Friday 20 April 2012

Low Sunday 15 Apr 2012 Sermon

Low Sunday 15.4.12 Faith

St Thomas had a moment of realisation, of repentance, of faith, of conversion. My Lord and My God. His response was meant for us too, to be frequently repeated and reaffirmed.

The debate this week between the bishop and the atheist has caused much interest. (Cardinal Pell v Richard Dawkins, Australian television 9 April 2012)

Atheism is really more of a psychological or emotional matter than an intellectual one. It is more that the atheists do not like God than that they do not believe in Him. This explains their anger and their passion to undermine the faith.

They are right in some of their claims, as when they point out the faults of Christians. However even if Christians do the very worst things it does not stop God from existing!

He is still there, still good, still the source of salvation. We must come back to this basic point of clarity and renewal.

We hope everyone else behaves; ultimately we can answer only for ourselves and each of us can say: I will behave.

We all need to have the Thomas moment. No one is an atheist once we encounter God. The devil is not an atheist, for example.

It is pride v humility. If we have the humility to admit our smallness before God we are given the faith and are more likely to behave in the future.

If, however, pride takes hold the denial continues. Just as the devil hates God so much that even if he were offered a ticket to heaven he would not take it.

The pharisees hated Jesus so much that they were beyond caring whether he was the Messiah or not. They just wanted to get rid of Him.

So the atheist says: we just have to get rid of Him. We will make Him not exist, if there is no other way.

We ourselves may be disenchanted with the Church or some of its members. But we hold to My Lord and My God. No more arguing, questioning; just yielding to His perfect will. Do with me what thou wilt. Then we would see a lot more miracles.

Divine Mercy Sunday: mercy is another word for salvation, restoring right relationship with God. The need is very great as we can see, looking around the world.

So many have lost the faith; so few have it in any great amount.

The Thomas moment is an encounter with Mercy. At the moment a person realises his smallness before God the change of heart takes place. This is what we are praying for on this day, as every other day.

It is a battle for souls, the most important battle going on in the world. A lot of souls are at stake. It is hard to maintain urgency because we see only a small part of the process and it is largely an invisible battle.

We can pray but not have any confirmation whether the prayer has ‘worked’ or not; but we offer it in trust.

Converting sinners is a process. It takes more than just a simple one-off prayer. We have to battle with the demons, with the way the world is, and with long-established bad habits. (The world, the flesh and the devil).

Look what Christ had to do to save us. It was not a walk in the park.

So we give lots of time to this. We need to immerse ourselves in it, be urgent about it.

No earthly goal could be more important. We worry about football games and political elections and horse races, but who wins the souls of Fred and Freda, our next door neighbours? And who would care? But when we really get into it we see how important it is.

If we love our neighbour nothing is more important than eternal salvation.

May the Lord bring us all to that moment of recognition which Thomas had, and help us to cling to it the rest of our lives.

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