Passion Sunday 21 Mar 2021 Sermon

 Passion Sunday 21.3.21  Choosing sides.

The hostility of the Jewish leadership towards Our Lord continues to increase as we retrace the events leading to Holy Week.

The Pharisees and companions would have been much better served if they had sided with Our Lord, but having started in error they went further and further off course. They could not have picked a worse line to follow.

We can have some sympathy for the people of that time who had seen Jesus in His earlier days. They might have thought He was remarkable at the human level, but they had no idea of His divinity.

He was not working public miracles at that time.

Imagine if your next-door neighbour suddenly got up and started preaching and working miracles! You might find that a bit hard to take. We would be inclined to doubt.

Initially caution is recommended.

The trouble for the Jews was that they never moved beyond that initial caution, despite mountains of proof. Their scepticism turned to hostility, and eventually blind hatred.

It became: Kill Him at any cost.

They achieved their aim in crucifying Him, but that only made it worse for them.

Other generations have made much the same errors. People generally reject Christ as Saviour and God, treating Him either with scorn or indifference.

Yet His credential were impossible to deny. He did only good; He preached with great wisdom, and put it into practice. He backed up his word with action. He did not break with the Jewish religion, only taking it to a higher level.

Was the devil doing this in Him (as alleged)? No, the devil would be incapable of doing so much good; nor would he wish it.

Whereas the actions of Jesus tie in with a merciful God who is seeking to save His people.

All Our Lord’s words and actions lead back to the true God.

With a little patience it can all be worked out that Jesus is the true good, and should be followed.

Whether we are moved by the excitement of the miracles, or we study all the prophecies - either way we reach the same conclusion. He makes us feel good but He also matches all the other criteria.

As to the more difficult points they can all be handled. We cannot improve on the ways of God Himself. Some things we understand; some not.

The main thing to be understood is that God is always going to be right.

Accepting the Lord requires not only agreement, but also commitment, and a general willingness to obey.

We have to take Him as He is. Once we admit His claims the argument stops.

If He does something we do not understand then it is we who have to change not He.

We do not dismiss Him because His ways do not suit us.

Every Easter, somewhere in the media, there will be doubts raised as to Our Lord’s truthfulness, or whether He even existed etc. Various blasphemous suggestions will circulate.

Why do people have such reluctance to take the obvious course, and follow Him? The Creator and Saviour of the world has come to us, and asked us to join Him in perfect unity of heart and mind; not just to solve our problems - although that will happen too, as the whole society is remade.

The devil divides and confuses. He convinces people to stay with what they know, miserable as it probably is. He repeats the temptation to Adam and Eve that God is lying to you.

We go back to Our Lord’s credentials. We will not find so much truth, goodness, or power in one place again. Think of any of His miracles or any of His teachings, and our faith will be revived.

It will not be difficult forever. We look to Heaven for the return of our Saviour who will come from heaven to transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of His own glorious likeness (Ph 3,21).

4th Sunday of Lent 14 Mar 2021 Sermon

 

4^th Sunday of Lent 14.3.21 Multiplication

When God gave good and beautiful things to the human race, such as wine, food, sunshine, health… He was hoping that people would respond gratefully and use those things in the way that He intended them to be used.

This was not the usual outcome. Many people, probably most, saw their chance and said: All these things are available to me. Why do I not just take them and use them as I please? Why bring God into it?

The whole history of the human race has been this battle between giving God His rightful place; or trying to blot Him out as much as possible.

God has been very patient, because He could have punished us far more than He has; and still His invitation stands – the invitation to enter more fully into His life, into union with Him.

Of all His gifts the Eucharist is His supreme gift to us, but it is greatly underrated by many.

The Eucharist is more subtle than most miracles because it does not address a particular need, such as being afraid of a storm, or suffering from an illness. It is more general than that.

It is God's invitation to every person to come into close union with Him. It can be lost if our desires are too much concerned with the flesh, as opposed to the spirit.

When the Israelites were hungry God rained down manna from Heaven. The people complained about the monotony of the food. They were no longer dying from hunger, so they complained about the taste of the food! (Num 11,6)

Many of the crowd gathered in today’s Gospel would have been glad for the meal which came from nowhere, but would not have reflected any more deeply than that their physical need was met.

Our Lord reproduces Himself every day in the Mass, all over the world. But most of the world’s population is indifferent. Either they do not know about this gift, or they do not believe in it. Whatever the reason very few are breaking the door down to receive the Bread of Life, the bread which will link them with Heaven. It is heavenly food, providing heavenly benefits and remedies.

It is not just the quantity of the bread that is multiplied; but the power it works.

It is Our Lord’s wish that people in every place and time will meet Him in this way, and be suitably aware of what that means.

He wants to work His good influence in each person who approaches the Sacrament. It is a meal beyond all others.

To us it falls both to value the Eucharist, and to receive it. In the face of so much indifference we affirm our awareness, our interest, our desire that God will do with us all that He wants.

Ingratitude has damaged the human race so much. We are doing our bit to restore the balance.

The crowd was made to sit down, to indicate the need for orderly faith on the part of each one present. Everyone will be fed (needs supplied) if we are patient and do not wander off somewhere.

So we go back to God's original intention. Are we prepared to accept His gifts, yet still put Him first; or are we going to hijack His gifts for our own purposes (the essence of all sin).

Can we find Him in the midst of it all; or will we continue to ignore Him, or even crucify Him again?

Today is Laetare Sunday. There is great joy to be found by anyone who perceives the true God and His importance.

3rd Sunday of Lent 7 Mar 21 Sermon

 

3^rd Sunday of Lent 7.3.21 Demons

How did demons come into being? They were created as angels, and they subsequently chose to rebel against God's authority. This meant they had to be cast out of heaven, now in a deformed state.

From then on, full of malevolence they do everything possible to prevent humans from reaching Heaven.

They put every possible obstacle before Our Lord’s ministry, ironically defeating themselves when their orchestration of the crucifixion led to the salvation of the human race.

Our Lord combatted the demons in His time, and now helps His disciples to do the same.

The devil is likened to a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour (1P 5,8). 

But much of his work will be done through appearing to be harmless, and even helpful, as when he tricked Adam and Eve; assuring them that it would be fine to eat the forbidden fruit (Gen 3,4-5).

He remains malevolent. His rage does not diminish. He is far more dangerous than any known beast, lion, or dragon etc.

We are consoled that we are also loved by spiritual beings (God, Our Lady, angels, saints) but it pays to remember that there is someone trying to destroy us.

We need to have a healthy awareness of the devil, not to be preoccupied with him, but at least aware. He cannot harm us if we stay in our domain.

One timely warning for this age is not to expose ourselves to practices where he is likely to be  encountered - such as any occult practice, fortune tellers, ouija boards, tarot cards, etc.

We entrust matters beyond us to God, trusting that He will reveal to us what we need to know, at the right time.

Many people no longer take the devil seriously, seeing him more as a figure of fun.

This goes with a general permissiveness through our society,  a sense that nothing is really off-limits anymore.

The Church used to say one could go to hell for a mortal sin, but somehow we never hear that anymore (almost never).

Hell has not gone away. We may nuance things a bit more than in the past, for example, that not every suicide necessarily goes straight to hell (if they did not have full power of reason).

But the magnitude of difference between choosing Christ or the devil remains. Every one of us faces a choice to spend eternity in Heaven or in Hell.

All our moral choices should be made with this reference point in mind.

We avoid complacency, such as that referred to in today’s Gospel, that with one devil gone I must be home and hosed. Not necessarily.

The devil will attack as long as he can. And if we are still alive we are still potentially vulnerable. The man who thinks he cannot fall (1 Co 10,12) had better make sure he does not.

There are so many types of sins and traps. While we are vigilant about one thing, another might get through.

What is needed overall is a greater love for God on our part, so that we do not want to offend Him in any way.

We try to know the rules, and we keep them as well as we can, but our desire to please God is always the main point.

We do not become perfect all at once; it takes pruning and cutting, and learning from past sins and mistakes. We are all progressing through this.

We build up our strength, to become impervious to temptation, to present a stronger face to the world.

The world laughs at us for our faults. We must go from amusing them to startling them by the purity of our lives; awakening them to the true state of play. Every person, each person, faces eternity in heaven or hell.

Deliver us from evil.

2nd Sunday of Lent 28 Feb 2021 Sermon

 

2^nd Sunday of Lent 28.2.21  Encouragement

The disciples get discouraged easily. On Holy Thursday night they flee,  and even on Easter Sunday they are still afraid and discouraged.

It took so long for them to grasp the Resurrection, and even when given a boost at Pentecost many drifted away.

When the initial enthusiasm wears off, faith can disappear.

And ever since that time there have been people who gained the faith, but then lost it again.  

They allowed themselves to cool off, something which could happen to anyone who does not maintain the discipline. A boiling pot of water will cool off if the source of heat is removed.

We have to keep praying, like our lives depend on it - every kind of prayer: praise, thanksgiving, petition.

Above all, the Holy Mass, and the sacraments.

We have to keep our faith alive and active. There is always a temptation to stop, and say, Well, I have done enough.

We can never stop our faith life; it is as vital as eating or breathing.

We have to be in a state of grace, of continuous union with God; a union strong enough to make a difference to our lives; such that we are conscious of belonging to God first and foremost.

We do not  just squeeze Him in ceremonially, every now and then.

The Transfiguration (today’s Gospel) was meant to encourage the apostles, so that they would be strong enough not to lose faith when they saw the Crucifixion.

We have the same need for encouragement. A lot of bad things happen around us yet we still have to keep the faith.

The faith is embodied in the Resurrection, or any miracle which reminds us that God has not lost His power; nor has He left us.

We do not let setbacks undermine our faith. We will come through in all weathers.

Full stomach or empty, to have enough or be in need cf Ph 4,12

One particular disappointment we have encountered lately is the abortion ruling in our local parliament.

This has happened in other places, and probably similar and related legislation, also abhorrent, will appear soon.

This is a disappointing result in itself, and we can be further disappointed at the lack of motivation of most Catholics and Christians, who could rise up in great numbers but generally do not.

We could be discouraged by this but we do not let that happen. It just means some things are harder work than they might first look.

We pray on different levels at the same time. We pray for politicians to see where the truth is found, and to take their role of ruling with the power   which comes from God. (cf Rom 13,1)

We pray for a change of heart and mind on abortion and on all contentious issues.

If people had enough faith these things would not even see the light of day.

Distortion, brought about by sin, has done much damage and we are trying to reverse all that.

The light of Christ will burst through if enough disciples can stay awake with Him. (cf Mt 26,40)

Humanity has been in the dark ever since the first sin. People in every generation repeat the words, I will not serve. (Jer 2,20)

We keep praying because it is necessary to shift mountains, and also to keep our own sanity, so we do not join the rush down the slope. (Mk 5,13)

We reaffirm our commitment to the cause. If the last thing we saw was Christ on a cross or coming out of the tomb - iIt makes no difference in a sense, because we still do the same thing: we pray, we believe, we spread the good news.

The glory of Christ will prevail when all sin has been forgiven or punished. We look to be there when that day comes!