1st Sunday of Lent 21 Feb 2021 Sermon

 

1^st Sunday of Lent 21.2.21 Strength for the battle

Our Lord predicted His crucifixion and that might seem a strange way to achieve His ends.

Now today He demonstrates the value of fasting, something also a little strange.

How does it help to deny oneself of apparent source of strength?

And we are encouraged to do the same.

We are in a spiritual battle, hoping to overcome but not to cause harm.

Our aim is to give everyone a chance to hear the Gospel and be converted, so finding the way to eternal life.

The world does not specially want to know, but we know that they need it, so we tell them anyway!

A certain withdrawal from the world is necessary to sort out our own priorities.

There has always been a debate among Christians whether we should withdraw, and how much, from the world.

These days any withdrawal is seen as wrong, but with proper understanding it makes sense. The old phrase has it: we are in the world but not of it. We interpret things spiritually and make our decisions on that basis.

We travel light and fast, avoiding excessive attachments.

This is where fasting or penance come in. If we can regulate our own desires and gain control over our minds and bodies, then that is a major step forward.

We feast when it is a feast, but we realize also the need for fasting.

We fast (or do other penance) in the hope that it will make us stronger in all important areas.

We must avoid certain snares.

One snare would be to seek the praise of others for our efforts (Mt 6,16).

True penance is aimed at an interior humility whereby we are acknowledging it is heavenly bread we seek; the way of God; the will of God; greater knowledge of God. These are the things we really need, and seek.

The devil will tempt us to give up. He will especially attack disordered desires and appetites.

The less of those we have the less ways he has to attack us.

We withdraw a little to become stronger, to re-focus, to remember why we are doing this.

The liturgical re-enactment of forty years/days invites us to go through the same process of cleansing and realignment.

We are thus equipped for battle.

We grow stronger. This is another object: we are preparing for Heaven, so we need to get rid of all the vices and faults.

It is good to do penance, but here is another snare – we might think that the penance of itself is enough. No, penance is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The real end is that we come to love God more.

Penance is largely forgotten by Catholics these days and we can see the fallout. So much loose thinking and so many bad decisions follow.

There is a time to feast but it is not all year round! We have not finished the battle yet.

There are too many mines lying around, needing to be cleared.

We have become very soft as far as self denial is concerned. It is up to us to help reverse the trend.

This is part of our message to the world. A saturated jaded world is still seeking its own forms of pleasure, on its own terms. But this does not lead to happiness, as has been observed many times.

We have to go somewhere else for that elusive happiness. First the desert, then Calvary, then Glory.

Quinquagesima Sunday 14 Feb 2021 Sermon

Quinquagesima Sunday 14.2.21 Saving the world

God so often goes against what people expect. Many expected the Messiah to be someone who would be a military figure, like another King David, who would wipe out the opposition and restore Israel to past glory.

Instead He brought no change on the political landscape, only offering them a new way of life. He saved the people where they needed it, but mostly did not recognize.

The real need is for the transformation of the human heart. It would be easier to fight the Roman army than do this!

Attitudes harden like weeds, and they are hard to pull out.

Nevertheless it can be done, and Our Lord has been doing it ever since, through the power of His saving death, and the grace which flows from that.

How to save a world. It is not just politics and economics; nor can it be done just by dialogue and compromise. It takes repentance from the heart. It requires a vision of the human person as more than just physical or material. The solution is essentially spiritual.

The One who has saved the world demonstrates for us. He allowed Himself to be taken, tortured and crucified. That looks like a funny way to save the world.

It looks like defeat not victory, and what is the good of being dead?

As to death, the grave could not hold the Son of God (Ac 13,35).

The apostles heard His prediction but could not get past the reference to death. They forgot that He had predicted resurrection.

As to looking like defeat, victory can come in different forms. It might look something else besides victory, but if God's will is being advanced, that is the point.

It might look like defeat, or as though nothing is happening; but if it is what God wants, watch out.

Our Lord was doing things that no one understood, except His Mother.

She would have encouraged her Son to stay on the cross; she understood the deeper level.

She had the spiritual perception that we all need.

We need saving from the blindness that keeps us imprisoned in only worldly thinking.

Then we can discern the will of God and let Him use His full power to save us.

All of us, individually and communally, will converge on the will of God and experience victory.

A good disciple will believe whatever Our Lord says, even before there is any evidence for it.

We come to a point that we trust God for anything.

Is our faith strong enough now, even though we know the story? We have two thousand years advantage over the apostles. Have we made any progress?

We are tempted to take up false beliefs. There are so many of them around. None of them can save us. They might address some part of the truth but never hit on the exact answer.

We are tempted to let our faith cool off over time. Again and again we reaffirm that we believe the events surrounding Our Lord’s life are the central thread that makes sense of the whole of human history.

We believe the past and we believe the future. God delivers on His promises as history teaches, and as we will see further yet.

We are tempted to resentment of God's way. He may not be acting quickly enough for us. We remember Good Friday, and how appearances can deceive.

We are tempted to kill Him again, or at least ignore Him. Instead we seek Him out, and fully embrace what He puts before us.

The Cross comes before Resurrection. The Cross may look like it is the last thing, but it is really only the introduction - to eternity.

Sexagesima Sunday 7 Feb 2021

 

 

Sexagesima Sunday 7.2.21 Suffering

God tells the disciple Ananias that He has not yet told Paul all he must suffer for Christ. (Acts 9,16)

In today’s epistle St Paul recalls all that he has suffered. It is a very formidable list… shipwrecks, floggings, hunger, lacking shelter, danger of capture etc.

It may be just as well that God did not tell Paul all this in advance, else he may have buckled under the prospect.

Just as well for us too that God mercifully withholds much of the future from our sight; instead, He encourages us to look back and see how much we have already overcome with His help.

Truly He does not let us be tested beyond our strength (1 Cor 10,13). If we take the sufferings one at a time they do not seem so bad.

Still, the prospect of suffering does intimidate many would-be Christians, as the parable of the Sower reveals. Let them encounter some obstacle or trial and they fall away (Mt 13,21).

If we think of what might happen (food for wild animals, burnt at the stake, or beheaded etc!) it does not sound very inviting, and would make anyone quake with fear.

However, if we come from another angle, from a God-centred view, then we can see things in a much more positive light.

This is what St Paul did. He did not dwell on the sufferings; He let them pass as incidental to the main event – which was to know Christ, and Him crucified (1 Co 2,2). All else he accounted as so much rubbish (Ph 3,8). Even his life he did not hold valuable (Acts 20,24)

His whole focus was Christ and making Him known. This, he could see, was the key to everything.

When we are totally focused on something we do not notice the surroundings. When we face a big event all our mental energy goes into that. It is only when we have time on our hands that we think idly about all that can go wrong.

What we need to do, therefore, is steel ourselves with more courage, commitment, single-mindedness, such that we also are so focused on our identity as disciples of Christ, that all else falls into the background.

How do we get to such a state? By the grace of God who will reward any serious attempt to draw closer to Him. And for our part, keeping up the regular schedule of prayer, penance, sacraments, good works, generally immersing ourselves in His reality.

We begin with Christ and we stay with Him all the way along. We grow in love for Him, and this increases our capacity to suffer in His name.

Peter and John rejoiced that they had suffered for the Name. they were glad to have a chance to do something that would express their love for Him (Acts 5.41).

It is the complete reverse of the usual fleshly worldly way of thinking, where our first instinct is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Instead, we seek Christ and we avoid betraying Him

We can avert some of the persecutions that might await us by prayer and obedience.

If enough people prayed, and well enough, a lot less terrible things would happen.

There will always be some sufferings but we can reduce them.

What cannot be avoided can be negotiated one at a time with our focus firmly on Our Lord.

This is how countless men, women, and children have managed to negotiate suffering and found their way into eternal life.

Septuagesima Sunday 31 Jan 2021 Sermon

 

 

Septuagesima Sunday 31.1.21 One hour in the sun

God is generous in His dealings with the human race. The vineyard owner in today’s Gospel says: why be envious because I am generous? (Mt 20,15)

If we are not sufficiently grateful for God’s blessings we might then be grudging of His blessings to others.

The Jews, for instance, did not think that God should be generous to the Gentiles.

The early workers in the parable thought they were hard done by, even though they received what they had agreed upon.

And we might resent that others with whom we would find fault might achieve Heaven before us. We are doing the ‘work’ while they reap the reward.

All these positions amount to a kind of grudging mercy to others. There is enough for all; God's mercy is infinite and eternal, and freely given to those who have any inclination to seek it.

We pray for exactly this to happen, that God would save those presently far from Him.

From another angle again we could see ourselves as the late workers, insofar as so many have been before us.

There have already been twenty centuries before us where people have been labouring to get things into place.

We benefit from all this. Think of all the missionaries, the catechists, the priests and religious etc. that have put things in motion for our benefit. All the martyrs and saints. All there for our inspiration and imitation.

And God Himself has been with us all this time, inspiring each generation to pass on His reality to the next.

All the heavy lifting had been done for us - the creeds have been settled; the sacraments established – all we have to do is agree!

The key events have already happened: Christ has come; has lived among us; has died, risen, ascended. All this before we arrived.

He has paved the way for us, guided the Church, protected us from storms.

Now it is our time in the sun; the torch is in our hands. Our one hour of labour can be to hold on to the Truth we have received, and then pass it on to those who come after us.

Or are we going to complain instead? Yes, there are many negatives. But they only impede the work of the Church; they do not mean that the work itself should be abandoned.

God does not start things to abandon them midway. His word does not return to Him empty (Is 55,11).

We need less complaining, and more thanksgiving - realizing how fortunate we are to be included in God's generous plans.

Why do we have to work at all? It is God's way of preparing us for eternal life.

If we imitate the pattern of life Our Lord has shown us, then we are formed in His image. We take on His mind and heart; we become more generous, self-sacrificing, wiser etc, and more ready to dwell with Him for ever.

Our ‘work’ for Him takes many forms according to vocation and circumstance.

Each of us is uniquely placed; we are not here by random chance. God has in mind particular things we can do for Him, things which will not happen if we refuse to do them.

We are tempted to leave it to others to do the work. No, each of us is called, and must respond to that individual call.

We are tempted to think we suffer too much. God knows what each of us can take, and what we need to iron out our faults and failings; thus to grow in virtue.

We might think others get it easier than we do. The same reasoning applies – I must concentrate on what I have to do, and hope others can do the same for themselves.

There will be a reward for all comers – early or late – who are faithful to the task in their time.