3rd Sunday after Epiphany 27 Jan 2019 Sermon

3^rd Sunday after Epiphany 27.1.19 Miracles

God sometimes works miracles in our midst.

A miracle is anything that is outside the normal laws of science, for example if the sun would rise in the west, or an incurable illness would suddenly clear away.

There have been thousands of miracles in our history, and they still happen, though most of them are too small to make headlines. We have probably seen or experienced at least the smaller ones ourselves.

We are impressed by miracles but we should also maintain a sense of wonder at the ‘ordinary’ workings of things as well. God has put this universe together very well.

He works miracles to help people in need, but also to remind us of His providential care and His immense power, working for our good.

It should be a simple process: God works a miracle; we observe it; we are grateful to Him; we resolve to bring our lives more fully under His dominion.

It should be that easy, but people find all sorts of ways of not believing in God's intervention and therefore not bringing their lives into line with His will.

They will say the miracle did not happen. Or it was too long ago, or too far away for us to know.

They will say it was probably a delusion for simple people, or a fraud by cunning people, or just a pure fluke of nature.

They will nit-pick and try to find reasons not to believe.

For example, many of Our Lord’s miracles were worked on the Sabbath. The elders of the Jews used to be more interested in what day the miracle happened than the miracle itself.

This shows how perverse the human heart can be.  They could have just accepted that this is God acting in their midst; but they had to make it difficult for themselves and everyone.

The miraculous event leads us back to the One who has such power: to still the storm, to walk on water, to heal the sick, to raise the dead. Can we ignore such a Person? Do we dare to disobey someone who has such power?

The Centurion of today’s Gospel gives us a refreshing contrast. He understands perfectly that Our Lord has the authority to work miracles, and so makes his request.

The power is in the Person, and that has to be the starting-point for us also. Courage, It is I , said Our Lord while walking on the water (Mt 14,27). If we have Him we have all His power and goodwill as well. So we seek  Him, seek to be in union with Him.

We can ask for miracles but we should not rely on them for faith purposes.

Better than asking for miracles is asking for a complete union with the One who works miracles! - then to live in relationship with Him, from which will come much fruit, including the occasional miracle.

One miracle we seek above all others, and that is for the conversion of sinners and unbelievers.

Our Lord worked so many miracles yet still could not get through to some people; and so it has been ever since.

The really big miracle, better and harder than all the others, is to convert people to the point that they would freely submit to the power and goodness of God.

That takes prayer, and sacrifice on the part of those who have been converted already. We know how fortunate we are to be in union with God; we wish the same happiness on others.

We do not know why God works one miracle and not another. We do not enquire too closely; it is enough to take our proper place in the process, to let faith take root in us, and others.

Blessed are those who have not seen (Jn 20,29).

Blessed are those who believe, and even more blessed are those who seek Mercy. That remains the most challenging and most important miracle.

2nd Sunday after Epiphany 20 Jan 2019 Sermon

2^nd Sunday after Epiphany 20.1.19 Enrichment

God has revealed Himself to us over centuries. He has not told us everything at once.

He delayed His coming to the Jews as their Messiah.

Then having come to the  earth He delayed His public ministry.

Then, having begun that, He revealed only gradually His full plan to be crucified, to rise, to establish His Church.

Why so much delay? He was trying at each of these times to prepare people to take in the full meaning of His coming; so that they would grasp the full extent of salvation.

He would not be just a military leader for the Jews; nor just someone who could miraculously provide free bread, or medical care.

People want to be rescued from their troubles, but when it comes to God we tend to cut Hm off too soon. Once we have what we want we are out the door, like the nine ungrateful lepers.

We don’t wait around to be told what else needs to happen, such as that we need to turn away from sin!

We cannot be saved fully unless we follow to the end what God has in mind for us.

He wants to save us within; in the deepest part of our being, the soul, where we decide whether to serve God (like Michael and the angels) or reject Him (like Lucifer and his demons).

If God delays any blessing to us it will be to give us something better, or to prepare us more deeply for the blessing we seek.

Good is stronger if a little slower. It is easy to cause harm quickly; not so easy to establish good in a situation.

Cana was instant. Its effects on us will be slower. It is not just a better drink He is offering us. That miracle symbolises the complete re-making of the human race He has come to achieve.

Gradually we come to a greater trust in Him; to obey Him without question; to be humble and grateful before Him at all times; to take our place in His Body without seeking individual glory.

At first we just want food and good health! But eventually we concede that an improvement in our character is worth more than just a short-term physical blessing.

Perfected, enriched and brought to full potential - this is how God made us. He did not want us to be mediocre. Humble yes, but in terms of wine, we would be sparkling - with every grace and virtue.

The foundations are in place; we can build on them. We come at the later end of God’s revelation. He has come, has died, has risen; now it is only for Him to come again.

For us, as with all who have gone before us, we wait on God, not seeking to rush His plans.

We would not tell the artist to hurry up his masterpiece; nor shall we tell God what to do or when. Our job is to be there for Him when He needs us.

We grasp His idea of salvation, which is essentially to be free from sin. He saves us from sin and therefore death (of the soul).

The main quest is personal holiness, being free from sin, willing to obey and trust.

We play a part in keeping the Church alive and vibrant. We keep the lights on; maintaining the visible and sacramental link with Heaven – so that the Saviour can save.

We can help others to be patient with God, and not give up at the first hurdle. It is good for them to wait! They may not believe it, but they will see if they persevere.

If we hold firm we will share in a glorious outcome, when finally everything is in place.

‘If we endure with Him, we shall reign with Him’ (2 Tm 11-12).

Feast of the Holy Family 13 Jan 2019 Sermon

Holy Family 13.1.19 Blessing for curse 

The Holy Family sets a high standard to imitate, but this is not meant to discourage us, rather to help us rise to better things.

There were no raised voices in that family, no insults, no snide remarks.

So we think: my house is not like that! Can we become so? Can we reach that level of concord and charity?

God wants us to be like the Holy Family. The New Testament is full of references to mutual charity, forgiving each other, inspiring each other to the best behaviour. Such as today’s epistle: forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Col 3, 13-14)

Perhaps best summarised with this: Love one another as I have love you. (Jn 15, 12)

This love is to be complete on our side even if it does not come back in the same form.

We repay evil with a blessing ( 1 P 3,9).

This part we find really hard. It is easy to love those who love us, but what if they do not love; or if they even hate us?

We look to where Love originates – God Himself, the Blessed Trinity, another model of Family.

There is no discord there, either. Total unanimity, total harmony.

We may not know how to live in peace in our families, but we know we should be doing so. This is some progress at least. To know where we are heading is a major step in getting there.

My peace I give to you, says Our Lord (Jn 14,27). He will enable us to overcome whatever obstacles there are to family unity.

The basis of it all is to be united with Him. We have a much better chance of loving our neighbour if we also love God.

We derive our values, our desires, our aspirations from Him. We want to be like Our Lord.

(Or like Our Lady, or St Joseph. It would come to the same thing in practice.)

We want what God wants. Thus we understand that God loves each other person, and how can I not love those whom He loves?

How to do this? How do we love when not loved in return?

We learn bit by bit, piece by piece, to be less preoccupied with self; more able to be concerned for the other person, particularly as regards his spiritual needs, such as the salvation of the soul.

It is Christ’s way replacing the world’s way. We start with His perspective rather than our own. It is all about Him rather than all about me.

Christians under provocation will often simply throw off their Christian beliefs like an outer garment and act like anyone else.

Then we are sorry for that, and we put the garment back on. And then it happens again!

We have to go deeper into Christ, into the Blessed Trinity, into deep unity with the source of Unity. Unity, deep enough that we will not be alternating with worldly mentality, but always habitually doing things Christ’s way.

We plant ourselves deeply in the right soil, to draw heavenly grace deep inside.

The heavenly wisdom will permeate and take hold. Angry thoughts will evaporate; charity taking its place.

Local and universal family will benefit; the Church will benefit; societies will benefit.

Till it be so, and to make it so, Lord have mercy on us; Mary and Joseph, pray for us.

Epiphany 6 Jan 2019 Sermon

Epiphany 6.1.19 Response

Epiphany can be understood as our response to God’s initiative in coming to us at Christmas.

God started something when He took on human nature and dwelt with us.

Now it is up to us how to respond.

Our response can come in two parts: the first is we must believe in these events. The second is we must take that belief out to the whole world, all the nations.

His coming has meant so much – enabling us to be saved from our sins, to reach Heaven; and many blessings for this life as well.

But being essentially an offer, the Incarnation has to be accepted to take full effect.

Each one of us is asked: will you be My disciple, or Will you walk away?

It is easy to reject Christ through denial, or indifference, or delay.

We want to say Yes to Him; we want to mean it, and to stay with that answer till the end.

He entered the process fully; so must we.

He committed to us in becoming Man, and going even as far as the Cross.

He has put action where his words went. Love songs say that we would climb any mountain, swim any ocean etc. Maybe we would but we know we are never going to have to put those ideals into practice.

God says He would do that kind of thing for us; He would even die for our sins – and He does exactly that.

He was not just words, impressive as they were. He practised what He preached without any loss in translation.

He wants to give us a chance to prove our love for Him, so that we are not just words or theory.

We say we would be prepared to suffer for Him, so He lets us prove that.

That is one reason why so many things go wrong for us. We are being tested; not in a cruel way but to help us to fulfil our potential, to grow to the stature which God intends us to have.

If we can get through these difficulties it will bring us to a deeper love for Him.

It is easy to be a part-time or  half-baked disciple. We can say all the right things, as they are written into our prayers, such as: I will not sin again.

He will put steel in to us, enable us to make genuine change in our lives.

Whatever He gives us to do, He will enable, by giving our humanity a share of His, which is perfect.

If we give Him our attention, give Him time; let Him work on us, we will get better at this.

The second part of our response is to take it to the nations. (The wise men from foreign parts represent the rest of humanity, besides the Jews.)

Everyone needs to know the scope of what is being offered to them.

The Christian faith is not just theory; it is the way to live. It takes in every aspect of life.

To possess this faith and to live by it is the happiest we can be in this life.

We are privileged to know what we know; we share in the great commission to make Him known to the ends of the world

There is much resistance but His ‘word does not return empty’ (Is 55,11).

We can do ourselves and everyone else a favour by picking up our share of the Cross, and proving (in practice) that our words of love are not empty.

Lord, make us strong enough for this!

Sunday in Octave of Christmas 30 Dec 2018 Sermon

Sunday in Octave of Christmas 30.12.18 The Incarnation

We unfold the Christmas mystery. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

We try to deepen our understanding of this mystery.

If we had been born before Christ became man, and someone said this is going to happen – that God will become man, we would probably have ridiculed the idea. Gods do not do that sort of thing.

But the real God did do exactly that. And then would die for us.

Some say that God is unfeeling and cruel, but look what He has done. He made us out of nothing to  share in His infinite glory; and in doing that is giving us a privilege beyond anything we could possibly deserve, or even dream of asking for.

We would have been happy just with ‘give us our daily bread’, and then leave us alone – like contented slaves or employees.

That He would come down that far, and dwell with us, to teach us what we can be, what we are called to be; to help us to do that by His grace and mercy, to inspire us with vision far beyond the everyday, the mundane. All this He has done.

We walk about in a world where God has become one of us. This is such a dramatic claim in itself; it takes a lot of absorbing.

But also amazing is that most of the human race either does not believe that truth, or does not think it is important.

People anxious not to know the truth have regressed into pre-Christian beliefs: there is some sort of deity out there somewhere, about whom we can know almost nothing.

They completely ignore that the same God has come all the way in from ‘out there’, has taught and showed us, and done all these things that have been recorded.

So how can we say we don’t know anything about Him? We have much information, which we can draw on anytime.

When we suffer – which is the most challenging time – we can make contact with Him, calling on His grace to help us cope, and overcome. We may not understand why He permits certain sufferings, but we come to trust Him for His own sake. This is Someone who has joined Himself to my nature. He must be interested in what happens to me. I cannot think He is unfeeling.

We go about our daily tasks, and we might look the same as the unbelievers as far as appearance goes, but we are lit up by an interior joy that all of this does lead somewhere.

We are not just like insects following each other until we fall over dead.

We are called to so much more than that, to eternal life, to be better, to respond to God and give Him that infinite yearning we have within us; and really be lifted up out of ourselves as the flesh shares in the Word.

Being human we have a choice which way we look – up or down. Towards Christ or away from Him – that is the question.

He came to His own and they knew him not. We will rewrite that part of history. We shall know Him.

We never think that God can be tied down to our definitions. We let Him lift us to His world rather than try to fit Him into our world.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Come, let us adore Him.

Christmas Day 2018 Sermon

Christmas Day 2018 Dawn Mass    Gratitude

We are saved not by our own merits but by God's generous mercy.

We have to be grateful to Him for creating us in the first place, and then further that He would save us; that having defied Him many times He would still be prepared to offer us more chances to reconcile with Him.

That requires a double dose of gratitude – for being born and for being saved.

That is the one thing we can give back to God – gratitude.

We do not have to climb a mountain or swim an ocean; only humbly admit that we could not be saved but for His mercy and grace.

This admission will only come if we are humble. We take a humble stand before God, express gratitude, and from there we are more likely to serve Him in our daily lives

We will have a general desire to please Him and have goodwill to our neighbours.

Christmas is a time to get back to the beginnings, to reconfirm all these basic truths.

We could be otherwise than grateful. Many people are angry with God, or indifferent to Him.

What has God got to do with it, they will say.

They do not see that their lives, and this whole world come from Him, and are kept in being only by His will.

If we begin with ourselves we might leave God out of the picture. So we begin with Him instead, and then we see more clearly where we fit in.

We are children of a loving Father, disciples of a loving Saviour – this is the reference point for everything else in our lives.

We will be tempted to doubt God's closeness to us; instead we constantly re-affirm our trust in Him. The trust will increase with being expressed. This is one reason why the Church has these feasts, such as Christmas, to reaffirm what has always been true, but we might otherwise forget.

The right attitude is personified in Mary, Mother of God. She was the best person ever but was also the humblest.

She knew that it all came from God. She had a place for Him in her heart, such that it never would have occurred to her to go against His will, or offend Him in any way.

For the rest of us, besides Mary, there is the need to repent of our sin. As gratitude awakens so we become aware of the times when we have gone our own way. Never again. He forgives freely; He will never turn away the contrite sinner.

We are as humble as slaves but as free as children. In His mercy He lets us walk about freely, when in strict justice He could punish us with great vigour.

He wants us to have our heads held high, not in pride or conceit, but in the realization of His mercy towards us - like the prodigal son must have felt while eating the banquet put on for him.

We have had 2000 years to think this over. Does the human race get any humbler? It does not look like it. Sin continues to abound with all its evil effects.

God has been patient with us, taking so much abuse from the very people He is trying to save.

This is love at its fullest, when it is offered to someone who hates in response. Mercy is love at its fullest extension.

We can be transformed by such love and that is just what we pray for today, especially today.

God humbled Himself before us; as a Baby, and later, as one Crucified. Now we must do the same before Him.

God will work though whose who do humble themselves before Him, who show themselves receptive to His love.

The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. O come let us adore Him.