Intercom Resources

Week beginning Sunday, 5 September
seeing your life through the lens of the gospels
Luke 14:25-33
1 The passage is a call to both radical and practical discipleship. When have you found that in order to achieve a certain objective you had to make it a priority, and then take the practical steps necessary to reach your goal? What were the benefits to you when you did this?
2 ‘Hate’ is prophetic exaggeration for the uncompromising loyalty Jesus seeks in disciples. There may be times when people make demands in conflict with fidelity to another relationship. This can be painful. When have you found that being clear about your priorities helped you in that situation?
3 Jesus uses parables here to tell us that in important human affairs we do not settle for vague aspirations. When have you found that some element of practical planning has been necessary to make progress with a project? What has this taught you about making the most of your life and of your time?
John Byrne OSA
Email john@orlagh.ie

Questions people ask
Q. Saint Paul told slaves to obey their masters. Why didn’t he speak out against the evils of slavery?
A. In Paul’s day slaves were often better off than free citizens. Because slave-owners wanted healthy servants, their slaves were more assured of food and lodgings than many of the free. Some students of Paul’s life maintain that his parents were slaves who were granted freedom and Roman citizenship when they grew too old to work, a cheap way out for their masters. In today’s Second Reading Paul appeals to the Christian master, Philemon, to take back the runaway slave, Onesimus, no longer as a slave but as a brother in Christ.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Email silvesteroflynn@gmail.com

The Deep End
Whole-Hearted
You hear them in the street, on buses and on trains: mobile phone conversations. They can be annoying; for two reasons at least. First, some users of phones seem to think it necessary to shout into them presumably because of the distance between themselves and those at the other end. Second, you get only a ‘halfalogue’ – one side of the conversation.
Scientists at Cornell University, New York, claim that hearing only one half of a conversation is more draining on one’s attention than hearing all of it. They experimented with students who were given concentration exercises while hearing one or two speakers on mobile phones. Their conclusion: people are less able to divert their attention from a half-heard conversation than from a fully heard one.
Half of anything rarely satisfies. It can even be irksome. It’s the whole hog or nothing. The same can be said for half-hearted effort. Take today’s Gospel reading for example (Luke 14:25-33). It ends on a note that could be sombre, or joyful, depending on the generosity of one’s response to it: ‘None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.’ What a prospect! You can’t follow Jesus half-heartedly. It’s total commitment, or no commitment. To put flesh on that, it means there can be no Jesus-free zones in my life; that nothing in life is more important than the values he holds out to me. Therefore, I don’t sacrifice these, ever, for anything else.
I wonder how many of us get that part of the conversation.
Fr Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries, Donamon, Co Roscommon
Email tomcee@eircom.net

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Week beginning Sunday 12 September
seeing your life through the lens of the gospels
Luke 15:1-32
1 There are three figures in the story of the Prodigal Son. The father is a symbol of an unconditonal love. Perhaps you can recall someone showing love to you in a way that showed great forgiveness and acceptance. Have there been times when you have also loved in this way?
2 You may be able to identify with the younger son at different stages of his journey. Be sure to follow it to the point where it becomes a good news story for you – when you ‘came to yourself’. Where and when have you experienced a homecoming after a time of exile and alienation.
3 Do not neglect the older son. In contrast to his father he was very judgemental towards his younger brother. Perhaps you have experienced these attitudes in others towards you, or in yourself towards others. What were they like for you? Where was there life for you, or for others?
John Byrne OSA
Email john@orlagh.ie

Questions people ask
Q. May I receive Holy Communion twice in the same day, for instance if I attend two funerals?
A. I quote the Catechism: ‘The Church warmly recommends that the faithful receive Holy Communion each time they participate in the celebration of the Eucharist’. (#1417) So, if you attend Mass twice, or even more often, in the same day, it is warmly recommended that you receive the Blessed Eucharist as the completion of your participation with the Lord. The law which restricted people from receiving no more than once a day came in when people were going from one altar to another for Communion without taking part in the full ceremony.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Email silvesteroflynn@gmail.com

The Deep End
‘Tea-ing’ Off
You’ve heard of black tea, green tea, herbal tea, and high tea. Well now there’s philosophical tea. A new fad is sweeping La France. There, children as young as eight are acquiring a taste for philosophical tea. Difficult though it may be to swallow at this remove, nevertheless, many parents in France want their children to cut their metaphysical ‘munchers’ on heavy issues over light refreshments. Children, they believe, should be encouraged to debate life’s mysteries from the time they discover the words ‘what’ and ‘why’ to give them an early handle on a complex world.
The tea parties are held in cafés, public libraries and homes. Cakes and fruit juices feature prominently to sweeten debates drizzled with Descartes, sprinkled with Socrates, or piquant with Plato. No more than ten kiddies form a party. They vote on the topic of choice for the day and plunge into profundity with a vengeance.
Our brat in today’s Gospel reading (Luke 15:1-32) aka the prodigal son also plunges into profundity – but not by choice. He isn’t interested in insight, or in grappling with life’s mysteries. All he wants are life’s pleasures. He gets them, such as they are, and – surprise! surprise! – ends up more miserable than he was before he had them.
Had he developed a taste for philosophical tea he might have fared better. Had he used his head to wise up he would have fared better. We are blessed with the most complex organ in the universe. It’s called a brain. Surprising how long it takes for some to find it.
Fr Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries, Donamon, Co Roscommon
Email tomcee@eircom.net

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Week beginning Sunday 19 September
seeing your life through the lens of the gospels
Luke 16:1-13
1 As often with the parables of Jesus, this one is intended to shock in order to make us think. Jesus is not praising the injustice of the servant, but his purposefulness in preparing for the future. In your experience what difference does it make when you are purposeful and energetic instead of lethargic?
2 It was his master’s call to account that galvanised the servant into action. What have been the experiences, or people, that have galvanised you into action when you had been somewhat half-hearted in your efforts?
3 Who have been the people whose energy, drive and astuteness have been an inspiration to you in how to handle difficult situations?
4 ‘No servant can be the slave of two masters.’ When have you experiened the truth of this statement?
John Byrne OSA
Email john@orlagh.ie

Questions people ask
Q. How can I answer my son who has me demented constantly criticising the Pope? He says that educated people today don’t need the Church to teach them how to live.
A. If he is so highly educated, ask him to read what the Pope has actually written. Challenge him to read the Encyclical Letter, Charity in Truth, which addresses the ethical questions underlying social injustice, the financial meltdown, rights and responsibilities, third world poverty and hunger, the meaning of life. The world would be a much better place if the Church’s social teaching was heeded. I find that most people who criticise the Pope have never actually read anything he wrote.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Email silvesteroflynn@gmail.com

The Deep End
Little Things mean a lot
Somebody described a diamond as a lump of coal that did well under pressure. Not so for dandelion seeds. Under pressure, recently, they caused problems. A train travelling from Halifax, West Yorkshire to King’s Cross, London, had its engines clogged by drifting dandelion seeds. These spindly, puffy parachutes blocked the air filters in four of its five engines. The mighty machine could only inch ignominiously into King’s Cross
station. Even more troublesome were the grains of fine ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Consisting of pulverised rock and glass, such ash can wreak havoc on planes. Sandblasting windscreens, they effectively ‘blind’ pilots. They pit fuselages, damage landing lights, and clog sensors making air speed indicators unreliable. Being charged particles, they disrupt radio communication and even cause power failure. None of these pitted pellets of rock and glass is more than 2 millimetres in diameter. As the song says: little things mean a lot.
Had the manager in today’s Gospel (Luke 16:1-13) known that, he might have been more careful with his employer’s property. Caught in the mire of cheating, he sinks deeper into scheming and theft. Anyone crooked enough to go along with his dishonest ruse could hardly be relied upon to come to his help at a later date. Why should they? Honour among thieves? I doubt it.
When life’s worries weigh us down, let’s remember the lump of coal. Pressure transformed it. It can transform us too. We’re already halfway there when we remember, if not the diamond then, the pearl of great price we carry within us: God’s Holy Spirit.
Fr Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries, Donamon, Co Roscommon
Email tomcee@eircom.net

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Week beginning Sunday, 26 September
seeing your life through the lens of the gospels
Luke 16:19-31
1 The first of the faults attributed to the rich man is his insensitivity to the abject poverty of those around him. When have you discovered that it is when you are aware of the needs of those around you and seek to make some response that you bring out the best in yourself?
2 The second fault attributed to the rich man is the way he ignored the word of God coming through Moses and the prophets. How have the Gospels, the scriptures or your faith opened you up to a deeper and more satisfying perspective on life?
3 Some people look to the spectacular for a sign of God’s presence and action. For Jesus the lessons we need are not to be sought in the spectactular, but in the ordinary things of everyday life. Where have you found sacraments of God’s presence in the world around you?
John Byrne OSA
Email john@orlagh.ie

Questions people ask
Q. At a time when the Church is struggling, I often wonder why doesn’t God perform some great miracles to bring people back.
A. While we are struggling in Western Europe, remember that the Church is youthful and vibrant in many parts of the world. As for miraculous signs, critics will always find reasons to reject or doubt them. When Jesus performed miracles those who did not believe remained unconvinced. Some said his power came from the devil!
Jesus put it like this: ‘If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead’.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Email silvesteroflynn@gmail.com

The Deep End
Leaving it Too Late
The Beano comic book for children used to sell in its early days for 2D. That’s two pennies in old currency. Recently an edition of the first annual, from 1939, sold for £4,264. It was one of only 11 copies believed to be in existence. Just goes to show that what seems of little value today may be quite valuable tomorrow. It’s good to prize things now, rather than regret later, perhaps.
That’s certainly true of the rich man in today’s Gospel (Luke 16:19-31). He didn’t put much value on Lazarus at his doorstep begging each day. Later, when he sees how important Lazarus is, he comes to realise the error of his ways. But it’s too late. This is not an easy parable to accept. It touches on things dark and deep: the condition of serious sinners after death. While he may not have harmed Lazarus during his lifetime, the rich man’s heartless indifference to his plight was evil enough to land him in what we would call hell.
This is an unsettling parable. It’s uncompromising in what it says. It poses too many problems to go into here, but it should stop me in my tracks. It’s intended to. It forces me to ask questions I may not want to ask, questions that have little interest, immediacy, or value for me today, perhaps. But what about tomorrow? Certainly, one of those questions must be: do I take seriously the consequences of what I do, and don’t do?
Is the thought of eternal damnation in any way for me like The Beano? Comical.
Fr Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries, Donamon, Co Roscommon
Email tomcee@eircom.net

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