3rd Sunday of Lent 24 Mar 2019 Sermon

3^rd Sunday of Lent 24.3.19 Continuous commitment

In the process of coming to the faith, and becoming members of the Church we would all have had certain significant moments.

There were the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation; Confession and Holy Communion.

For many there would have been a conversion experience whereby we see our faith in a new light, and we can make a personal commitment to live by that faith.

These are the bigger moments. We are grateful for them, but we also understand that we have to work hard to keep these moments alive. If I was converted to the faith some time past, I cannot simply rely on that past event; I have to make it current. I have to live the present time with the same enthusiasm as I had at that time.

The season of Lent makes us conscious of our salvation being a process, a continuous application of effort on our part, assisted and directed by the grace of God.

In today’s Gospel, Our Lord expels demons with great ease, and thus demonstrates that His power is far greater than theirs.

For our complete healing, however, we need to co-operate in the process.

We have to pitch in and help the process work. We have to show Our Lord we are willing to be His disciples; to make any necessary changes in our lives for that to be possible.

If we were stranded at sea we would co-operate with the rescue effort; and once pulled from the sea we would not dive back in!

We are freed from sin, and from the demons that lead us to sin; yet we can still desire that sin and be tempted to go back to it.

St Mary Magdalen shows us the way. She had seven demons cast out of her (Lk 8,2) and she then became one of our Lord’s best disciples.

Our commitment has to be continuous. We go to church on Sundays, and on the other days we live like it was still Sunday, at least as regards values.

Being good can seem hard work, given that it has to be all the time and in every situation! Virtues do not just pop up on their own; they have to be given the right conditions for growth, like a tender plant.

If it is hard it is made much easier by grace, which is always freely available.

The objective is that once the virtues take hold it will not be such an effort to be good. It will become second nature for us, the instinctive reaction - for example to be humble not proud; generous not mean; truthful not false.

Our Lord wants to free us from all traces of sin – in our thoughts, words, attitudes, actions.

He wants us not just to keep the rules, but to be transformed within, so that we no longer want to sin; the devil’s temptations have no hold on us.

Then we are ready to obey the instruction: Go and sin no more’ (Jn 8,11).

It is easy to lose one’s way. Think how many Catholics have received sacraments and/or had conversion experiences, and are now presently lost to the Church.

To be saved, and to stay saved, requires that we be continuously alert to all the factors involved.

We have to participate ourselves; we have to renew our commitment every day; we must avoid thinking we can do it on our own; and the other extreme of thinking that true holiness is impossible.

May the Lord cast out all our demons, literally and figuratively.

2nd Sunday of Lent 17 Mar 2019 Sermon

2^nd Sunday of Lent 17.3.19 Faith

Faith is the substance of things unseen (cf Heb 11,1). It is not faith if we can see it.

If we are thirsty and we come across a river, we can see the river. We do not need faith to believe it is there. But if we cannot see the river and still believe it is nearby, that is faith at work.

In spiritual terms faith is belief in God and His essential goodness; a trust that He will always do what is best for us.

There are things we cannot see, and things we have not seen yet. The future requires a lot of faith – to believe in it, and work towards it.

God will triumph even though He permits so much evil to go on in the meantime.

We know a certain number of things, and then we are told about other things. Starting with what we know, we should be able to believe what we don’t yet know or fully understand.

God has revealed many things. Some of these things are now past events; others are still to come. Having seen that God is reliable so far, it stands to reason He will be faithful in the future. If He has brought us this far, surely He can take us further, and why not all the way to Heaven?

Faith can be strong or weak. Weak faith changes with the circumstances of the day. Strong faith goes beyond current circumstances. It is rock-like in its endurance.

At the Transfiguration Our Lord is helping the apostles to strengthen their faith, effectively telling them they are going to need all the faith they can find, because they are going to see Him crucified, and looking like He is losing the fight - but really He is winning and will emerge in glory.

We come along later, and we know the story, so we should have no trouble dealing with suffering and setbacks, should we? Unfortunately, with the benefit of two thousand years of hindsight we still have trouble trusting the workings of divine Providence.

The evidence is there, but we have not assimilated it; we have not made a large enough space in our hearts and minds to take in this truth.

Calling upon the vast amount of evidence: of the reality of God, His goodness and truthfulness; and setting that against the doubt, fear and mockery, we are able to hold firm.

The glory of God is immense. We do not normally see it. We might have a few moments of ecstasy, but most of the time we are travelling by faith. There is water over the next sand dune! There is glory coming. It may be a while yet, but we are part of it and will not miss out.

If we have strong enough faith we can invoke the power of God to work for good. We can make good things happen, and head off the bad ones.

We have a say in what happens in the world. We do not just listen to the news; we make it!

This is quite a power to have.

It helps if there are more people believing and praying, and persisting in it.

Some miracles take longer than others, but the principle is there: ask, and you shall receive (Mt 7,7).

We take the chance, on hearing one more time of the Transfiguration, to draw more deeply from the wells of salvation, and be refreshed.

May the Lord give us all a strong faith, a lively faith, that will believe ‘nothing is impossible to God’ (Lk 1,37).

1st Sunday of Lent 10 March 2019 Sermon

1^st Sunday of Lent 10.3.19 Riches

Lent is our most readily identifiable season. It is associated with sacrifice as its most recognizable point, and that means it may not be the most popular time.

It is not all gloom, however, as we learn that from sacrifices come great blessings.

If we deny ourselves anything it is to gain something greater still,

For one thing, we are gaining a greater grasp of where we stand with God, and what we can do to improve that standing.

We hear of people who have won the Lottery but do not know they have won it. Somewhere they have the ticket that will bring them millions of dollars.

This can be our position if we consider how fortunate we are to possess the faith.

We possess the whole universe, not just a few million dollars; but do we know it?

Taking the human race as a whole, it is more like we have thrown the ticket away; we have forfeited our hold on eternal life.

Every time we oppose, deny, or insult the one true God we are giving up the prize above all others.

Sensing our loss we then look elsewhere, to false gods. But they cannot help.

It is harder to repair the damage on this level, than to find the lottery winner, because it is not just a matter of finding a missing object.

Restoring a damaged relationship with God involves the whole of ourselves - body and soul, the way we think; where we direct our love.

These are things which cannot be turned around in a moment. But it can be done.

God is generous. We would have been thrown out of any hotel by now if we behaved there the way we behave in God’s universe.

He still holds out to us the possibility of restoring union with Him, the chance of a new life; and we take the opportunity of doing that when we offer the Mass, or go to Confession, or engage in other penitential practices.

Offering each time again the atoning sacrifice of Christ, we acknowledge our distance from Him. We ask Him to restore what we have lost, the graces we have forfeited; to make us aware of where our true riches lie, and not to let us be so foolish as to look elsewhere.

So we find we do still have the winning ticket! It comes in the form of Mercy. God’s mercy is like a bank that never runs out of money. We can claim and claim and still there is more.

It is hard to sell this to the general public, because we cannot give them the instant satisfaction they demand.

Try to tell someone that gaining eternal life is better than all earthly delights put together, and we may not get a hearing.

If anyone tries the remedy, however, they will see a way forward.

Anyone prepared to follow Our Lord, in His patience and humility, will find that way.

This is how to do business with God: being humble and patient, never demanding from Him, nor directing what He must do. We leave it all to His perfect will.

If we submit our desires to the will of God we will always come off better.

The best thing about Adam and Eve’s state before they sinned was that they had perfect submission to God; which meant they had perfect control of their own desires.

Sin has cost us that self-control, and in its place we have concupiscence

We regain what we have lost by humility, simplicity, giving it all back to God.

The more we entrust to Him the more obviously we will experience the return of paradise, as far as it can be achieved on this earth; then finally, Heaven.

Quinquagesima Sunday 3 Mar 2019 Sermon

Quinquagesima Sunday 3.3.19  Chains of Sin

In Charles Dickens’ story of Scrooge, Mr Marley, a deceased business partner of Scrooge appears bound down with a long chain. He explains that all his sins in life meant an extra link to that chain. He warned Scrooge that he also had a long chain.

The collect of today’s Mass prays that we be loosed from the chains of our sins. If sin is a chain there are two ways in which it can bind us.

One is the guilt of sin committed, which must be set straight.

God will forgive one who is sincerely contrite. We can be sincere in our sorrow even if we commit the same sin more than once. Each time there has to be some intent to do something about it.

Being forgiven is one thing. There is another chain-like effect in that sin tends to be habitual, and therefore takes on a binding quality. Or it can even enslave us.

We can know something to be wrong, but still do it. This is the intellect. It helps to know the difference between right and wrong, but we need extra help.

There is also the will, whereby we decide what we are going to do. The will is harder to control than the intellect.

Sometimes the will is overpowered by temptation. That apple looks awfully good to eat, the basis of all sin.

The will determines what we want and how much we want it. Ideally we should want the same things as God does. His will is perfect; and ours can be made perfect.

This is breaking the chain that our previous sins have forged for us.

It is hard to break free from habits of sin, but anything is possible by God's grace.

Sin always involves a deception, a distortion. We can break free by seeing the real truth and taking the straight road.

Prayer will help. So will Sacraments, good works, voluntary penance. All these will help to re-train the will. We are then more able to resist sins when they come into our path – even if we have usually succumbed to the same temptation before.

This is a glorious freedom to discover, and it could be anyone’s.

The chains have fallen from us; we can walk free.

Ultimately we reach a point where we not only refrain from sin but we do not even want to commit the sin. The will is perfectly healed. We now totally agree with God, and His holy will.

And there is one thing still more. If we agree with God and obey Him, it is not because we have to, as if compelled by force or duty; but as children of a loving Father we want to obey. If the commandments were abolished we would still keep them!

It is love which motivates. The epistle speaks of the perfections of Love, the gift of Charity at work.

We become more patient, forgiving, generous, and the like. We develop these virtues which replace the vices.

This is how it is in Heaven, and it is also how we get to Heaven.

We cannot enter Heaven if we are still brooding with sin.

With Lent approaching we are eager to gain any insight that we can; a combination of clearer knowledge and stronger will.

For those of us who do not commit obvious sins like robbing banks, what have we to fear? Our sins are more subtle, like resentment, jealousy, self-pity, unforgiveness.

We really have to work on these chains.

Every sin has its opposite, and that is what we discover. We are no longer angry with everyone because we are at peace with God.

We are not jealous because we realize we have enough.

We are no longer lustful because we have discovered the balance of true love.

Believe it can be done; believe it should be done.

The season of Lent is not so popular. But see it in terms of a captive breaking free, and that suddenly is very appealing.