15 June 2024 – 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) (Sunset Mass) (Father’s Day)

by Fr Simon Labrooy

So, brothers and sisters, the theme of the Readings today and the emphasis in today’s Gospel from Saint Mark, Chapter 4, has to do with understanding the kingdom, the kingdom of God.  And this is so important for the early church and it appears also in Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 13 and Luke’s Chapter 13 as well. 

All 3 of these Gospels are consistent in speaking about the significant and fundamental importance of understanding the kingdom of God.

It is a background.

Now, in Luke Chapter 17, you will remember there is an enquiry made of Jesus about the kingdom of God and Jesus would say:
Some people will say the kingdom of God is here. Some will say it is there.

Jesus said: Do not listen to them.

That is Jesus’ command to us because the kingdom of God is among you, is within you and is around you.

That is the command of Jesus.

Now the teaching of Jesus in Luke Chapter 17, I would like to look at this closer. The kingdom of God being present to us now and how the energy of the divine providence somehow shapes us into being truly a living church.

I prayed about this Gospel. I prayed about this Gospel because we are speaking about the mustard seed and so on and so forth. How can I address this Gospel?

Well, I wondered what it meant to me, personally. Sometimes when I preach, some of the parishioners will ask me: Are you talking about me?

I say: No, this are all reflections about myself. I preach about my own human experiences. 

So I journeyed with this Gospel. What does it mean to me, the kingdom of God is within, the kingdom is among us? What does it mean to me when we gather together?

Keep in mind, brothers and sisters, the teaching of Jesus when he says: The seed is sown. The seed is sown but the only way in which the seed can begin to grow, it must be sown in ground which is broken. That is the only way that the seed will grow.

The grown must be broken before the seed can be sown. If it falls on hard grown, nothing will happen. This is Gardening 101. You all know that.

Second thing is this, about this reflection that Jesus has, is the energy that goes on at night without us knowing it. Somehow the seed is growing. The teaching is somehow the grace of God is working when we are in darkness, somehow the grace of God is working. And we don’t sense the grace of God is working and moving around us nevertheless, without our knowledge or our awareness, the grace of God is working.

The broken ground is a very powerful symbol. The broken ground. It teaches us that the ground of our lives is broken only in significant moments and in difficult moments. Then we experience the breaking of the ground.

When we have trivial inconveniences, we dismiss it. The ground is only broken in significant moments in our lives. Times like a major reversal in our lives. We don’t know what to do. A major reversal.

Times like when we fail. There is failure there. There is a painful experience of divorce. The ground is broken.

When your children, your elders, don’t respect you. When you are lonely. The ground is broken.

These are profound experiences of the breaking of the ground. When we have suffering, when we experience severe suffering in our lives that we go through. We experience the breaking of the ground.

Experience like death. Experience like contradiction. Experience like an unfulfilled life or an unfulfilled expectation and we say life is not fair. In these moments, the ground is beginning to break. In these moments.

Life is not fair. It appears that God does not always reward the good. 

Brothers and sisters, those who are not good are frequently rewarded. We say that from time to time. Life is not fair. And that is the breaking of the ground in our lives.

In the year 2001, a Jewish Rabbi named Harold Kushner wrote a book. And you will remember this book. It was a bestseller and somehow I felt drawn to this book. The title especially and I said I must get this book (you will remember): When bad things happen to good people.

Some of you remember this book by Harold Kushner. I had to get this book because the title related to me. The background of this book is this.

Harold has a three-year-old son who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Now he was a Rabbi and the Rabbi begin to reflect on his life, the good and the goodness of his life.

And yet, the unfairness of all these, the CHILD not somebody who is elder, but the child may die, MUST die. That is a mystery. It is a mystery of life.

So, some of us when we encounter these experiences of the breaking of the ground in our lives, we come to see the priest. Right? We can’t take this reversal of our lives. You must have an answer. You come to see the priest. Why is this happening to me?

I wish I had an answer. But I don’t have the answers you are asking for. What I have is the same questions that you have. We are in the same boat. We are trying to make meaning of life.

The question comes from the presence of mystery in our lives. Mystery. The mystery of God. Mysteries are not meant to be solved. Mysteries cannot be solved. Mysteries are to be shared.

We have a different understanding, a warped understanding or a flawed understanding of mystery. When we cannot understand anything, we say: It is a mystery, I cannot understand. 

But the mystery is something that will reveal itself. That is mystery.

I want to say something but I am afraid it is not the appropriate place. But nevermind I will say it. Something to define mystery.

A miracle happens because it is out of the ordinary, right? So if I tell you that Fr Simon is pregnant, then you know it is a miracle. Biologically it cannot happen, right?

But when we say that Sister So-and-So, a nun, Sister So-and-So is pregnant, it is not a miracle. It is a mystery because in due time, it reveal itself. We will know who the father is. We will know that. It is a mystery.

So it is a clearer way of understanding the difference between mystery and a miracle.

So mysteries cannot be solved. We cannot solve it immediately. It has to reveal itself.

So we go through a place that will somehow carry us in our pain. 

Brothers and sisters, we go through a place that somehow we want to experience the gift of understanding the presence of God in what we are going through. When we yearn for a place where we can share the mystery, the unfairness of life. 

So the big question is this: Can we live peacefully with mystery? Can we live peacefully with mystery? Do we need to be in control all the time? Or can we live in mystery peacefully?

The seed which is growing, do we need to be controlled of the breaking of the ground? 

It is beyond us. The seed grows. We cannot control it. The seed grows.

Do we need to have an answer for everything? Can we live peacefully in the presence of mystery?

In the world of human behaviour, we speak of the false self and the true self.

The false self is the ego and the ego cultivates the sense of control, of importance, of being in charge, of success, of image in society: What will people think of ME. It is all feeding the ego. Success feeds the ego.

Failure on the other hand abuses the ego. The ego can’t stand it. Can’t stand it. So the EGO is a false self. It is a mask. It tends to suggest that the shadow self which is the true self is actually bad.

Tears are bad. The ego tells us tears are bad. The ego says when you fail, it is bad. When you are embarrass, it is bad. When the church fails, it is bad because we have an ego image that must be in control, must be powerful, must be successful, must have its perfection and this is all unreal. The false self.

Some days, we are pushed in the breaking of the ground and then we will visit our true self which is actually the shadow. And we call the shadow self, here, the true self. It is here we will discover who we actually are. It is a place of tears.

Have you been there? The place of tears? That is the true self.
When was the last time you cried? When was it? That is the true self.

A place of fear, a place of loneliness, a place where humanity needs someone to bless you, to touch you, to hug you, to forgive you, to say: I am with you. That is the true self.

But the ego, the ego self has taught us that that is wrong.

Only the true self has hospitality for mystery. The ego cannot accept mystery. I have to have an answer and have the answer NOW. We can’t stand mystery. We can’t stand failure. We can’t stand embarrassment. Even in the church. 

We have gone through the horrible sequence of the child abuse scandal, the clergy abuse scandal. You remember that? The clergy abuse scandal, we went through that. And it was good for us that we went through that. Why?

It damaged the ego of the church. It damage the ego. It called us to purify ourselves. It called us to take a look at ourselves, to force us to face our weaknesses. It was beautiful that we went through that. The ego was broken to confront our sin.

So this happens to  everyone. We hide, we mask the shadow of self and yet only the shadow self will accept the presence of mystery. So the answer to mystery:
There is no answer.

There is no answer. It will reveal itself. Only the shadow broken-self will say: I now surrender to a higher power.

When we are broken, then only we will surrender to higher power. The broken self is a place of grace.

I feel that in my 26 years as a priest, I have grown more in my failures, in my weaknesses, in my sin, in my need to be forgiven, in my need to belong, in my need to be blessed than I have grown in the areas of success, in the areas of applause, in the areas of recognition.

In your life, and in my life, the kingdom of God is within you. The seed sown must grow. It grows in broken soil. The ground, the darkness of our lives, it will grow there. We live in the mystery and the presence of God.

Brothers and sisters, I will become more respectful, more forgiving, more responsible, more understanding, more a human being if I trust my true self, my broken self.

When I deal with teenagers, it can be a handful. Parents will know this, right? When you deal with teenagers who might drive you crazy, you know how difficult it is. But that is the broken ground and that is the seed that you have planted. And that is the son, the daughter that you love. No matter what.

If you are a parent, you will know this. Dealing with the elderly, you might say: They are so demanding. High maintenance we will say. But that is the seed, the ground that the seed is growing. The broken ground.

In marriage, if family life, when the husband or the wife is so controlling and want to decide everything, the ego is working there. The ego. But the ground that is broken, we are still growing there.

So brothers and sisters, meet your true self, forget about the ego. Meet your true self. Do not want to be in control. Allow yourself to grow in respect for one another.

Today, as we are celebrating Father’s Day, many fathers have gone through struggles. You know that. Many children have gone through struggles with the parents. It is a time for reconciliation and it is a time to remember whatever it was, the sacrifices of those who have come before us. All right?

The broken ground, a good image. Take it back home today.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 15 June 2024