Feast of Christ, Heart of the Universe

Created to uplift Jesus as having care of and ultimate power over creation, Reign of Christ is a day layered with deep significance. It is the end of the liturgical year, the fulfilment of the cycle in which we travel with Jesus and the apostles through the building of this new church. Pope Pius XI instituted this solemnity in 1925 in response to growing nationalism and secularism. Europe was living with the nightmare memories of the First World War with an explosion of hatred and blindness that was resulting blood being spilt.

33^rd Sunday of the Year

Around the world people are reckoning with the revelations of the Pandora Papers where shadowy offshore accounts held by wealthy elites have hidden their money in tax havens. Politicians, oligarchs and celebrities have been named and shamed as they find themselves facing outrage and possible prosecution. In a powerful address recently to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, Pope Francis said that the economy “is escaping all human control.” But, the Pandora Papers remind us that allowing billionaires to steal from the rest of us and get away with it has been a choice aided by decades of poor legislation.

32^nd Sunday of the Year

Widows figure prominently in today’s readings as pictures of poverty and powerlessness – people exploited not just by Israel’s religious institutions but by institutions through to the present.  Jesus' concern was for vulnerable people – people who suffer at the hands of international money markets, global agribusiness and corporate monopolies. The extremes of poverty, oppression, violence, inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic all bear a female face – women often being its victims as evident in places of conflict, war, famine and wholesale illness.