The Tenth Hour

I remember watching Mastermind as a kid and Magnus Magnuson posed to a contestant the following question - 'in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives us the beattitudes on the Mount...where does He give them in Luke'. Ther answer is, as we've just heard, that in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus talks about the 'Beattitudes' - the values of God's Kingdom - not on a mountain but on the plain, on a piece of level ground. The question becomes why is there this difference? Why in Matthew does Jesus talk about the Beattitudes on the mountain and Luke place this episode on a piece of level of ground? It's not a mistake or a misunderstanding - something deeper is going on here. In the Scriptures, the Mountain is the place of encounter between God and humanity. It's the place where people talk to God, discern His will, receive his instruction and access His laws. The plain, the field, the level ground - that's different. That's the place where the dramas of hum...

Homily There is a lot going on in this Sunday’s Gospel [1] . The passage is full of important lessons about vocation, about forgiveness and the possibilities offered by faith in Christ. But, I think, there is also an important lesson about evangelisation – about the business of sharing our faith, growing our community and transmitting our beliefs to future generations. Think for a moment about when the change takes place – the moment when Peter goes from failing at his job to catching all those fish – its precisely the moment when, following the instruction of Jesus, he begins to fish to ‘deep water’. When Jesus tells Peter to put into the deep – He isn’t simply giving an old fisherman useful tips – he’s speaking to us. He’s saying that if we want to be ‘fishers of men’, we have to avoid being shallow and superficial in how we live out and witness our faith. Once we do that – people will come, people will return. For Jesus if our faith is to be relevant, if it is to be serious, ...