers executed the sentence all the same. The next day, there was this astonishing scene: the husband appeared together with his wife in the village. The two were in good shape – how did this come to be? Well, the man had knotted a net, a kind of “net of love”, beneath the cliff so as to save his wife.

Do you see the similarities with today's gospel? In today's gospel, everything is clear: adultery means death by stoning. This is according to the law of Moses. The women as she is presented in the gospel cannot escape. She lost everything: her life, herself, and finally also God against whose law she sinned. The pharisees are sure to put Jesus in a very uncomfortable situation, they put him in a dilemma: either he says “yes, follow the law of Moses, stone her”, then he is guilty of killing the woman, or he says “let her go free”, then he disobeys the law of Moses. In either case, the pharisees use the woman, they instrumentalize her. She only serves the purpose of the pharisees – they want to accuse and to arrest Jesus.
So how does Jesus react? Jesus does not follow the cruel law – so the pharisees won? They can say: “This Jesus disobeys the law”. But: what comes first for Jesus is the human being, not the law. The adultery of the woman is to be condemned – and Jesus does condemn this bad deed, he says, according to the law of Moses : "All right, stone her.” But he does not condemn the person – Jesus forgives without condition: “But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!”
Now what I would like to say is that God already had knotted the net of love for this woman. All of a sudden the accusers disappear. So that is the end of the story? No.
Jesus does talk to the woman and he says: “Go and sin no more." Jesus does demand a change of attitude, of practical behavior. If we manage this change, the kingdom of God is already present within us. Only to obey the law is not enough, even if it is defined as The law of God, the Law of the Church. It is very dangerous to think that God's grace can be administered and managed and distributed with the help of law, and be it canon law.
The young church in the first century was rigid. And the Christians of that time did probably have the same problems with the mildness and with the mercifulness of Jesus as the pharisees had. Isn't is a surprisingly modern attitude which we find in today's gospel? And wouldn't this attitude do good to our canon law? In the gospel every person has a new chance – we hear the good news of pardon, of an everlasting new beginning, of a new chance for everyone. And I do think that this gospel shows us something more deeply.
Jesus does have very radical expectations concerning our human relations. They are radical, yes, and it is difficult to be up to them. It is clear that we will fail. But the expectations are still valid. So for the present canon law this failure comes first. Failure, or – linked to it - punishment. This is the law the Church follows. But Jesus offers us also the sacraments, they heal, they forgive, they strengthen. He offers us his presence in the words of the Gospel. "Healthy people don't need a doctor -- sick people do” says Jesus (Luke 5,31). And we are often sick when it comes to our relations – they need healing.
I found a quotation of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons in France. He died in the beginning of the third century. Irenaeus says: “Wherever you take care of the salvation of human beings, there the service of God takes place.” Jesus has come to heal – and he certainly does not want to heal by excluding, by excommunicating, but by accompanying, by being present especially in times of personal crisis. This is what we need – accompany each other, be present when one of us is in crisis. Or – with other words – what we need are these nets of love which we should knot together among us, nets of love to carry and sustain us mutually. All Saints might be a good place to begin binding this net.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

4th Sunday of Lent Year C, March 14, 2010
Luke 15, 1-3.11-32 /
Father and Son – a vertical or a horizontal relationship?

I would like to reflect with you about the parable we just heard. And I would like to do it in a kind of prolongation of the small retreat we had Saturday a week ago (March 6th 2010). The topic of the retreat had been “community building”. You may not see immediately the link between the parable and “community building” - but I shall try to explain it to you.

The parable had for a very long time, for centuries, the title “the Parable of the Prodigal Son” - the moral was always: “Do not act like this younger son, this is not good”. Then the parable has been called the “Parable of the forgiving and loving father”. We constructed this man as a model for God – God loving us unconditionally. This is still the aspect we usually see in the parable.

But let me ask you a question: Do we not identify with the elder brother? The one who never left his father, the one who never did any wrong, the one who is rightly angry about his younger brother and about his father. Do we not feel that he is right to feel insulted and neglected? And I think we feel rightly so: the father neglects to include his un-prodigal son in the welcome.

The father could have informed his elder son that he planned a party for the younger son who had just returned. He could have included his elder son in his plans, could have treated him like an adult. He did not do so.

The father in our parable has two sons, but he does not manage to make them talk to one another. Two brothers – this is one of the most emotionally charged relationships in the Bible. Think of Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers. But the father in our parable is not able to see a grown-up person in the elder son who never went away. He continues to treat him like a child.

These last few weeks the catholic church in Germany has been shaken by abuse scandals. Is it too far-fetched to speak of an abusive relationship here between the father and the elder son? The elder son is treated like a child, but according to the text he must be a grown man. His father kind of “holds him down”, does not give him the space he needs. The father does not really see him, he overlooks him and thus somehow abuses him. It is fascinating to see what the older brother says when he speaks of his younger brother: “This son of yours” - he thus speaks out how he feels treated by his father. He tells his father the truth about their relationship.

Usually we say that the elder brother is wrong to complain in this way, we say that what counts is the love of the father. But today I would like to go into a different direction: I think we should be aware that the context of this story is a parent-centred relational universe. It takes place in a moral system which privileges vertical relationships over horizontal ones. In Christianity, fatherhood has become sacralised. And this sacralisation of the vertical fatherhood-relation has undermined the acceptance of alternative ways of relating in a non-vertical way. This sacralisation of the fatherhood-relation in Christianity has diminished the importance of non-hierarchical links, of non-vertical links. It has diminished the importance of horizontal links.

Like some prominent authors, I see this privileging of the vertical as impoverishing contemporary human experience. This diminution of the horizontal can be seen in almost pathological forms of what should be happy and deep relations: priests being treated like children by their congregations, teachers ignoring the needs of their children, health professionals treating their patients like objects, workers treated by their employers as machines... Thus in Christian institutions like parishes and congregations, family, education, religious orders and communities this hierarchical axis is privileged. And this hierarchical, this vertical axis has made it difficult for autonomous responsible persons to exist in this context.

And also in the secular institutions of states and societies that come from Christian civilisation the same phenomenon can be seen: the autonomous responsible self has been marginalised and has difficulties to be accepted. When the parent takes priority, the adult is eclipsed.

The vertical axis is the dimension of obedience, trust and dependence between parent and child. On the other had, the horizontal axis is the dimension of leadership, love and work among adults: marriage and friendship, aspiration and achievement, art and play, equity and justice, dialogue and peace.

The father in our parable fails to accept his sons as independently relational beings. He longs for them to turn to him with their needs; but their need to be enabled to love each other as brothers, to transcend their rivalry as siblings, escapes his notice. His sons should have learned from him how to communicate with each other, how to interact as adults. So when I say that Christian culture is privileging the vertical axis, I also must say that our culture today is a culture that privileges the horizontal axis – that means we want to interact horizontally, we live in mutual relationships where we try to find a way together.

So this is the link I tried to make between the retreat last week on Community building and today's gospel - here in All Saints, we should privilege the horizontal axis over the vertical, we should privilege brotherhood over fatherhood, we should privilege partnership over dependence. And this, of course, includes the role of the priest.

(cf for the main ideas: http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/
20100312_1.htm :
The Prodigal Father - A Post-modern Homily)

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

First Sunday in Lent, February 21, 2010
"All my fountains are in you, all good things come from you"
(Psalm 87:7) -
The three temptations (Luke 4, 1-13)

When I spent a year in Australia, I also spent a whole month with aboriginal people in the Tanami desert. I recall the red sand, the heat, and the marvelous nights – nothing between me and the stars in the sky. And I recall the importance of water – a well or a small pond where there was cool and refreshing water. The water there is precious, it is the condition for life, it is appreciated to an extent we simply do not know here in Berlin. Here, water is something so normal, it comes from the tubs, it is in the rivers, or – in winter – in snow and ice. But this is a privilege – in so many other parts of the world, water is rare, drinkable water is even rarer.

Sometimes, in a hot summer, we may feel the lack of water after a long excursion, when we look forward to drinking water. The people living in Palestine have very different experiences with water than we have. For the people in Palestine today and in the times of Jesus, water has a much more decisive roll than for us here. Only where there is water, life is possible. The bible often speaks of the life-giving water, speaks of wells and fountains. This is understandable on the background of the drought, the dryness that is everywhere in this region. "All my fountains are in you", "All good things come from you", "The source of my life springs from you”. This verse in Ps 87 is one of the scripture passages speaking of the power of water. This verse could be the title for today's gospel: Jesus had to endure temptations. And this story tells us about the fountains, the sources, the wells that gave life to Jesus.

At the time Luke wrote his gospel, people wanted to know, who this Jesus was. Is he really the son of God? How do we recognize this? And Luke answers by telling the story of the temptations of Jesus. And he does this in three images:

1. People need more than bread for their life

The first image: Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and nights, he was hungry. After 40 days, the time had come to eat – and in this situation, the tempter, the Devil says to him: "So you are the Son of God. It is easy for you to end your suffering – make use of your relation to God and change this stone into a loaf of bread." Wouldn't it be good to have such a “miracle magician wonder God” - the right rituals, the right rites – and poof!, everything is in order... But the God Jesus is proclaiming, is different. This God is not a magician – Jesus does not want to use, to exploit, to instrumentalize God. Jesus wants to listen to the words of his God and he wants to understand his God. Bread is important, but also the nearness to God is important. This is one of the sources of Jesus – the relation to God that marks and enlivens and encourages his life.

2. All glory to God

In the second image, the tempter, the devil, leads Jesus on a high mountain. There he shows him all the kingdoms of the earth – power and wealth and influence are within reach for Jesus. Couldn't he use this power and this influence for good purposes? But they are not for free – this power and this influence, they cost something: “I will give it all to you if you will bow down and worship me." That is the condition. The basic question is: “To whom does my heart belong?” And Jesus doesn't hesitate for a moment: "The Scriptures say, `You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.' " Again – all glory to God, all fidelity and faithfulness to Him – God is the source of his life.

3. It is about love and not calculation

And Luke presents us a third image: we see Jerusalem – and Jesus is on the highest point of the Temple. The tempter, the devil had lead him there. "If you are the Son of God, jump off! God will not let you fall!” And then, the tempter quotes the bible so as to appear pious and knowing the bible: “For the Scriptures say,`He orders his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.' " So God is presented like an insurance company – protecting you if you pay him enough. You give God faith, he gives you protection. But this is contrary to the God Jesus proclaims. God does give us his love, his fidelity – but this is not something like an insurance. You do not have any right to claim something from God – the relation to God is about love and fidelity, not about calculation. Again, this love, this fidelity of God is the source of Jesus' life. There is no need for Jesus to test God. He simply knows that he can trust in God.

Conclusion: For Jesus, God is the source of his life

And this is the message of Luke to the people asking him about Jesus: act like Jesus, trust in God's love and fidelity. "All my fountains are in you", "All good things come from you", "The source of my life springs from you” from Ps 87 could also be a confession for us. God wants us to have life, not just a bit of life, but life in abundance. We can scoop from this source of life and from the love of God. This source will never run dry. May these coming weeks of Lent give us many occasions to experience the nearness and fidelity of God in our own lives and in the lives of the people dear to us.

Thus we shall be able to confess: "All my fountains are in you", "All good things come from you", "The source of my life springs from you”.
Amen

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ



6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 14, 2010
Trust in God and trust in human beings

I would like to concentrate on the 1st reading from the prophet Jeremiah. Let me put a question to you: “How can you destroy any relation with someone? A friendship, a couple, a relation to your colleagues – how can you destroy it?”
It is very simple: just say that you lost trust, that you don't believe any more what the other one says or does.“I don't trust you any more” is the best way of creating an abyss between you and the other person. So why would Jeremiah who lived twenty-six centuries ago say the opposite? He says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh... (Jer 17,5)”
Jeremiah predicted terrible things for Israel, his people. And the reason was that the people had turned away from God, they had believed in their own force, their own power, their own capacities. The terrible thing that came was the exile of the people in Babylon.
The prophet Jeremiah is certain: When the people of Israel is in danger and is persecuted, then only their trust in their God carries them. Their God will finally save and rescue them. This is his message. It is this opposition between trust in human beings and trust in God that Jeremiah presents. And this opposition is disturbing.
Trust in human beings or trust in God – is this really an alternative?
Maybe it is helpful to see that for Israel the normal way to encounter God was in the cult, in the temple, in the sacrifices in the temple. This preferential way of meeting God has been widened for us Christians – we can meet God also outside the holy temple district. We do need sacred places, but we do not depend upon them.
Let us recall that God created the human being to his likeness, as his image. Does this not mean that whenever we meet a human being we meet God? This is totally visible in Jesus – when ever Jesus meets someone, God is present, God is acting. This is hopefully also our own experience – we can meet God in our fellow human beings.
If I had to talk to Jeremiah, I would say: “Jeremiah, I understand that you are disappointed with your people, I understand that you feel them so far from God, I understand that you do not trust them any longer. But, Jeremiah, do you really want to make a division between God and human beings? Wouldn't it be preferable to seek human beings that show God's love for us, that are witnesses of his loving presence among us? Wouldn't it be more human to seek persons in your people whom you can trust instead of condemning them all. Yes, maybe it would be better to keep your distance from those who do not convey this love, this presence, Jeremiah. Thus you do not lose your trust in humankind.” This I would like to tell Jeremiah.
This is one side – Jeremiah is too negative, we say that we are not at ease when someone says: “Don't trust in human beings, only trust in God”. When he says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, blessed the one who trusts in the Lord” we think Jeremiah might exaggerate. But isn't it true that we all too often trust in human beings, in our own power, in human science and human capacities? So Jeremiah is also a good observer for our time: We often do forget our relation to God, we often do trust more in our own capacities and neglect God.
I would say that these are two dead end roads if we only see as possible one of the two ways.
* One way would be to say that humankind does not need God, humankind is an end in itself and there is no need for God, there is no need to acknowledge that we are created and kept alive by God. Thus we risk to see human beings as things, as objects, we do not respect them, we are prone to exploit them, to humiliate them, to abuse them. If priests abuse children and young people, I would like to know where they see God's image in their victims. How can one abuse a human being and still proclaim the good news of God's love for his creation? How can one abuse and not see God's image in the one you abuse? This is not a phenomenon for priests, but abuse is going on in all parts of our society – it is just the more shocking if it is done by a priest. By a priest who proclaims that we are created, that we are God's image. So not to take into account God's love for us, to forget that all of us are God's image is one dead end road.
* The other dead end road is to flee the world, to live only for the divine cult, to seek God far away from human beings. This is a reproach contemplative orders often hear : “you are not living in the world but you flee it”. But in this way of life, God always throws you back to your fellow human beings, God always shows us that our fellow human beings are his image. Encountering our fellow human beings is the condition to encounter God. But there is this bad way of trying to approach God: avoiding the real world, live like in permanent incense, watch others as from the outside because “you feel so much closer to God if you are not disturbed by others”. This is the second dead end road.
Maybe this distinction between the two dead end roads helps us to understand the opposition in the gospel: “Blessed are you...” on one hand, “woe to you...” on the other, “God blesses you... “on one hand, “What sorrow awaits you...” on the other...
Look at the people in the last part of today's gospel: Jesus did celebrate with rich people, he was surrounded by prosperous and well-fed people. So he did not avoid them in order to be nearer to his God. What was important for Jesus was the question: do they know that they are God's image, do they live according to this and do they beam with the joy of being God's image?
Do we know that we are God's image, do we live according to this and do we beam with the joy of being God's image?

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 14, 2010

Trust in God and trust in human beings

I would like to concentrate on the 1st reading from the prophet Jeremiah. Let me put a question to you: “How can you destroy any relation with someone? A friendship, a couple, a relation to your colleagues – how can you destroy it?”
It is very simple: just say that you lost trust, that you don't believe any more what the other one says or does.“I don't trust you any more” is the best way of creating an abyss between you and the other person. So why would Jeremiah who lived twenty-six centuries ago say the opposite? He says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh... (Jer 17,5)”
Jeremiah predicted terrible things for Israel, his people. And the reason was that the people had turned away from God, they had believed in their own force, their own power, their own capacities. The terrible thing that came was the exile of the people in Babylon.
The prophet Jeremiah is certain: When the people of Israel is in danger and is persecuted, then only their trust in their God carries them. Their God will finally save and rescue them. This is his message. It is this opposition between trust in human beings and trust in God that Jeremiah presents. And this opposition is disturbing.
Trust in human beings or trust in God – is this really an alternative?
Maybe it is helpful to see that for Israel the normal way to encounter God was in the cult, in the temple, in the sacrifices in the temple. This preferential way of meeting God has been widened for us Christians – we can meet God also outside the holy temple district. We do need sacred places, but we do not depend upon them.
Let us recall that God created the human being to his likeness, as his image. Does this not mean that whenever we meet a human being we meet God? This is totally visible in Jesus – when ever Jesus meets someone, God is present, God is acting. This is hopefully also our own experience – we can meet God in our fellow human beings.
If I had to talk to Jeremiah, I would say: “Jeremiah, I understand that you are disappointed with your people, I understand that you feel them so far from God, I understand that you do not trust them any longer. But, Jeremiah, do you really want to make a division between God and human beings? Wouldn't it be preferable to seek human beings that show God's love for us, that are witnesses of his loving presence among us? Wouldn't it be more human to seek persons in your people whom you can trust instead of condemning them all. Yes, maybe it would be better to keep your distance from those who do not convey this love, this presence, Jeremiah. Thus you do not lose your trust in humankind.” This I would like to tell Jeremiah.
This is one side – Jeremiah is too negative, we say that we are not at ease when someone says: “Don't trust in human beings, only trust in God”. When he says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, blessed the one who trusts in the Lord” we think Jeremiah might exaggerate. But isn't it true that we all too often trust in human beings, in our own power, in human science and human capacities? So Jeremiah is also a good observer for our time: We often do forget our relation to God, we often do trust more in our own capacities and neglect God.
I would say that these are two dead end roads if we only see as possible one of the two ways.
* One way would be to say that humankind does not need God, humankind is an end in itself and there is no need for God, there is no need to acknowledge that we are created and kept alive by God. Thus we risk to see human beings as things, as objects, we do not respect them, we are prone to exploit them, to humiliate them, to abuse them. If priests abuse children and young people, I would like to know where they see God's image in their victims. How can one abuse a human being and still proclaim the good news of God's love for his creation? How can one abuse and not see God's image in the one you abuse? This is not a phenomenon for priests, but abuse is going on in all parts of our society – it is just the more shocking if it is done by a priest. By a priest who proclaims that we are created, that we are God's image. So not to take into account God's love for us, to forget that all of us are God's image is one dead end road.
* The other dead end road is to flee the world, to live only for the divine cult, to seek God far away from human beings. This is a reproach contemplative orders often hear : “you are not living in the world but you flee it”. But in this way of life, God always throws you back to your fellow human beings, God always shows us that our fellow human beings are his image. Encountering our fellow human beings is the condition to encounter God. But there is this bad way of trying to approach God: avoiding the real world, live like in permanent incense, watch others as from the outside because “you feel so much closer to God if you are not disturbed by others”. This is the second dead end road.
Maybe this distinction between the two dead end roads helps us to understand the opposition in the gospel: “Blessed are you...” on one hand, “woe to you...” on the other, “God blesses you... “on one hand, “What sorrow awaits you...” on the other...
Look at the people in the last part of today's gospel: Jesus did celebrate with rich people, he was surrounded by prosperous and well-fed people. So he did not avoid them in order to be nearer to his God. What was important for Jesus was the question: do they know that they are God's image, do they live according to this and do they beam with the joy of being God's image?
Do we know that we are God's image, do we live according to this and do we beam with the joy of being God's image?

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

everything is possible

even in worst circumstances
there could still be hope
a new beginning, new light
for everything is possible

even in the midst of sickness
so incurable, so dreadful
there is always reason
to hope for healing

everything is possible

even in the face of crises
when everything seems to fall
no way out of this terrible fiasco
don’t surrender your faith

even if relationship has ended
trust has been betrayed
you have nowhere to run to
know that God is always there for you

everything is possible

yes, even in the most difficult
situations in your life
in those darkest nights
and lowest points…

the light will shine again
hope will spring in your heart
know that everything is possible
in God

Fr. Adonis Llamas Narcelles jr., svd

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C), January 24, 2010

Unity in diversity

* The big topic of today's texts is „unity“. The first reading, the book of Nehemia (Neh 8,2-4a. 5-6. 8-10), shows us the unity of the people when they celebrate. After the exile, the people of Israel returns to their country. For the first time back in their country, the people listen to the word of God in the Torah. They celebrate God's word for them – God's word spoken in their concrete lives. It is God's word that had been known for generations in a new context. The text says “Rejoicing in the Lord is your strength”. So: a common Liturgy, common prayer and celebrating creates unity.

* The second reading from the letter to the community in Corinth (1 Cor 12,12-31a) also has as its main topic „unity“. Saint Paul draws the picture of the young Church. He compares the Church to a body, to a living organism. There had already been different functions, different tasks – and all contributed to the unity of the Church by putting their different talents and charisms at the service of all. What each one pos¬sesses, what each one receives is a gift, a gift for the others, a gift for the community as a whole.

Jews and Greeks, slaves and free citizens, prophetical enthusiasts and silent practitioners, scholarly theologians and matter-of-fact believers – they all form one body by the spirit of Jesus who is present in all of them. I would like to call it “unity in reconciled diversity”. It is a plurality that aims at the crucial points of a community and thus cannot lead into chaos. This fear of chaos so often paralyzes the acceptance of diversity.

Maybe you remember the big head line in the German “Bild Zeitung” when Cardinal Ratzinger became pope Benedict XVI. It said “We are pope”. When reading this line, we probably all understood what it meant. Would it be the same with the line “We are Christ”? And this is exactly what Paul says to the community in Corinth: “We are Christ” - and this has its consequences for the daily life of all.

* In the gospel (Luke 1,1-4. 4,14-21) we find the evangelist Luke at work. Luke is looking for the origins of this unity. In today's passage, Luke speaks about the first sermon of Jesus in a synagogue. It is a kind of “manifesto”. Jesus shows the link, the unity between the story of Israel as described in the First Testament and his own story with God.

“Today this word of the scripture has become true” he says.

We know that Jesus' message was often misunderstood. Different parties read very different things in his message – and this often lead and leads to conflict, even wars and killings between different Christian denominations. Quarrels, petty jealousy, envy, struggle for power – all this is present in the history of mankind as it is present in the history of the Church. It may seem that Jesus' words had not enough power.

But does this mean that we shall never attain unity? I do think that we all have this longing for peace and unity – also in the Churches. For 90 years we have been celebrating the octave of prayer for Christian unity. At least once a year, many Christians become aware of the great diversity of possible ways of adoring God, of the common core of Christian denominations. Hearts are touched, and people realize that their neighbors' ways are not so strange. This year's theme of the octave is “You Are Witnesses of These Things (Luke 24:48). This longing for unity is present in all Christian churches.

I would like to end with a prayer from the “book of common prayer”. It dates from the 1662 and is still in use in the Church of England:
O GOD the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace:
Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions.
Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and concord:
that, as there is but one Body, and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all,
so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 17, 2010

“To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of others” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11, year C)

Since the writing of the New Testament, there are two images, two representations of the Church. And these representations are wrestling with each other, they are mixing with each other in different ways. I would like to call them the Church from above, or a top-down Church, and the Church from below, or a bottom-up Church.
Top-down – bottom-up... - this does not mean the Church seen from God as opposed to the Church seen from humanity. This would be wrong – Church only exists because of God, because of Jesus Christ, because of the Spirit of God. No, this top-down and bottom-up view concerns the question, how we Christians live together in the Church.
The Church from above, the top-down approach begins thinking from the Pope, from his infallibility, from his final legislative power. After the Pope come the bishops and the priests – they are supposed to transmit and teach infallible dogmas to the people and exercise legislative power over the people. In this top-down approach, the “down”, the lower part are the lay people. They have to listen, they have to obey. This representation of the Church can refer to verses in the New Testament like: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church” (Mt 16,18) or when Jesus says to Peter: “take care of my sheep” (Joh 21,16).
The other representation of the Church is what I would call “the Church from below” with its bottom-up approach. Here, the Church is not primarily the pope, the bishops, the teaching and the law, but the Church is the assembly of men and women believing in Jesus Christ. The Church is built by the faithful ones, and they are not primarily objects of pastoral care from above. The Church builds itself up from the local communities, to the diocese, to the worldwide Church. The Pope does have an important function in this view of the Church: he guarantees the unity of the Church.
And this representation of the Church can also refer to verses in the New Testament. For example today's reading from the 1st letter to the community in Corinth. The good news of today's text is that no believer, no man, no woman, is without the Spirit, is devoid of the gifts of the Spirit. No one! The text says “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of others.” “The Holy Spirit distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
“He alone decides”! It is not the hierarchy that distributes the gifts of the Spirit, it is not the hierarchy that permits or forbids the gifts of the Spirit. This direct relation between the Spirit and the human being cannot be taken away. It constitutes the dignity and grandeur of everyone believing in Jesus Christ.
So if this is true for all of us, it is also true for me personally: “I received a special gift from God, a very special personal gift for me. My task is to find out what this gift is – by listening to myself, by listening into myself”. When I find out what my gift is, then I am responsible for it, I am responsible for cultivating and nourishing it. I need to put it at the service of all. If we do this, then living together in a community like ours becomes exciting. If I trust what the Spirit says to me, then I should also trust what the Spirit says to the others.
This is the basis of our belief, the basis for all the talks in our community: different groups with different gifts, different people with different talents come together to form a community. The Spirit I received, the gift I received, should benefit the others. I did not receive the gift for my own personal holiness, but for the benefit of all, so that others can have more life because of my gift.
The Spirit unites and gathers us together. It is the ONE Spirit that gave the different gifts. So if we trust in the one Spirit, there is no place to fear for the unity of the community, to fear for the unity of the Church.
For me as one of the pastors of this “All Saints” community, this is consoling: things are not valid and true because I say they are valid and true. Things are valid and true if they are the result of the Spirit. So my task as a pastor here is to encourage you, every single one of you, to listen to the Spirit, to discover the gift, the talent every one of you received. I certainly wish the same from the Pope and the bishops, or as the book of revelation puts it: "Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the Churches” (Rev 2,7). Thus the liveliness of the community and of the Church can unfold “from the bottom” - worldwide. Just imagine the richness, the diversity, the liveliness of the Church if every single one proposes his or her gift to the community, to the local Church and to the worldwide Church.
I admit that I like to be pastor in a Church like this. I admit that I like to be a co-believer in a Church like this.

Wolfgang Felber SJ

Christmas, Midnight Mass, December 24th, 2009

Is Christmas a feast for the rich and wealthy - or for the poor?
When you walk through our shopping malls, Unter den Linden and on Kurfürsten-damm, you get the impression that a real Christmas celebration presupposes a certain amount of money.
But do rich people understand more of the significance of Christmas than poor people?
Poor people are those living in darkness, living in guilt, living without a home, those nobody wants to deal with.
Jesus whose birthday we celebrate might be one of them:
born on the way, in the street, not in a house, because there was no place for his parents, nobody wants to deal with people like them.
In the gospel according to John we read:
“He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.” (John 1,11).

Indeed, Jesus suffered our human condition until his death on the cross.
In the beginning of his life: a manger, at the end of his life: the gallows, the cross.
Where do we live – in the light or in the darkness?
The fact that we gather here in All Saints shows that we desire to live in the light.
We came here to look for the light, to find human warmth.
I like Berthold Brecht's Threepenny Opera. Mac the Knife says :
Und die einen sind im Dunkeln
Und die andern sind im Licht,
Und man siehet die im Lichte,
Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht...

... some are in the darkness
And others in the light
But you only see those in the light
Those in the darkness you don't see...

So who are those in the darkness?
Only those in far away countries in Asia, Africa, South America?
Or are there people in darkness here in our city, here in our community? Aren't there perhaps dark spots even within ourselves?
Those in the darkness can only be seen if you are attentive enough.
- the poor are the lonely ones, the so called “involuntary singles” without a partner. They didn't find a partner, they lost the partner, they are divorced... During the week they may have a job where they are surrounded by others.
But their loneliness appears on the weekends and on feasts like Christmas.
- the poor are the obviously rich, those who succeed – they achieved everything in their job and in their private life. Money doesn't matter.
But all of a sudden the question appears: What is all this good for? Where is the meaning of all this? These people become poor because they suffer from an existential vacuum, they suffer from an existential frustration
-the poor among us are the sick, those living with pain, with uncertainty about their future, living without a perspective because of an illness.
And all too often their illness is not recognized, is stigmatized - “I better die than continue to live like this”

-the poor are those caught up in guilt – they do not see a way out and want to end it all
- the poor are those who have lost faith.
God is just a word, an empty notion of their youth which has lost all its meaning.
They lost the faith they had as a child and did not find the faith they need as an adult.

So if Christmas is more a feast of the poor,
if Christmas is a feast for the poor, then we all can celebrate,
because these shadows of darkness, these shadows of poverty are present in all our lives.

Jesus Christ becomes poor to make us rich.
Jesus Christ comes into the darkness of our existence to bring light.
Jesus Christ is light, he is God from God, light from light.
For him, Christmas means to become poor, like the lonely ones, like the abandoned ones, like the outcasts, like the sick ones, like those in guilt, like those who are dieing.
There is no human abyss Jesus would not know, no human abyss he would not endure with us in all solidarity.
God is no spectator. Jesus is a defenseless child in the beginning of his life and he is executed on a cross at the end of his life.
Jesus Christ entered our human poverty by becoming one of us.
He did not keep out of our affairs.
By acting like this he changed our human condition fundamentally:
what Jesus gave up, he gave us .
Jesus Christ takes our poverty upon him and we receive his richness in abundance.
That is why he addresses all the sick and handicapped ones, all the lonely and abandoned ones, all those with guilt:
you are all loved by God.
"Healthy people don't need a doctor-- sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough" says Jesus (Mk 2, 17)
Our lives are not success stories and thus, because of his love for us, God's life cannot be a success story.

Jesus says: “You will all have a new future.
There where you lost your way, where your life is stuck, where you are in a dead end street, where you are off the track,
there a new way begins.”
This is true for individuals, for every one of us, but this is also true for institutions, organizations, nations, or the Church.

“There where you lost your way, where your life is stuck, where you are in a dead end street, where you are off the track, there a new way begins.”

And Jesus says to us and to our community and to our churches:
The only thing I expect from you is to accept my invitation: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. (Mt 11,28)

We are not supposed to put any burdens on people, this is the message Jesus tells us.

Finally the message of Christmas is
that what makes us rich
is God himself, God who gives himself to us.
This is a reason to thank him on today's night,
the night he sent his son into our world.
Amen

Wolfgang Felber SJ

3rd Advent Sunday, December 13th 2009

What must we do? Three times this question is addressed to John the Baptist in today’s gospel (Luke 3,10-18).
What must we do? The people ask this, then the tax collectors, and finally the soldiers.
Their question is not superficial. They do NOT ask: “What must we do in order to get rich, to make career, to become powerful, to remain healthy, and to get headlines in the newspapers?” These would be details, but their question “What must we do?” aims at the final objective of their lives, of our lives.
They are not interested in second to the last objectives, but they want to know about the last objective of a human life. We do not need to ask the final questions dealing with our final objectives. We can stick to the already quoted questions like: “How do I get rich, successful, attractive, respected? How can I remain healthy, efficient and performing? How can I enjoy my life?”
To rise above these questions is part of the adventure of being a human being. And to put them to someone else shows courage.
The answers John the Baptist gives is simple: take care of your neighbors, help those in need and practice justice and humanness. This answer might seem astonishing: our eternal salvation is linked to this earth in which we are living. To honor God means to honor our fellow human beings. The real service of God is the service of humankind. The love of God and the love of neighbor cannot be separated.
The God John the Baptist announces is not a hidden God, but a God who identifies himself with us, a God who is on our side, who is our advocate. Everything that concerns human beings concerns God, everything that concerns God concerns also humankind. John’s answer is concrete; he addresses the context of the people asking him: the poor people should share with those who are even poorer, the tax collectors should not enrich themselves, and the soldiers should not misuse or abuse their power. The poor, the tax collectors, the soldiers – John answers them all according to their context.
John proposes these three attitudes: helpfulness, justice and humanness. Our task is to find out what helpfulness, justice and humanness mean for us, for our lives, for our context. We need to analyze the world with open eyes. How difficult this is we see when we look at Copenhagen – the same phenomenon is analyzed in so many ways, even contradictory ways. This is certainly one of our tasks as Christians – to enable us to see the real challenges of our world, maybe even to analyze them and, hopefully, contribute to change them for the better.
I would like to finish this homily with a quotation: You may be astonished to hear the quotation I offer you now. It is a text written by John Paul the Second in his encyclical “Centesimus annus” – he wrote it in 1991, in the hundredth year after the first so called “social encyclical” “Rerum Novarum”. I invite you reflect some moments about how you can promote helpfulness, justice and humanness in the contexts in which you are living.

Father Wolfgang Felber SJ

Centesimus Annus No. 58.

Love for others, and in the first place love for the poor,
in whom the Church sees Christ himself,
is made concrete in the promotion of justice.

It is not merely a matter of "giving from one's surplus",
but of helping entire peoples
which are presently excluded or marginalized
to enter into the sphere of economic and human development.

For this to happen, it is not enough to draw on the surplus goods
which in fact our world abundantly produces;

it requires above all a change
- of life-styles,
- of models of production and consumption, and
- of the established structures of power
which today govern societies.

Pope John Paul the Second, Centesimus Annus in 1991

1st Sunday of Advent Year C, November 29th 2009

We are celebrating Advent – the preparation for Christmas. When we listen to today's gospel, we might have the impression that we are back into the apocalyptic movement – the end is near, the last judgment is near. Jesus threatens us. We may mock people who calculate the end of the world – but there are two thoughts in this apocalyptic movement we should not discard too quickly.

The first point is the simple truth that we all shall die.
The moment of my death is unforeseeable. And at this moment, I shall take stock of my life – or better: stock will be taken of my life. There will be a balance sheet, a final statement about my life.
One will be drawn by all those who had known me and my life. They will somehow judge me – even if the speeches at my tomb will hopefully be quite positive.

Secondly - I myself will probably take stock of my life – there is an instance, an authority within myself that judges me. Getting older, we know this feeling of being satisfied or unsatisfied with ourselves. Thankfulness, pride or disappointment about the achievements in our lives appear in our reflections.

So the stock of our lives will be taken by others, by ourselves – and for the believers we probably are, stock of our lives will be taken by God, by our creator. And here, we are often led to have fear of the judgment of God. My question is: why do we fear God more than the authority within ourselves or the authority others are for us? Why can we not believe in a loving, forgiving God – we count on the forgiveness of others, we count on our own indulgence, but God we see as judging, as strict and as condemning us.

The fact that there are three instances judging over us, that is the others, ourselves and God is not a threat, is is more an invitation to live our lives attentively. We should taste every moment of our lives as Saint Ignatius of Loyola said. Then the final judgment becomes more a final consideration, a positive assessment of which we need not be afraid of. On the contrary – it will be an encounter with friends and with the best friend of all, with God in his Son Jesus who is expecting us.
This was the first point : let us look forward to our own end as a meeting with friends and with God.

The second point I find helpful in this apocalyptic vision of the world is the following one.
The catastrophes which the apocalyptic movement predicts exist, they happen, but they do not mean the end of the world: destruction and poisoning of our environment, earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis, wars, genocides, terror, dispossession and displacement – they all take place. Are they signs for the end of the world?
I would like to say that they are occasions to meet God, to meet the suffering Christ in our world. They are occasions to become God's hands and feet and mouth and ears and eyes: we are the only hands and feet and mouth and ears and eyes God has.
So Advent is not only the time when we wait for the coming feast of Christmas. No, Advent is the time when we are invited to meet God in the middle of our everyday life – and maybe especially when everything seems to go haywire. In this sense, Advent might become a time of true encounters with our world and its challenges. It will be in this world that we meet the loving and suffering God who shows his solidarity with us. It will be in this world that we experience his love for us, for all mankind, for all creation.
These are the two thoughts I see in the apocalyptic movement present in our readings: the end of our world, the end of our lives is an encounter with friends and with God who is our friend. And Advent may become a time where we open ourselves to experience God in our world, especially in the people around us we meet daily. In this sense I wish us all a good time of Advent.

Wolfgang Felber SJ

Christ the King, November 22nd 2009

The Royal Dignity of Us All

Revelation 1,5-8; John 18,33-37

At the end of the liturgical year, we routinely confess on Sunday our faith in Jesus Christ and celebrate Jesus Christ as the foundation of our life. We celebrate God’s closeness to each of us in Jesus Christ during Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and on every Sunday Mass.

The Biblical texts we hear throughout the liturgical year speak about the experience of men and women. These experiences are an interpretation of their faith in God, in Jesus Christ, an answer to he questions regarding their lives through their faith. For example, today’s Second Reading speaks about their distress and their fear of what is to come. The author says: Do not be afraid. Stick to your faith in Jesus Christ and you will be saved from your distress. And today's Gospel speaks of the passion of Christ. Pilate and his political power can result in death, yet Jesus, without any political power, can bring life. On any Sunday reading of the Bible, the question is: What does my faith in Jesus Christ got to do with my life? How does my belief affect my life?

The Reading and the Gospel speak about how humans deal with other human beings. Like in other periods of history, humans continue to cause suffering to others. Two thousand years later, Christians are still being persecuted, tortured and murdered because of their faith. The misuse of power to oppress others is the starting point of the Second Reading.

Our faith says: Jesus is the king of kings, He is the real ruler. In the end, the powerful have no power over others. The powerlessness of Jesus on the cross broke the power of the oppressors.

If we truly believe in this, then distress, oppression and slavery of any kind cannot break us. Our future is the deliverance of all this. This is the meaning of today’s Feast of Christ the King. Christ rules over of our suffering because He suffered but was not broken; He died, but came back to life. Christ has promised us life after death.

Today's feast is the occasion to honestly ask yourself: What am I suffering from? What am I dependant on? To whom or to what do I feel opressed? What is the obstacle in my life that prevents me from realizing all my capacities? What am I afraid of? What fears dominate my life?

We ask these questions because we believe that Jesus dominates everything that dominates us. In every celebration, we celebrate life. Life is given to us as a gift, life is given to us as a mission, not as a task. As followers of Jesus, we have the mission to make life possible by dominating our bad tendencies – firstly within ourselves, by protecting and developing life, by healing, by reconciling, by being patient and non-violent – as Jesus was. As followers of Jesus, we can invite others to experience God’s closeness, we can help others to overcome their difficulties and fears – just as we hopefully do –because of our faith.

This is an invitation to tell others that we are worthy in the eyes of God despite our imperfections, our weaknesses and our sins. Thus we Christians can become messengers of the Good News of God’s love for us. Our task is to proclaim and to work for the dignity of all human beings, like Jesus did. And to show others that they are also worthy in God's eyes. This is what we do when we take the Eucharists – we celebrate the life God has given to us, and give thanks for Jesus, who showed us our worthiness to God.
Amen

Wolfgang Felber SJ

33rd Sunday, Nov 15th 2009

Someone is expecting us at the end of time (Mark 13, 24-32)

“2012” is latest doomsday film to hit the cinemas (November 2009).
Director Roland Emmerich seems to have the fablesse for doomsday films. He is the director of The day after tomorrow, Godzilla, Independence day and now 2012.
Is the message found in the movies the same as the message found in Mark's gospel?
In Emmerich's films, humanity is helpless against natural catastrophes and is handed over to its destiny. However, this is not the message of today's gospel.
Mark wrote his gospel for Christians of Greek background who did not fully understand who Jesus was – and who were influenced by what we call the "apocalyptic movement." It states: “the end is near, Jesus second coming is near, the last judgement is near.”
Mark contradicts this apocalyptic vision of the world. He says: “No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” It is true, that when we look at our world and we listen to the intimidating and shocking news about the state of our planet, we become frightened. Some of the scenarios and computer simulations in the movie look a bit like what we have just heard in the gospel.

I have two thoughts I would like to share with you.
The first is the fact that everything we do and have now will come to an end. Our possessions will stay behind when we leave this world. Everything will come to an end – not only the good things such as our “successes” and the things we are proud of, but also the bad things such as suffering, illness, failure. Everything has its end.
If we view our life in this light, then many of the quarrels caused by vanity, pride and power would never take place, because there would be no place for them in our world in this bigger context.
I always loved the Latin saying: Quidquid agis prudenter agas et respice finem. - Whatever you do, do cautiously, and take into account the end!
“Take into account the end”.... for us Christians there is someone waiting for us at the end of our mortal life.
During the Eucharist we confess: “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.” Thus, a loving someone is waiting for us at the end of our journey, not an Armageddon or an apocalyptic catastrophe.

The Second thought relates to the fig tree in the gospel. Jesus says that when we look at it, we can better understand what happens. This image is an invitation to be attentive to what happens around us and in our daily lives. The pastoral constitution of Vatican II, called “The church in the world of today”, was written some 45 years ago. The Latin text begins with the words “gaudium et spes”, joys and hopes. It says:
The joys and the hopes, the grieves and the anxieties of the human beings of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the grieves and anxieties of the followers of Christ. That is why this community (of Churches) realizes that it is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds.
For me, today's gospel and this text of Vatican II are an invitation for me to open my eyes and ears in order to do what is necessary to help mankind grow and to bring the world closer to God's plan.
Christ is the one who waits for us at the end of time and therefore we need to be open and attentive to each other now, in this world, in order to prepare ourselves to meet our creator in the loving way he offers us.
Our end is not a catastrophe, but fulfilment in the nearness to God.
Jesus Says in today's gospel: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Wolfgang Felber SJ

28th Sunday, Oct 11th 2009

Today's first reading is taken from the book of wisdom (Wisdom 7 1-11).
This book is the last one in the O.T.
It was written in the century before Christ.
It is not like other biblical books. It does neither speak about historical events, about the life and the behaviour of the Jewish people, nor about the reaction of their God Yahweh.
NO, in this book the topic is the question how God and human kind can get together in a very intimate relationship.
And the author wants to show a way how to lead human beings into the nearness of God.
The first verse shows us this way which the author proposes.

I prayed and prudence was given me,
I pleaded and the spirit of wisdom came to me.

To pray, to plead – in the Hebrew original, these words are only used for pray and pleading to God, not to other human beings.
This means that - for the author - prudence and wisdom come from God.
And thus we are invited to participate in God's wisdom and prudence.
To participate in God's wisdom and prudence.... - participate in his total independence, his absoluteness.
We do no longer depend upon sceptres and thrones, do no longer need prestige and wealth and influence.
Wisdom as described in our text sets us free to seek other riches.
Our author does not condemn power and riches and prestige.
You can use them in a good way if you remain free interiorly.
Wisdom can help us to approach God and thus approach his creation.
Probably we already have left things and positions and comfort zones in order to grow, in order to help others, in order to be nearer to the project of God with his Creation, a world less unjust, a world more human and humane.
If we recall these situations, we might find strength to say good-bye to many things we just don't need.
Things that are obstacles to our inner growth.

I would like to finish with a story I read many years ago. It is from a book of the wisdom of the Jewish people.
A Jewish man went to see the rabbi and asked him:
Rabbi, why are people so selfish, why do they only see themselves and their own needs? Poor people are often friendly, they help where they can. But rich people often don't even look at you. What is this thing about the money and wealth?”
The rabbi said:
“Go to the window, look out, what do you see?”
The man said:
“Well, I see people in the street, some are hurrying towards the market place, some seem to be happy, others sad.”
Then the Rabbi said:
„Go to the mirror, what do you see?“
The man said:
„I only see myself, Rabbi“.
And the Rabbi concluded:
„You see, the window is made of glass and the mirror is made of glass.
Just a bit of silver behind the glass – and you start seeing only yourself“.
End of the story.
Let us help each other to scratch the silver layer of our lives from time to time. Amen.

Wolfgang Felber SJ

Sunday, Sept 27th 2009

Mark 9:38-43: John said to Jesus, "Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him."
But Jesus said, "You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.“

What does not fit into “the scheme”, must not be. What does not fit into my scheme, must not be.

The reading as well as the gospel are giving us examples of this claim for absoluteness. It is according to our human scale that we measure others. And we have difficulties with God's greatness – his love and his Spirit are incalculable, are infinite, are boundless there where we draw boundaries.
Whenever people act outside of our norms, we have problems seeing God at work, we have problems recognizing his presence. What we love most is to have everything under control, to get a grip on everything. We love to keep track of everything – if we don't we might lose the place, the comfort, the secureness we are used to.

If we look at Joshua in the book of numbers (Numbers 11:25-29), this pious man, this leader of Israel was somewhat blind. He just was unable to recognize the prophetic charisma of two of his men. These two did not come to the tent where he waited for them. But the bible says: The spirit came down on them. But as they do not do what Joshua expects them to do, so he says: “Moses, stop them!" Don't we also say, or at least think quite often: „O God, stop them“

Let us look at today's gospel (Mark 9:38-43).
Again someone very pious does not understand the way God is present among us.
I speak of John, John the very intimate friend of Jesus. John did not understand how someone dares to expel demons in the name of Jesus without belonging to the group of the twelve. It seems that the disciples of Jesus wanted to confine or even prevent God from acting. In the narrowness of their hearts they could not accept that there be someone doing good without belonging to their group. Someone not belonging to their group should not be allowed to do good things.

Well, I think you all agree that those who follow Jesus do not need any claim for a spiritual or religious monopoly. On the contrary, those who follow Jesus, those who want to be authentically Christian, they know that God's spirit is a gift, a gift we do not deserve, a gift we cannot dispose of. God acts when where and how he (or she) wants. And Gods acts also in those people who have left our group, our circle, our Church.
Maybe even more so. We are always prone to define “who is near Jesus”, we find criteria to say someone is belonging to Jesus: “who belongs to a certain political, social, religious or denominational group belongs to Jesus.”
Under pretext of orthodoxy, we often tend to identify belonging to Jesus with some elitist option. But this is not what Jesus told us – no-one and nothing can pocket the spirit of God.
No-one can appropriate the spirit of the Risen One to any confessional, social, or even political position. Luckily, the Catholic bishops in Germany understood this some years ago and they do not longer give advice whom to elect on election Sunday.

Yes, we are asked to prevent the evil spirit from gaining power over us, but we are not asked to prevent God's spirit to act in our world. The spirit blows where it will. And the spirit is not confined to any human, social or religious movement.
The gospel stands in judgment against all ecclesiastical provincialism, all claims to monopolize the power of the Spirit which is its source. God's spirit is not limited to certain places, certain spiritual experiences, and God's spirit is not even limited by the fact that someone accepts or rejects the spirit.
On the contrary: wherever we witness movement, change, communication, there we see signs of life, signs of the spirit of God.
Wherever we witness stiffness, rigidity, immobility, withdrawal, loneliness and death, there we see signs of the evil spirit.
And this is also true for the Church. The temptation to exclude is no more legitimate within the Church than outside it. Exclusiveness is not legitimate in any realm of our life.

In the gospel, Jesus lets the unknown miracle man continue to act in his name. Jesus does not take this man in, Jesus does not monopolize good deeds. If Jesus is our model, then we also should show this openness, this tolerance, this greatness of mind. If Jesus is our model, we should try more to seek what is common, what unites us than to stress what separates us, what divides us.
To encounter others with interest and respect is the first step towards them. In order for God's spirit to unfold, we need to create a climate without fear, a climate where we trust each other, a climate where we have true sympathy for each other. Then God's spirit can unfold in unexpected ways. Remember what the psalm says: “By my God, I can leap over a wall. “ (Ps 18,30)

We are living in a privileged city, in Berlin, where people leapt over a wall. We are celebrating here at All Saints, a community where this encounter of different groups in respect is possible. Let us pray that the spirit of God continues to be present in our city, in our community, in our lives.

Wolfgang Felber SJ

Sunday, Sept 13th 2009

Gospel: Mk 8, 27-35
When Jesus says to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God's way but man's," Peter might have asked himself:
“Do I really have to put up with this? He calls me Satan. He says I am his enemy, his opponent. Do I deserve this? And then all those things he forbids us - Jesus says: “Do not tell anyone, be discrete” – I don't understand him. I want to speak about him, I want people to know who he is, who he is for me... I want to tell them that he is the Messiah.”
These might have been the thoughts Peter had – he wanted to tell about his Messiah, about a Messiah with power, like a king, like a politician – liberating the people of Israel from the yoke of the oppressor - and Jesus rebukes him.
The image Peter had of his Messiah was shaped by his wishes, by his expectations. But Jesus does not want Peter to proclaim him as a general, as a politician.
Jesus never calls himself Messiah, but “son of man”. Not as a general, but as a servant he wants to go his way. And Peter seems to be furious when Jesus does not comply with his expectations. Peter reproaches Jesus all this. He is desperate, he does not understand his friend.
Well, Jesus is very often not the way we would like him to be. He is not cute and nice and cuddly, nor is he a fighting hero, or a charismatic guru. Jesus does not allow himself to be taken in by our interests. We all try time and again to build us a Jesus according to our wishes. Jesus is harsh when he says : “Away with you, Satan”. Or more correct: “Get behind me, Satan”. “Get behind me, do not oppose me, remain near me.” Isn't this a wonderful invitation to follow Jesus - get behind me?
To follow Jesus is not following a doctrine, or a message, or a way of living. “I follow the ten commandments” “ I keep the doctrines and rules of the Church” “I go to church every Sunday”, even “I believe in God” can be superficial.
If you obey a doctrine, you don't need the person behind the doctrine any more. No, to follow Jesus is more than obeying – our Christian faith in not a faith in something, but a faith in someone. It is a relation with a person.
Our faith is not like an escalator – someone puts us on the escalator by baptizing us, then first communion and confirmation – and there we are on the next floor of our faith, automatically, without any need from our side to decide. No, our faith is a permanent seeking of the presence, of the friendship, of the intimacy with Jesus.
Where do we find him? Certainly in the Eucharist to which he invites us, but certainly also in the body of the poor and those who struggle for justice. ”Just as you did to one of the least of these, you did it to me” Jesus says (Matthew 25).
So, today's gospel invites us to ask ourselves, who is Jesus for me? Am I in a relation with him? Where do I meet him in my every day life? Where do I let him play a role in my life?

Wolfgang Felber SJ

Sunday, Aug 23rd 2009

Who is Jesus for me?

Gospel : Joh 6,60-69
The person of Jesus still seems to fascinate and irritate people: “Who was he, was he married, did he have children, did he really heal others, what is this thing about his resurrection? His person is controversial, and his life is still good for stories, novels, films, and speculations. What did he look like? Like some Palestinian of today? Or like the face on the shroud of Turin?”
Not only his followers were interested in his person, also his adversaries wanted to know : “Who is this Jesus? He pretends to be the son of God, he says he would rise from the dead, he heals and cures and forgives sins?”
For us who seek a proximity to this Jesus, the gospel texts can help to understand his personality better. And today's gospel according to John contains some helpful images. Images that are put in Jesus' mouth so that he himself explains who he is.
I say Images – we have no exact descriptions of what Jesus said and how he was. John in his gospel wants to give a description of the character, of the attitudes of Jesus that constitute him. And when we look at the images Jesus uses, we see that he picks up the fundamental needs of human beings: the longing for being loved and secure, for leading one's life in good health, the desire to live without hunger and thirst.
You may remember Jesus' words: I am the bread of life, I am the door, I am the good Shepard, I am the way, the truth and the life, I am the light... It is interesting to see that Jesus never says that he is a ruler, a master. “Do not call me master”, he says.
What we see is that Jesus acknowledges the central needs of human beings. These needs belong to our being, and Jesus not only accepts them, but he shows us how to deal with them. Jesus not only talks, but he also acts. His acts show his inner attitude: he touches the lepers and gets them back into the social life in this world, he feeds the hungry as soon as he sees their needs, he institutes the Eucharist when he sees the need of his friends to preserve his presence and persevere in his friendship.
And this is what our Christian faith is supposed to do: discover God in this humanity, proclaim God as the one who takes care of the needs of human beings, who is not at all indifferent to our needs, who is kind of declares his solidarity with us.
Christians always were threatened by the risk to see faith as something ethereal, as something disconnected from the world in which we live. Some of them even saw the world as something bad. And we continue to be threatened by this wrong perception of our faith.
This is the opposite of what Jesus showed us: within our world Jesus shows us signs, traces of God.
The founder of my order, Saint Ignatius, said: “Find God in all things” - in all things and not only so to say in heaven.

So who is this Jesus? Philosophers, theologians, maybe even archaeologists will have their answers, and these answers will differ. But if I may say so – their answers are not really essential to me. My question is: who is Jesus for me?
As someone who tries to be in a relation to Jesus, who tries to see more than a role model in him, the question is: who is he for me? Just some interesting historical figure, someone who worked miracles, someone who criticized the society of his time, someone who fascinates still today?
Or is he more to me? Someone who loves me as I am, someone who gave his life so that I can live as a human being?
During my time in Australia, the Jesuit who accompanied my group had one phrase that still impresses me: “Keep it relational” - this means that as long as I am in a relation of friendship, even of intimacy with Jesus, everything finds its measure in this friendship. This is like in a friendship between human beings. Another way to put it is: “Love and do what you will” (dilige et quod vis fac). This is a sentence by St Augustine. Jesus spoke in images about himself, never in an abstract way. So I invite you to think for some moments about your image of Jesus. Who is Jesus for me? And what does this change in my life?

Wolfgang Felber SJ