Last Sunday after Pentecost 24 Nov 2019 Sermon

Last Sunday after Pentecost 24.11.19 Security

The word Last conveys a certain sadness, the last farewell etc. the end of things we have valued or known, such as school or work.

Finality is not necessarily a bad thing if we can go to something better instead.

As Christians we definitely believe there is a better place than here; and we do not belong here. Our true home is in Heaven (Ph 3,20).

So we are not overly alarmed when we consider the prospect of this world’s being wrapped up.

We are secure because we believe in something much more substantial that this world.

[The world cannot satisfy us, either in terms of permanent life, or in happiness. The earth itself might disappear, and even if it remains happiness is elusive]

Our true home will last forever and we will have complete happiness there.

We still want to change this world, however, as far as it can be done.

We want to give it back to Our Lord as Lord and Saviour, freed from sin and glorified by His grace.

It is sin that has made things go so crooked as they are; it is repentance that will get things back to the right shape.

We are stewards of creation. Yes we should look after the environment, but even more so the moral environment, seeking to live as Adam and Eve were first directed, and as the Second Adam and Eve have shown us.

God provided the earth for us to live on, to learn how to apply His will to situations that arise, to glorify Him through His creation.

We give thanks for all His gifts as we use them according to His will.

God never wanted to send destruction on this earth. He does, however, want to purify it, and sometimes (because of sin) that requires a certain violence.

He sends chastisements so that people will turn back to Him.

He does not want to punish anymore than is necessary, and we can reduce the need for punishment by hastening our own response of obedience.

The threats of destruction and punishment are conditional upon our response.

If we put the things of this world before God that is what brings the disasters. If we put God first there will be no disasters; everything will run smoothly, as it does in Heaven.

Being reminded of the Last day, the End of our lives, should help us re-affirm our true objectives.

It is simple: God has given us the earth to live on, and each of us a certain role to play. He has allocated us certain talents and will want to know from us how we have exercised those talents (Mt 25,14-30).

If we have served Him, we inherit eternal life; if we have squandered our talents, eternal loss.

We are called to a wise balance of all the factors involved. We prepare for our entry to the next life by working on all the details of this one.

We do not just drift. Nor do we bury ourselves so completely in this life as to forget the next.

The Church gives us this thought every year; one more time around the clock - to see if we have learned anything.

In this last year, or in all our years taken together, what have we become? Has all our activity brought us closer to God, or further away?

We need to re-establish in our minds, and for people generally, that Christ is Lord, King, Judge, Saviour of the world. Somehow the world manages to ignore  Him.

The earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts etc are there to remind us that we cannot afford to do that.

We gladly affirm His importance and ask for every grace and mercy until He comes again.

23rd Sunday after Pentecost 17 Nov 2019 Sermon

 23^rd Sunday after Pentecost 17.11.19 Freed from slavery

The woman is healed and the girl is raised. All easy work for Our Lord!

We approach the end of the Church year, at which time we contemplate especially the last things – Heaven, Hell, Death, Judgment. We assess our readiness to meet the Lord.

He is the Judge but also the Advocate. He wants us to be saved more than we want it ourselves.

Our Lord shows His power to heal at every level. He can cure sickness; He can bring someone back to life.

The one that really matter is a third level of healing, that of forgiveness of sin.

Forgiveness of sin restores us to life of grace, soul-life

This is better than just being healthy, or just being alive. It goes to the very centre of our being, bringing us into union with Divine life - a great source of joy when we reach that state.

The idea is that we be not just forgiven of sins but raised to the point that we no longer have any inclination to sin; we are fully alive, like the saints themselves, who dwell in perfect concord with Almighty God.

The way we think, the way we regard one thing as more important than another – these can be set straight as for the sickness and death Our Lord overpowered.

There is more to the spiritual healing because it involves the will of the other person, and that will can be very hard to bend. Still it can be done, as long as the person concerned shows some degree of cooperation.

We will have new desires, purer and stronger, well-ordered; linked to the will of God. We will be free from all addictions, compulsions, and bad habits. We control our desires; not they control us!

This is what we should ask for when we call out to the Lord to heal us. We will gladly take any degree of healing or blessing, but the recovery of our own soul is the big prize.

To realize that we need such a change; and to believe it is possible to happen – Our Lord assures us that it is so.

When we cry, Lord have mercy, or any similar prayer, we are asking for all this.

Many would regard their sins as too firmly lodged to be movable. You can't change a leopard’s spots etc. Anyway everyone does what I do, so I don’t need to be better than they are.

This is false captivity. We do not have to settle for that.

It may be a process, not all at once, but we can get there eventually.

We cannot heal ourselves, or raise ourselves from the dead, or absolve ourselves from sin.

It has to be an external power that can do these things, and this power is from Christ; and we come to Him, asking Him to direct His merciful gaze upon us and just one fraction of His infinite power and goodness to revive us, and bring us back to life in the soul.

We ask Him to heal us in any way and any degree He chooses, but at least we give Him full access and understanding that we must be prepared to be His disciples if we are to ask His favours.

We can ask for freedom even if we feel bound. It may be beyond our strength but not beyond Him.

The captives are set free. From sickness, from death, from sin.

As we prepare for the end this freedom is what we seek. We will have no fear of judgment if we have established a continuous relationship with Our Lord, calling upon His healing.

And this we pray for each other, including the dead.

22nd Sunday after Pentecost 10 Nov 2019 Sermon

22^nd Sunday after Pentecost 10.11.19 Battle of wills

Give to God what is His. That comes to everything.

Even what we call our own, like cars or houses; but also, closer to home, even our minds and hearts, our plans, ambitions, desires…

The objects we ‘own’ are really His more than they are ours. He has a greater claim to our cars and houses than we have, and we should use them in accord with His will rather than our own. This would mean, for example, that we would drive safely, or be generous with using our money or resources.

But the hardest part is the interior. We have a way of thinking that we run our own lives., forgetting that we owe our existence to Almighty God, and must serve Him first.

Many would say they have complete dominion over their own bodies and their own lives.

Yet our bodies are not our own; we have been bought and paid for. (cf 1 Cor 6,19-20)

And we cannot control external circumstances, cf James 4,13-14. We do not know even what tomorrow will bring, let alone planning the rest of our lives.

And then there is the question of will. My will or God's will – which shall prevail?

I have certain plans that suit me; He has other ideas for my life. Should I submit to Him?

Yes, because He has absolute authority anyway, as above; but also because He knows far better what is best for us.

It is not as though we become robots or puppets. We have a fairly high degree of autonomy and freedom of initiative. God wants us to think for ourselves and make decisions, only to make those decisions in union with His will for us.

He wants us to be habitually attuned to His will, as Our Lady was, and thus be regularly and automatically making the right decisions.

Once we get close enough to Him, we recognize His will and come to love it as our own.

Not My will but Thine (Lk 22,42).

We can make plans but they have to be flexible.  Man proposes, God disposes (cf Prov 19.21-23). And at a moment’s notice. We must be ready to part with anyone, anything, and even our own lives, or the world itself.

We are allowed to have our own preference for one thing over another, but always be willing to submit to God's greater wisdom.

This is all by way of giving to God what is His. The course of history is His. The course of our own lives is His. It is all subject to His will – either what He directly wills, or at least permits.

Every breath we take, or every step - there is no escaping His rule. Go to the bottom of the sea; or into outer space – no place or time is outside His knowledge and authority (cf Ps 138, 1-15).

Nor can we escape the inevitability that we must face God in judgment one day; or that this world as we know it will come to an end.

But then we have the possibility, probability, even certainty of eternal life to console us.

We are fortunately placed, if only we can keep the balance and not think we can somehow bypass all this and just live ‘normal’ lives.

We give to God our own wills, our devotion, our commitment. This will please Him, at the same time being beneficial to ourselves and to the surrounding society.

If everyone bowed down before the true God it would be a perfect world, and even Caesar would be happy with what comes his way!

21st Sunday after Pentecost 3 Nov 2019 Sermon

21^st Sunday after Pentecost 3.11.19 Mercy for others

A notorious serial killer died recently in Australia. People were saying, as they usually do,  that he can rot in hell.

It is understandable to be angry with someone who does so much evil. But how we respond is important.

We cannot just give way to hatred and revenge. When people say, ‘rot in hell’, it means they want the person to suffer. This is clearly not the way. It is really just revenge, an unbridled passion.

We learn to love - not hate - those who hurt us.

We see the soul in need. Just as we would help someone in physical need – would feed a hungry man, would free a man who was trapped …  the spiritual domain operates the same way.

This man is in trouble; you can help him find what he needs, namely salvation.

To be cleansed of sin. Every soul still in transit could be moved to a better state than present.

However good or bad one might be, we all need improvement, and it is always possible.

The closer we look the more we realize everyone needs grace and mercy. Not all sins are as dramatic as murder. There are many others, not so easily detected, which can do their own damage: such as worshipping false gods, corrupting the young, sacrilege, blasphemy, pride, refusal to forgive.

We don’t need to know which sins are worse than which, only that any sin needs to be cleansed, and attachment to that sin needs to be loosened.

Those who know have a duty to help those who know less. We try to do as much as we can to help the whole process.

We do not have to assess each other soul - which we could not do anyway. All we have to do is pray for the salvation of each soul.

And we should not pray like it was a task, against the grain, but we are supposed to want the soul to be saved.

If you get to Heaven and you meet someone there who hurt you a lot… by that stage both he and you will be at one with God, and at peace with each other.

At this time of year, especially, we recall our practice of praying for the dead.

If the person is beyond help and cannot be saved, the prayer will not be wasted; it will help someone. It increases the flow of charity within the whole Body of Christ.

We believe we can help the dead, in two phases: one to be forgiven for their sin, and the other to be purified of all attachment to sin.

We believe we can hasten the time, or lessen the severity of the purification.

If one is contrite enough not so much punishment is needed. We seek to reach perfect contrition. And pray that we all do.

We need continuous cleansing on this point, to be drinking from the spring of Christ’s mercy – which flows like a torrent from His side.

This will change our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh, and make us more yielding and forgiving.

And it will make our prayer more powerful, able to touch the most hardened sinners.

We seek to grasp more fully the mind of God on these matters. It is really necessary that we come to this topic from a spiritual perspective and not the usual earthly way.

So it is not ‘may he rot in hell’ but ‘may he reach the courts of heaven’, however long it may take. And his victims, and the rest of us who struggle with the power of evil.

In any case, and all cases, Lord Have Mercy.