Sunday after Ascension 20 May 2023 Sermon

 Sunday after Ascension 20 May 2023 The Upper Room

This is the week of weeks for the Church as we relive the original Upper Room experience, where the apostles and disciples gathered with Mary to welcome God's next intervention – the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit came then, and we ask Him to come now. Can He come more than once? Let us say this His first coming established a new order of reality. Subsequent comings are not as dramatic, but can be seen as helping operations to continue. The ship is launched; now how do we keep it floating?

We need the Holy Spirit internally and externally.

Internally, insofar as we all have something lacking. Either we feel inadequate for the task and we need boosting in confidence; or we have confidence but it is misdirected to serve only our own agenda, as though we know the way ahead.

Externally, insofar as we find ourselves in a hostile environment as regards the proclamation of the faith.

We have salvation itself to offer the world, the only complete formula for success that has ever been discovered.

There are some things that are wrong with us, and some things that are wrong with the world, and we need the Holy Spirit for all of them.

We will be tempted to discouragement – to conclude that neither we nor the world in general will ever improve.

We must not project our own doubts onto God; He is not subject to our lack of perception. We doubt what we cannot see or touch (like Thomas) but God has it all under control.

When we pray we are essentially saying: Lord, I know You can do all things;  You can do what I cannot. Heal me of whatever is lacking.

Of course we will always be inferior to God, even if we were perfect; but we want to be as good as we can, to give honour to God, for our own happiness, and to be more effective apostles to the world.

Especially in this week we must not give up when we need to be at our strongest.

If we obey Him, thank Him, adore Him, He will provide us with the necessary grace.

Our prayer must be constant or we will sink into discouragement. ‘Believing’ is a full-time job!

We take every chance to express what we believe and put it into practice.

Freed from fear we can do whatever is needed, according to our state in life.

Our Lady was there in that first gathering to help keep up the morale. She needed no changing as she was already at the peak of holiness.

She did there what she does everywhere in obtaining the grace of God to distribute to whomever was ready to receive it.

She is strong where we are weak and we derive strength from her. She is always accessible; we need only to remember her, and blessings will start rolling in.

As to the surrounding world we can solve at least some of the problems by being ready with the word of God to call to repentance, and the sacraments to provide the necessary nourishment to the weary.

People today notice that the world is falling apart in many ways, but they still manage to evade the obvious solution – which is to bring one’s life into union with God; in a word, Repent!.

They fear the discipline of having to worry about commandments and all the rest that goes with Christianity. But we are motivated by love not by a grudging observance of laws and customs.

Those in the upper room experienced the joy of a closeness to God, which they had never had before.

It was an experience that formed them for the rest of their mortal lives. So may we ask for whatever God wishes to send us, but trusting we can be transformed from worriers to warriors!

5th Sunday after Easter 14 May 2023 Sermon

 

5^th Sunday after Easter 14 May 2023 Mother Mary 

Today is Mothers Day (in Australia). Motherhood comes from God and is a way of letting us experience His close and tender care for us.

If anyone should complain that God is too remote, we have mothers to translate God's love into everyday situations, and life-long concerns.

Mothers give us life, and then help us to handle it.

Our mothers look after us, and then we may have to look after them, a reminder of the shortness and fragility of our stay on this earth. As much as we love our mothers we must remember we are pilgrims travelling through this earthly life.

At some point, for most of us, our mothers will die before us, and what a sad day that is. However, the love between us is never lost and will come to light again in the Resurrection.

There is a strongly spiritual aspect to motherhood, as to fatherhood and many other human institutions. God gives us these things so we can get to know Him better.

In the case of motherhood God teaches us that we also have another mother, whom many do not know; and that is Mary, Mother of God, and mother of each of us. Son, this is your mother (Jn 19,27).

She is mother even of those who reject her. She holds no grudges, only wishing for everyone’s spiritual wellbeing.

Those who reject Our Lord will also reject Our Lady. Many, however, will pledge allegiance to Our Lord, but have no place for His Mother.

They fear that we honour Mary to the point of idolatry, seeing her as a god or goddess.

Instead, Mary will take any prayers in her honour directly to the throne of God, adding her own spiritual power to them.

Our prayers gain (not lose) power when offered through Mary, so we need not be afraid of doing that.

Mary has immense power, having received so fully from God Himself. When she prays things start to happen. There may still be reasons why our prayers cannot be answered, but let us say that good outcomes  are more likely if we have prayed through her.

She will be present even where she is not asked, but if we do ask it makes us more receptive and will bring about more effects.

For some intentions a lot of prayer is needed, a lot more than one person could do alone. Things like world peace, widescale repentance from the human race, an end to various immoral and unjust behaviour, even the conversion of one’s own family members – these do not happen overnight, but we can bring them closer.

We cannot do it on our own but our prayer will contribute.

Our Lord said we could cast a mountain into the sea if we had faith (Mk 11,23). Not on our own could we do that, but together, yes (always provided it is God's will).

Yesterday was the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Fatima was a specially powerful intervention by Our Lady, and a springboard for much prayer in the century since.

There have been many apparitions of Our Lady. The general theme of her messages to us is that we need repentance, and prayer, and especially consecration to her Immaculate Heart - under which title she presents holiness of life as the main formula for all that we need.

If only the world could know what a powerful source of help there is available to them.

The world yearns for what holiness could bring – peace, justice, contentment etc -  but not for holiness itself!

Mary shows her children the way forward, and accompanies us as we go that way.

May she especially bless all mothers today, to help them show forth the kindness of God to all His children.

4th Sunday after Easter 7 May 2023 Sermon

 

4^th Sunday after Easter 7 May 2023 The Holy Spirit

It is expedient to you that I go; for if I go not the Paraclete will not come to you.

(Gospel, Jn 16, 4-14).

The Holy Spirit will come to complete many things that could not be dealt with in our Lord’s time on earth.

It will be the same sort of things that Our Lord did, but in greater amount and more variety.

Naturally Our Lord would be missed as He ascended back to Heaven, but His disciples would be consoled as the Holy Spirit comes upon them.

It is time for the Church to go universal, to aim for global reach. The Gospel was never meant only for Jews, or only for that generation. It is God's will that all people in every place and time come to know Him as Father and Saviour.

It is not easy to proclaim the Gospel so widely. We have this great treasure but we cannot give it away. It is partly our fault, insofar as we are earthen vessels (2 Cor 4,7).

Others will see our inadequacies and conclude that they do not wish to be like us!

We can only say that what we have to offer the world is something that goes beyond any personal merits or demerits. We offer eternal life. It is not ourselves we proclaim but Christ (2 Cor 4,5).

Anyone can benefit from His coming; everyone should.

Our Lord leaves the small band of apostles and disciples, assuring them that they can conquer the world if they avail themselves of the strength that God will provide.

There will be much resistance. Many will try to water down the Gospel, both as to what it demands and what it promises.

The Gospel demands Be holy for I am holy (Lev 11,44) ; the world says that because God forgives we do not have to worry about offending Him.

God says we should aim for perfection. He wants us to be as good as He made us to be.

The Gospel promises cleansing of sin and eternal life, while the world seeks material gain and pleasure.

The Holy Spirit will make plain what Our Lord was intending. There is a lot of static on the line, as the simplicity of the heavenly message is distorted in so many ways.

The Holy Spirit continues to come, however, and there are breakthroughs.

People start to desire what God desires, and to see what He is trying to achieve.

Where can we find the plain message of the Holy Spirit? It is all the things we say in the Creed; it is all the things Our Lord says in the Gospels. Plus we have Saints, Popes, Councils, Spiritual teachers to expand on these teachings (always through the Holy Spirit).

Everything comes from God and goes back to Him. We have freedom to serve Him or rebel against Him. The Holy Spirit will make it clear to us what the choice involves. He helps us to see the deceptions and falsehoods all around.

He helps us to see a straight course to Heaven.

Jesus can be present in more places than one, but all the more so when He is welcomed.

His hope is that all the world will seek Him and recognize Him when they do find Him.

He may be a bit difficult to find through all the smoke but we can clear our way through and find the Truth - not so inaccessible as we feared.

It always works better if we are without sin. Then, we are so much closer to God as a matter of course, and we can perceive His presence and activity which would have still been obscure to one  in sin.

Come, Holy Spirit! 

 

 

3rd Sunday after Easter 30 Apr 2023 Sermon

 

3^rd Sunday after Easter 30 April 2023 The infinite future

 

In a little while you shall not see Me, and again a little while and you shall see Me  (Jn 16,16-22).

 

Our Lord was referring to His crucifixion as the first separation, and then His Ascension as the second time, anticipating a glorious reunion in each case.

 

For us it is still a time of separation, to be resolved individually at death, and overall at His second coming.

 

The future and the past is all one to God and so it should be to us as far as faith is concerned. We should be able to believe in future events as surely as those in the past.

 

One good thing about separations is they can increase our desire to see one whom we love. Our Lord wants us to use this present time of our lives increasing our desire for Him, longing for reunion with Him, and then eternal union.

 

He leads us on as He offers us something better, our true home.

 

In the meantime, our waiting is not just idle; we should do good in every way possible (today’s epistle 1 P 2,11-19).

 

We might think God is being cruel keeping us at such distance from Him, and not ending our exile quickly.

 

He is never cruel, just firm. Whatever He does is aimed at giving us the best possible outcome. If we learn to wait for our fulfilment in Him we will be a lot more happy overall than if we expect instant delights at every turn.

 

He will give us all the qualities we need to serve out our time of separation. All our prayer has a certain longing quality about it. The Advent prayer, Come, Lord Jesus says it all.

 

He offers Himself in sacramental form to keep us on track. There is great power in the sacraments if we let them take full effect.

 

We are generally too much absorbed int this life and not really trusting God to provide.

 

We cannot guarantee that we will always be comfortable physically, but we can ensure that we always have spiritual aid, helping us to keep everything in context.

 

We learn to keep always one eye on eternity, the long view.

 

We learn to live each moment for God, without useless worry or futile distractions.

 

We worry about many things; we have many deadlines to meet, recurring tasks to fulfil. Always there is something to claim our attention.

 

We can take all that in our stride if we are sufficiently grounded in Christ.

 

We will find the wisdom and the energy to deal with each problem as it arises.

 

We have the benefit of God's power and love at every moment. We cannot lose on that basis.

 

The future is very strange to us;  even as to this life the future is a complete blur. We have no idea what will happen even tomorrow, let alone the rest of our time on earth.

 

What happens after death is more mysterious still.

 

Not fully knowing something does not make it untrue.

 

The atheists and the agnostics ridicule Heaven and the whole spiritual world because they do not see it.

 

We trust that whatever God tells us is true, whether we understand it or not, whether we have experienced it or not. It is a joy for us waiting to find out what Heaven is like.

 

And this earth, weighed down by so much suffering as it is, can be enjoyed on the same principle, that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rm 8,39).

 

He is testing us to see if we are capable of trusting Him to such an extent, at the same time enabling us to do so.

 

So the daily grind goes on – for now - but not forever.

 

In a little while….