Sunday in Octave of Christmas 26 Dec 2021 Sermon

Sunday in Octave of Christmas 26 December 2021 The eternal Day

We said it all yesterday but we come back today, the day after Christmas.

Life presses on and does not give us a lot of time to reflect on important issues.

Even liturgically one day merges into another and we speed along rapidly.

We hold on as best we can to the fast-moving train! It is not usually a comfortable ride for us.

One reason for this is that the things we celebrate (such as the Birth of Christ) are not yet fully integrated into our daily lives, or in the surrounding society. So there is always an element of struggle involved.

Many do not believe these events are important, or they fail to give them the attention they deserve.

The calendar takes us quickly from Christmas Day to St Stephen’s Day, and then two days later to the feast of the Holy Innocents.

The gentle crib scene of one day gives way to brutal martyrdom on another day.

We would like to live in a world where everything was as peaceful and ordered as that crib scene.

The next best thing is that we are ready to live either way. If it is peaceful, fine - we can cope with that. If it is violent, and we face the prospect of martyrdom, fine. That is harder but we can still cope, by the grace of God.

We live our faith in such a way that we are prepared to die for it.

We are fortified for such a life by continuous prayer, penance, sacraments, good works.

We follow the example of the great saints, who were holy and humble enough to withstand worldly pressure and hold firm to the Truth.

They imitated Christ, they obeyed Him, they witnessed to Him.

There is an urgency. We rest the body but never the spirit. We are in a long war, and there is work to be done.

It is not just Christmas Day that we are thinking of these things.

The first Christmas was an enormous event. Now it is up to us to bring that event into our time and space. It is up to us now because the people of past times are resting, and the future ones are not here yet.

Oh, but I am inadequate for the task, we will say. Yes we are inadequate if on our own, but we have access to the grace of God, to help us do everything that has to be done.

To save souls is the big task - to get people to accept the will of God and actually be submissive to Him.

It is very difficult to change long-held opinions but the task has to be done, rain or shine.

The clock does not stop; we use our time in the sun. Not clinging too much to this life we interpret everything in terms of the spiritual world.

We might envy the worldly people but we must not. We are the lucky ones to be employed in the vineyard (Mt 20,1-16).

We integrate all days, special and ordinary, and join them to the eternal Day of Heaven.

If ever and whenever we do reach the point that life is all peaceful and everything goes as it should, we will not stop praying.

There is still the matter of praising God, for which we were created! That is what they do in Heaven – all day, as it were.

 

Christmas Day 2021 Sermon

Christmas Day 2021 The Saviour comes

The strong ones of the world use military power to subjugate their weaker neighbours, and set up their own empires.

This is the way of the world; it is certainly not the way of Christ.

He could have used violence if He had wished, and He would have won any battle He entered.

But He set Himself a harder task than simply military victory.

He chose to operate by persuasion rather than force.

Through His word, and deeds, and by establishing sacraments, He offered salvation to any who would be humble and compliant enough to receive Him.

Thus He would make the crooked places straight and  the rough places plain, as Isaiah had prophesied, Is 40,4).

This may look like weakness. How do you conquer a world by persuasion, when everyone else is firing rockets at each other?

He was aiming to change the way people think, to uproot wrong attitudes that had been around since Cain killed Abel.

He wanted to teach the way of Love to a world that knew mainly violence and hatred - so that swords can be turned to ploughshares and truly peace would reign.

What would change people is the experience of divine love, moving their hearts to mercy and kindness. It has worked for many; many others have held out against it.

People who repent can testify that something has changed within them, and it is now a joy rather than a burden to forgive their enemies.

It is no longer such an effort to forgive because we have the heart and mind of Christ acting in us.

We here present are included in this plan. If we have the humility to cast ourselves down before the Infant King, like all those present at the time, we will be transformed within.

We will derive gentleness from the Child and His Mother. We will absorb the peace and joy that emanate from that scene.

We have our share of worldly forces acting on us; let us give some time for Heaven to act as well.

Christ could have come to earth in other ways, but He chose this way. It was to teach us a lesson in humility, and in patience. He was in no hurry to rush out and say everything at once.

What Our Lord did at Bethlehem, He is still doing now. He is teaching us the need to get our basic attitudes right, whatever else we may attempt

There has been no break in the continuity. Ever since that first entry into the world there has been saving activity going on.

The Saviour saves! Or at least He exerts a saving force, which we hope will break down the barriers that we put up.

Imagine a doctor arrives in a town where everyone is sick, and the townspeople chase him away. This is what the world does with Christ. He can make them well, but they prefer to stay in their sins.

They throw stones at Him (Jn 8,59), try to throw Him over a cliff (Lk 4,29), and finally crucify Him.

No, we can do better than that. We will adore Him instead.

This will solve a lot of problems as true order returns to the world - like disease, poverty, cruelty, wars etc.

However, salvation is the big prize. There are still a lot of people who need saving, need to turn away from sin and get their lives in order.

At Christmas we celebrate God's saving intervention in human affairs; and we also recognize the call to be a part of that saving process – as it affects our own salvation and as calling us to help in the salvation of others.

The Saviour saves. O come, let us adore Him!

4th Sunday of Advent 19 Dec 2021 Sermon

 

4^th Sunday of Advent 19 Dec 2021   Longing for the Kingdom

In the lead-up to Christmas we say that we are awaiting the birth of Christ; soon He will be born.

Yet we know very well that He already has been born, and that was a long time ago. So why do we act as though His birth is something in the future, to be looked forward to?

He has been born in the past but we still have to come to terms with it, to unravel the mystery.

So by going back ritually to His birth we hope to take this event more to our hearts, to assimilate it - an incredible fact, but true anyway.

It is a stranger fact still, perhaps, that He has come yet we do not see the effects. His birth is ignored. He came to heal the world of sin - which is essentially ignoring God; but when He came the world ignored Him again by continuing to sin - and still does, at a great rate.

So we have to go back and back until we get this right. We put ourselves in the position of the people of Israel who longed for the Messiah to come; of the shepherds who in their humility and simplicity hoped for better times. Of the wise men who recognized a good thing when they saw it.

We are child-like enough to believe that there can be a change in the human heart, the way that people live.

Christmas is for children, they say. Well we are like children in our sense of wonder and hoping for better things to come.

We can see all the brutality and falsehood in the world, but we are still able to hope and look to heaven and say: Father, You can save us.

The Israelites waited for the Messiah. We are doing the same thing in many ways. Though He has come it is largely as though He has not. Our prayer is not that He come to the world but that the world take Him seriously.

It starts with us. By reliving His birth, we are opening our hearts and minds wider, to understand our need of the Saviour, to recover that sense of wanting, longing, desiring passionately the coming of God.

Many would shrug their shoulders, and say, So what? What difference does it make? And looking at the world they are, in a way, right. But the reason it has not made a difference is that people have been shrugging their shoulders for 2000 years!

We have to believe that change is possible, and then persevere in that belief until the change happens.

So we say: Come Lord, not for the second time, but for the first time, so we can finally get on the right footing to receive You.

People observe that it is sad that children grow up and lose the magic of Christmas. It is never as exciting for an adult.

But adults can still get excited, not because we want to rush to the Christmas tree and open our gifts, but excited in hope that maybe this year the world will respond as never before to the birth of Christ.

This is the gift we really hold out for. It is better than any material object we might have hoped to receive. It is harder to achieve, but yet we cannot fail to hope knowing the power and goodness of the One who has come among us. And knowing further that the only barrier to this result is indifference on our part.

It has not happened - this does not mean He has failed; nor does it mean it is impossible. It just means His offer has not been taken up.

We can do our part by desiring, hoping, and accepting all that Our Saviour has brought to us. Our joy is not yet in the fulfilment but in the anticipation, knowing that it is coming closer.

3rd Sunday of Advent 12 Dec 2021 Sermon

3^rd Sunday of Advent 12 December 2021 Gaudete

The Lord is near. If so, then how can we worry? If you are in a castle and there are ten thousand soldiers attacking but you have the most powerful general standing next to you then you feel confident.

The Lord is lord of all and can easily overcome any opposition.

We say this, but still probably do not feel it to be certain.

We need to be more familiar with Our Lord. This will bring us to greater faith, more acceptance of God's commands, and above all, charity.

It is in God's nature to bless, to heal, to transform, to improve things. What is wrong can be set right; what is good can be made better.

It takes time if we are to discover the depths of what is possible.

Otherwise, we are too busy panicking and worrying - which is what happens if we are looking only at the externals.

We need to cultivate the worship of God to the point that it springs spontaneously from the heart.

Think of prayer as time spent with one we love. We do not begrudge that time. cf young lovers.

We need to discover the spark, so that our faith is not just a few concepts and commands.

It will come if we pray, and if we make some necessary adjustments to our lives – such as doing penance, and avoiding occasion of sin. If we do these things God will enliven our faith, and with that will come trust, and joy.

To say that prayer does not ‘work’ is self-fulfilling. If we do not pray, indeed nothing will happen.

But if we give God the space and the time to get through to us, then we will see miracles.

Have I been with you all this time (Jn 14,9) ?

The apostles saw so many miracles but still doubted at every new development. It just shows how hard it can be; but it is also manageable.

By contrast, we find in Our Lady and St Joseph a much stronger response to God's mysterious will.

They were more adapted to God's ways and therefore made a more spontaneous response in trust whenever something difficult emerged.

The way forward is to know God better, to become more familiar with His way of operating.

We may not like some things that God does, or allows to happen. But we can take comfort in the overall plan. Everything finds a place. Even when things happen that God does not want, He can rework it to the best possible outcome.

Trust will come with practice, and experience.

But if we give up too easily we will never progress, and will not be rejoicing in God's closeness.

God wants people to believe in Him, to be at home with the miraculous.

Before He comes He wants His people to understand these things.

He does not want most of the human race ignoring him, as we have now.

We atone for this general ignoring of God and His will. We give God the humble attention that He deserves from us.

If others curse we will bless; if they complain we will praise; if they give up we persevere.

The only way to make sense of this universe is to acknowledge, and be on good terms with the One who put it all in place.

This we do, on Gaudete Sunday - we rejoice.

May God bless His people, and sustain us at all times. 

 

2nd Sunday of Advent 5 Dec 2021 Sermon

 

2^nd Sunday of Advent 5 December 2021 Aspiring to higher things

People liked hearing John the Baptist preach, even the evil Herod (Mk 6,20), and the crowds who went out to confess their sins (Mt 3,5). John did not spare the feelings of those who heard him. He was calling them to repentance - which can be painful - but is always a good thing to do.

When we hear the Gospel in all its clarity, or when we hear stories of heroism in those who lived the Gospel, we find we have two opposite leanings within us.

One is to settle with what we have and just amble along at our own pace, admiring the great ones but not attempting to join them.

The other leaning is to allow ourselves to be stirred within, so that we aspire to greater levels of holiness, really wanting to make some impact with our lives on this world.

In practice the two tendencies co-exist and fight for our attention.

We like feeling inspired, but we also like to take it easy!

We hear about the saints, or people who have been through great trials, or generally are closer to God than we are.

We sense that some of that holiness should have a beneficial effect on us. Imagine spending a morning with the Holy Family, for instance!

We can neutralise that call to higher things by putting limits on it – for example, by declaring that we are good enough as we are, and don’t need changing.

Or we can give space for that influence of grace to lift us to higher things.

We never know ourselves which tendency will prevail. Some days we do better than others.

Consistency itself is something that can be helped by exposure to higher powers.

We do not just admire those who pray more than we do, who seem to be closer to God. We come to be like them.

We gradually extricate ourselves from too much worldliness.

With other fields of endeavour we can learn from the masters – be it sport, or music or scholarship. We can admire the best at their craft, but we cannot ever be that good.

But the spiritual world is open to all; the Gospel is addressed to everyone.

Anyone, high or low, gifted or not, can answer the call to holiness.

Holiness does not require ‘talent’ in the normal understanding of the term.

We do not have to be ‘good at’ something to make progress in holiness.

Anyone can be generous, kind, forgiving, chaste, honest, etc

We cannot do it without grace, but we have access to all we need of that.

We can keep listening to the stories, letting the example of great figures inspire us. We can also recognize the temptation to level all that out, to excuse ourselves from taking part.

We need to see instead that we are vital players in the drama and are called to an open-ended commitment, which will see personal progress, and also communal progress if others do the same thing.

John’s preaching is both to correct the usual sins, but also to prepare people for something deeper than they had expected.

No one expected the Messiah to be so concerned with the spiritual life as He was, but eventually the idea sinks in.

They thought He was coming only for political liberation.

Instead He teaches how to be holy, how to live to the full, with a spiritual understanding.

The fullest understanding of salvation involves the ability to be inspired, without resistance, and without conditions.

As the saying goes: We let go and we let God.

 

 

1st Sunday of Advent 28 Nov 2021 Sermon

 

1^st Sunday of Advent 28 November 2021 Smooth transition

Some passages in the Bible speak of being caught out doing the wrong thing.

The five foolish virgins who did not have enough oil for their lamp (Mt 25,1-13), or the servants who became lazy because unsupervised (Mk 13,34-37).

Or the people of Noah’s time who ignored the warnings. (1 Peter 3,20)

God does not take pleasure in catching us out. These passages are meant to have the opposite effect of spurring us on to doing the right thing.

He is saying, Don’t be like those people… instead follow what I am saying and you will have great happiness.

This is always at the basis of Church preaching… warning people they could die soon, that the world could end any day… we don’t want anyone to be lost.

For some the ‘fright’ approach might be the only thing that works.

The preferred option would be simply to point out the immense benefits that come to anyone who tries to act as God would want, and then let things take their natural course.

God came to His own and they knew Him not (Jn 1,10). He would have much preferred if they had known Him.

The preferred idea was that Our Lord would come to the earth and proclaim the Kingdom and all the freshness that goes with that.

People would be impressed by His teaching and miracles, and then would follow on in their own lives.

This would create a near perfect world if enough people would follow that same lead.

It did not happen like this, certainly not in such a direct way, but it did happen in another way.

Our Lord spoke of leaven in the bread as an image of what He was trying to do. (Mt 13,33)

The effect would be slow, too slow to be visible, but it would eventually emerge for all to see. The tallest tree. (Mt 13, 32)

This counterbalances the suddenness of the prophesied endings.

Yes there will be dramatic signs in nature symbolising the battle between good and evil.

But for the elect there will be no sudden changes necessary. They already believe; they already obey; they have been living in God's grace for years.

For them, the second coming will be a joyful event, merely confirming what they already possess.

We could say that the Lord comes quickly and slowly, depending on which aspect of His dealings we are addressing.

The ‘slow’ coming is the everyday communications of Himself that He makes with all who call upon Him.

This would be especially found in the sacraments, and most of all in the Eucharist.

He is coming again, but He is really here anyway, only not in visible form.

He is seeking by His continuous presence to work changes in us, to help us break free from patterns of sin; to develop virtues; to reform our society to be like the Kingdom.

This is  how it was meant to happen. If it has to be a punitive coming with people hiding from Him in terror – God does not want this, but it is what will happen if people reject Him.

We are doing all we can to prevent that.

Advent is to help us see all this in perspective. Our position is one of joyful anticipation.

In short, the second coming is not meant to be seen as an interruption but as a smooth transition.

The same could be said for our own death. If we are in a state of grace, and really seeking to keep things on track we should be able to embrace death without fear.

Come, Lord Jesus!