4th Sunday of Easter 21 April 2024 Sermon

4^th Sunday of Easter 21 April 2024 Safety

The recent events in Sydney (stabbing attacks on shoppers, and on Orthodox bishop) remind us of our mortality and vulnerability.

We are not totally safe anywhere. We knew that anyway but these things remind us, and that is good insofar as we then look for ways of making ourselves ‘safer’.

We call Jesus Christ the Saviour, the one who makes us safe.

We can uncover different types of safety and how He can work that for us.

There is physical safety. We have probably all had many close shaves with death or injury. Some of these we would be aware of, others unknown to us because out of our sight or hearing etc.

We believe we have guardian angels who help with these matters. We thank God for whatever He has brought us through.

Physical safety is a good thing to have but cannot be totally guaranteed, as we live in a world which does not obey the commands of the Creator, so things often go wrong.

There is also the point that we must all experience physical death at some point, so it is impossible to be delivered from death forever.

Then there is spiritual safety, whereby we are delivered from the sins which weigh down on our souls, and impede the grace of God from guiding our lives. We see that people can get their lives into a terrible tangle with various vices, sins, lack of hope, alienation etc.

We can be delivered from all that if we bring ourselves to the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

He saves us from ourselves, we might say. as we are likely to do all sorts of weird things, but He gives us a better way.

In the physical world we are careful crossing the street; so we can be in the spiritual world, we are careful what decision we make, and we live longer as a result.

The decisions amount to always obeying God, always complying with His holy will, and the rest falls into place.

Come to me you who labour and are overburdened. And I will give you rest.(Mt 11,28-30).

The shepherd gives rest to the sheep. We are safe with Him. If we can imagine ourselves in green pastures with the Lord, then the same peace extends to the way we live our lives. We avoid sin like we would avoid the wolf coming to eat us.

Then there is the state of our surrounding society, so far from the kingdom of God. The society represents danger to us in that it can lead us astray from the Sheepfold, lead us into chaotic places which will yield us death if we do not set ourselves right.

The Good Shepherd can heal the surrounding society too, only that is a much more complex matter.

We have so many twisted values at present that would take a lot of straightening out.

The Saviour saves as many as He can from the chaos, and in the process we should see some improvements in our surrounding world.

We draw comfort from the Good Shepherd; we pray to him at every level, for physical safety, for moral safety in helping us to choose wisely; for repairing the whole society in which we live, at least some way.

Safety comes with an enlightened response from us, as we learn how it all works and can work in the future.

We will be safer in all these ways if we let God operate, and especially if we ask Him.

3rd Sunday of Easter 14 April 2024 Sermon

3^rd Sunday of Easter (B) 14 April 2024 Price of Salvation

We say in every Mass, Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world. In times before Christ there were many religions in the world, and they usually involved some kind of offering sacrifice to whatever gods they believed in.

This was usually animal sacrifice, sometimes even human!

When God became Man, He abolished all previous sacrifices and made Himself the one necessary and sufficient sacrifice for sin.

The idea of a sacrifice is that the people who have offended their god want somehow to atone for that sacrifice.

They do this by giving something that is valuable to them and hope that the gods will find the offering valuable enough to forget the sin, and all is back to how it should be.

We want to give something to our God, whom we believe to the be the only God that actually exists.

We have offended Him in many and various ways. What can we give Him that is valuable both to Him and to us.

God Himself answered this question for us. He established things so that we could give Him Jesus Christ, His own Son, who would be the sacrificial lamb of all future offerings.

When we come to Mass this is what is happening each time. The sacrifice Jesus made on Calvary is made present again each time the Mass is offered.

Each time we pray that the sacrifice will be acceptable to God the Father, and it always will be acceptable in view of who the Victim is.

The Son is infinitely valuable to God and to us. We give Him; God receives Him. His value is more than enough to atone for the sins of the world, all sin of all time.

The only part of the process that may not be as it should is our degree of sorrow for sin.

If this is inadequate, then that sorrow can be more appropriately felt as we attend each Mass. We can get better at being sorry, more in tune with God's own way of seeing matters.

Jesus takes away the sins of the world – our sins, potentially the sins of everyone who wants to be forgiven.

He takes the sin to the throne of God and there it is dissolved as though it had never happened.

There is an abundance of mercy available. Some of it will fall back on us, enabling us to break free from sinful habits, replacing vice with virtue.

As our sorrow becomes more clearly defined so does the mercy which takes away that sorrow.

Lord, I am not worthy, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

Our souls are made right, able to choose rightly, always to find the best way forward.

Other souls can benefit also from the Lamb’s sacrifice, even if they do not ask for mercy, or even admit their need for it.

The graces generated by the perfect Sacrifice will be offered to all people and for many of them at least there can be a change of heart; they can be converted and healed.

This is our strong prayer at every Mass. That the one true God will be acknowledged by all the nations of the world, and that every knee shall bow before Jesus Christ, the Lamb of sacrifice.

Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb. What do they eat at that supper? Heavenly food, which changes those who eat of it in faith.

That is what we are doing here, now.

I am not worthy but my soul shall be healed. If I am not worthy I can at least become less unworthy! A little more each time.

2nd Sunday of Easter 7 April 2024 Sermon

 2nd Sunday of Easter 7 April 2024 Forgiving love

Whose sins you retain they are retained (Jn 20,22-23). Just about any sin can be absolved, provided there is a sufficient degree of contrition on the part of the penitent.

For His part, God wants to forgive sins, far more than to have to punish the sins. He would much rather the wicked man repent than die (Ez 33,11).

God loves us, we know. Forgiveness is love taken to its furthest reaches. There is giving and there is for-giving, an extra layer of giving.

Jesus taught that when we have a feast we should invite people who will not return the invitation (Lk 14,13-14), as this is an expression of the sort of thing He Himself does. He gives to people who will not be able to repay Him – which turns out to be the whole human race.

Take that further still – can we still give to those who are not only ungrateful but positively abusive in return. This was Jesus’ experience. He was not just rejected but insulted and treated brutally.

Is that going to exhaust God's patience? No, because Jesus says from the Cross, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do  (Lk 23,34).

Knowing this we then have to respond. Are we going to treat the Son of God like that first generation did?

Or are we going to set out in another direction, cooperating with Divine Mercy, to he point that we are not only forgiven of our sin, but changed within so that we no longer have any attachment to sin?

God has made His position clear, through the Sacred Heart revelation, and more recently Divine Mercy.

These two devotions are both based on the infinite charity and mercy of God, and of how we can position ourselves to be more grateful, humble, and cooperative.

We then become Christ-like, as we extend mercy to those around us; willing to forgive others because we have been forgiven (cf parable of two debtors Lk 7,36-50).

There are two stages to full reconciliation with God: one, forgiveness of sin; two, renewal of character so that we no longer want to sin, or to give it any place in our lives.

It is easy to be forgiven; much harder to work that forgiveness into our own hearts and minds. It usually hurts to change the way we have been doing something, to do it another way - but it is worth it.

Sin can be addictive and therefore hard to give it up just like that. But it can be done with supernatural help.

And if we fall again in the same area, can we still show our face? Of course, yes, because God will forgive any relapse or false turning, provided there is true contrition.

God loves us with infinite love; it is our love for Him that must increase. It will increase when we digest what He has done for us, and how much He has already given.

When we love God it becomes natural to avoid offending Him, and to exert ourselves in trying to please Him.

This is a new freedom we are offered. All my life my desires have been telling me what to do; now I will tell them how they must take their proper place.

The right things to desire will become clear, and they will be the things of God (Col 3,2).

Today there is a concerted desire to ask for Divine Mercy, for ourselves, our loved ones, and people in general.

We do not despair of receiving God's mercy.

Nor do we begrudge that mercy to others (such as the older brother did, Lk 15, 28-30).

We can all make it to the heavenly banquet, full union with God, in this life as in the next. If we keep praying for it.

 

 

 

 

Easter Sunday 31 March 2024 Sermon

Easter Sunday 31 March 2024 Rising with Him 

Everyone loves a story where the underdog somehow turns the tables on the evil oppressor and a new order of things is established.

The story of Jesus Christ is perhaps the inspiration of all such stories, as with Jesus it looked about as unlikely as it could that He would recover from His passion and death.

His enemies crucified Him, made sure He was dead, put Him in a tomb, rolled a stone across the front; and then put guards on the tomb!

Yet He was walking about shortly after; and gathering his disciples, and generally emerging as the winner of the contest. Loser on Friday; winner on Sunday.

Peter: it was impossible that the grave should hold him (cf Acts 2,22,24). 

This is our story as well as His, if we choose to follow Him. His good fortune is ours. His resurrection is promised to us if we maintain a link to Him through faith.

One of Jesus’ prophecies is that the dead shall hear his voice and live (Jn 5,25); His voice alone is enough to wake the dead, either literally dead or figuratively dead in sin. (Jn 5,25). Lazarus, come out (Jn 11, 43) - three words is enough. And similarly did He raise the son of the widow (Lk 7,14); and the young daughter of Jairus (Mk 5,41)

If anyone thinks that God is not listening, look what He can do when the occasion is right.

We are still in the tomb as far as how we feel much of the time. If our faith is weak or vacillating; if we do not trust in God to fulfil His words to us - we will see less result.

And miracles can wear off in their effects on us. The Jews were always asking for miracles and they received a lot of them, but still wanted more.

We need to have a faith which is strong enough to hold up even if nothing appears to be happening. Plenty is either happening or preparing to happen.

We have a lot more evidence than those first disciples.

But our trust is in the Man Himself, rather than appearances.

We can work on our faith, listening, praying, putting beliefs into practice.

We expect to be transformed whenever we encounter the living God, taking every chance to draw closer to Him.

Christ bursts forth from the tomb, life overpowers death, and puts death to the outer darkness.

But the people are still in the grave, in both senses, not yet risen physically, and for many not yet trusting.

We do not fight this alone. There is power in numbers.  We need a lot of people to believe this, for their own sake, and to give power to the Church as we seek to bring Christ to the world.

He is Risen, and you can be too - is the essence of the message.

We overcome the inertia of cynicism, scepticism, sloth and all such negative things, And we feel ourselves rising, free from sin, and generally living according to God's will.

The whole world needs to see this event as central to their lives, not just as an eccentric curiosity.

They cannot chain up the good news (2 Tm 2,9). The good news is bigger than we are but we can help by giving it some momentum.

We cannot stop the biological decline that comes with age, but we can do much to sustain and increase our faith, and in that sense we are more alive each time.

Jesus is risen, not just in body, but in relevance, for every corner of our world.

All praise to Him!

 

5th Sunday of Lent (B) 17 March 2024 Sermon

 5^th Sunday of Lent 17 March 2024 Transformation

 There will be no need for brother no need to say to brother… (first reading)

 Jesus comes to save us, which is always our greatest need.

 His saving is not just some technical matter, like having a debt removed.

 Deep within them I will plant my law (Jer 31,31-34) 1^st reading, We are being changed by God. All that is negative can be made positive. Malice to goodness, vice to virtue etc

A person may be mostly rotten now, but through mercy and grace become good, not only looking good through external actions, but actually being good.

A good person is one who never sins and always does what is good, with all desires, thoughts, passions etc are in the right place and right amount. Most importantly the will is in conformity with God's will.

1  Cor 13,1-3: even if I give my body to be burnt but have not love…I am a gong booming etc.

This means that without the right interior dispositions the external actions mean very little. What we do for God must be at least some part motivated by love.

Salvation is complete when we want and do the right thing; when we do whatever we do for the glory of God, always asking His help..

Many would say that being good all the time and in every way is too demanding and mostly impossible. Therefore it should not be insisted on.

Granted, weakness is prominent but we can do certain things to be strengthened.

A combination of prayer, sacraments, liturgy, good deeds will do much to advance us in spiritual maturity, whereby we are changed as we go, and what might have been impossible is now seen as reasonably attainable.

When sufficiently immersed in God's love we can see everything in a clearer light and charity prevails.

God plants His goodness in us, so it is not so hard as it sounds. God Himself is good in the fullest sense of the word, and has no wrong thoughts, words or actions.

In His earthly life Jesus always got it right – helped by the fact that He wanted all the right things anyway.

If we trust the real God enough to follow Him into unknown ways we will be vindicated. The difficult part is that we have to trust in the good outcome before we see it, or even before we see signs of it.

Let us work on our weakness and frailties and see what can be changed. A lot of it is just small adjustments, exercising restraint, changing orientation .

Whatever is missing can be found. The Salvation story continues.

We enter the last weeks before Easter, entering them as participants not just spectators or passers-by.

It involves us. We can commit fully or half or none, but we must make a decision.

Jesus invites each of us to respond fully to Him. He sees us individually, not just as a large crowd.

Salvation then can be seen as essentially an act of healing by God. If we have a physical need we go to whatever source of relief there might be.

Think of the spiritual life as going to the place where we can grow in charity. We need charity and all its connections more than we need health or peace or any other item. Simply wanting what God wants, with all our thoughts words and deeds in harmony with that. Then everything else will flow into place. And the whole world will know.

This is what we celebrate insofar as we have it, and strive for what we still need to attain. 

4th Sunday of Lent (B) 10 March 2024 Sermon

4^th Sunday of Lent 10 March 2024 Turning the tide

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3,16). Words from today’s Gospel.

We are approaching Easter, when each year we are reminded of the fickleness of human nature as when the crowd turned against Jesus (not to mention Judas’ treachery or that of the Pharisees).  How did we get it so wrong?

Sometimes footballers miss a goal from very close range, and we wonder how they can do it. Well, humanity has been missing shots for goal for thousands of years.

But unlike in football, we still get another shot, even if we have missed a lot of times already.

The reminders of human frailty are not meant to depress us, but to encourage us to do better, as we know we can.

God makes it easier for us by Himself taking on human nature, and showing us how it is done. He does not miss from close range.

If we lived before the Incarnation and we were told that God would become Man, we would probably disbelieve that.

If we were convinced He would come we would probably think it was next to impossible that anyone would reject Him. But lots of people did reject Him.

And if they did reject Him then they would repent later. Not necessarily.

And they would kill Him again if they could. And they certainly still reject, by ignoring or insulting or preventing the Gospel from getting out.

Fortunately, at every point there are those who do believe and go against the tide. We hope we are among that number, and grow stronger in our reliability as disciples.

God has not given up on us. He could have turned the power off a long time ago!

Let us turn towards Him: Father forgive them they know not what they do.(Lk 23,34)

Many of them repented in the sober light of day. We could say the same for our own sins.

When people neglect to pray they will make bad decisions, driven by passions. If we maintain our own prayer life we will not add our sins to His burden.

Now we stand with those faithful disciples around the Cross, and are ready to be identified with Him

We do not mock, or laugh at Him; we do not wish Him dead but very much alive.

We want to grasp the full extent of what He has done for us; so that at some point either past or future we will come to the motivation to go further in His service.

Once forgiven we move on to the next stage like a St Paul who transferred his zeal to the right side of the argument.

The tide can be turned. We want to help others to have that Pentecost experience: Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”  When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Ac 2,36-37).

What can I do to atone for such a sin, but give him equal and better affirmation.

Be good, do good, according to one’s life station. It does not have to be a dramatic change on the surface, but simply take the Gospel more seriously and make it centralto your life.

The story is still happening - we have not reached the last page yet. We can make it a happy ending.

On the last page? The people did turn around most of them, all of them, some of them, What will it be?

Laetare Sunday? What is there to be joyful about? That we get more than one chance, and this is one of them.

3rd Sunday of Lent (B) 3 March 2024 Sermon

 

3^rd Sunday of Lent 3 March  2024 Commandments

Nothing is too much trouble for one we love. A desire to please is paramount.

We would do anything for some figure we admire or venerate such as Mother Teresa, or many others.

We should see God in that light, but it does not always happen.

Think of obedience to God as ‘nothing is too much trouble’, and we will see things more clearly.

Some will take a defiant attitude as questioning what right God has to intervene? He made the whole universe and keeps it in being.

They say we should be able to run the world ourselves without divine interference.

A quick look at the news will remind us of what happens when we leave it to people to run things!

Instead we can regard God's laws as a way of discovering more about God Himself. If we humble ourselves before Him we will learn why it is a good idea to obey Him, and seek Him out as much as possible.

God helps us to love Him as he sets us free from sin, and we come to value what he values and to deplore sin.

Our antipathy to rules is a throwback to original sin, where Adam and Eve try to blame others for their sin, and so it has been ever since. (Gen 3,12-13).

Sometimes the light of realization would break through. The Israelites would go as far as saying that they loved the laws of God (Ps 119, 97) because those laws showed how much God cared for them. Other gods did not do that. (See also Ps 18).

God's laws, we might say, are an acquired taste; they become more appealing as we see their inner wisdom and how everything leads back to God, who is the source of all that is good.

I am the Lord your God, and therefore come the following commands, the Ten Commandments.

These commands flow out of the nature of God, telling us what He is like, what He regards as important.

God wants us to know Him, so He comes in ways that we can digest, such as the sacraments, sacred places, and giving us commandments so we can live with wisdom and harmony.

The ten commandments begin with our response to God. If we love Him all else follows naturally. Any sort of false god means we do not love the real God.

The Commandments are brief in title there are many levels within each one. All the clauses and sub-clauses direct us back to I Am the Lord Every obedience is giving honour to God; every sin an insult to His majesty.

Keep the laws and we will mature in understanding, and the whole society will be better for that.

An initial sacrifice may be required to keep the laws, but great glory will result if we go God's way.

Does a loving God punish? Yes, when He sees it as necessary to call His people back to the right path. Thus today’s episode in the Temple when Jesus takes a whip to the moneychangers. Somebody was doing wrong and worse still, it was in the Lord’s house.

The house of the Lord - firstly the Temple, now churches - require special reverence, such as keeping silence, dressing appropriately, generally keeping a reverential demeanour.

God will not punish us,  however, if we make our own way to Him, to honour Him as He is, in His laws, His word, in whatever way He chooses to reach us.

We take the right path voluntarily, trusting ourselves to His ongoing providence to lead us safely home. Allow yourself to be a stray sheep and let Him collect you (Lk 15,4-7).

2nd Sunday of Lent 25 Feb 2024 Sermon

2^nd  Sunday of Lent 25 February 2024 The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration was meant to strengthen the apostles for the sufferings they would endure on Good Friday. If they could recall the glory of Christ, which they had seen for themselves, they would not have panicked on seeing the Crucifixion. That was the logical reasoning.

The apostles, however, did not remain constant under pressure, though they did become strong enough at Pentecost a few weeks later.

With the same idea the Transfiguration is offered to us and the whole Church.

We do not always react by the laws of logic. We believe in God, and we believe He can work miracles to rescue us from trouble, but when we are in the heat of battle we can lose that belief.

We have so many miracles we could call upon, yet somehow they lose their power over us.

We need a reference point to which we can always return, and that is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13,8).   We need not just the miracles but the One who can work the miracles!

How can we be strong enough that we will never lose what we have gained? Overall victory is assured but we want to win the battles too.

We keep records, at least in our heads; we remember what we have seen, and then we bring it out when needed. This is one reason why we have liturgy, the constant re-enactment of a whole host of miracles, centred on Jesus Christ, what He can do and is doing for us.

Under Josehp the Patriarch the Egyptians had enough to withstand the famine (Gen 41,49). So we put away in storage all our reasons for believing, and we bring them out when our world appears to be falling apart.

We face many ordeals, and we can buckle under the pressure, but we have these reserves to call upon. We not only survive, but flourish.

People in general are not outstanding in faith, so it is easy to operate at that level, and accept that as normal.

But that is not how it is meant by God. He wants us to have a lively active trust in Him, as a matter of course.  And He wants to see the whole Church, buzzing with faith and other virtues.

We can always correct past lapses and grow in strength. If we ran away on Good Friday we will not run away next time, or the one after that.

The Transfiguration could be seen as a kind of pivotal miracle, around which all others place themselves. It is a certain reference point which never diminishes.

Think of a time of your life when your faith was at its strongest. Such times are rare and can be a long time apart; but they don’t get any less true with the passing of time.

We might allow the passing of time to erode our beliefs. Memories can fade.

We face some sad experiences along the way. Loved ones die; we have other misfortunes and setbacks. And then there is the world and all its tragedies and troubles.

Who can believe under such pressure, but then again who can fail to believe, given the miracles we have?

In our faith we get used to seeing beyond appearances. We learn to see the complexities of situations and are not easily swayed, especially not to sin.

The main temptation we face is to give up our faith as just too hard, and try to make our own way through life, with maybe some reference to God, but mostly not.

So many do this and it brings all sorts of disorder, and still plenty of fear, which is what they were trying to avoid.

In Christ we have order, peace, certainty – we have all we need to see off various problems and to make progress to eternity.

1st Sunday of Lent (B) 18 February 2024 Sermon

 1^st Sunday of Lent 18 Feb 2024 Temptations

Lent is a time of waging war on Sin. Jesus was tempted by the devil to settle for a lesser goal, to be distracted from higher and better things.

This is how the devil tempts us, to take lesser gods and expend all our desires on them.

It helps if we have a clear concept of life’s having a start and a finish. We say life is short but then live like it goes forever, ignoring what happens after death.

Many have a vague idea about life after death, but do not see the urgency of getting this life into order. They become absorbed in this life, but do not know what it is for!

We live in a world which is ordered by God. He hears our prayers and He interacts    strongly, without taking away our free will.

People think God is remote. No, indeed. He is aware of everything. He knows if a sparrow falls from the sky (Mt 10,29). He knows what we need, but often awaits our asking for it.

He wants us to have a lively and continuous conversation with Him, learning as we go, growing in love and trust towards Him.

In the coming of Christ to the world, God reconciles humanity with divinity, and this gives humanity the best exposure it has ever had to true goodness, with all its flow-on effects. Such as peace, happy families, fulfilling lives etc.

He gives us many blessings from which we can learn, and then become grateful.

We learn to obey God and to see why that is necessary, and the best thing to do.

Choosing our own course may seem the obvious way forward but, as we see, it leads to more and more trouble.

We live as disciples of Christ with the knowledge that He is nearby, and never forgetting there will be a day of reckoning.

Instead we read the signs and repent. Like Nineveh, like the Prodigal Son, like Mary Magdalene, and thousands  since, who have come to the Saviour and found new life.

Reading the signs we have direction and the way to complete the path.

God knows our human frailty so He does not ask more of us than we can bear.

However, we will find that our capacity to make sacrifices will increase, and then we will be loaded with more responsibility (cf Mt 25,28, give the one who has ten talents even more). He will also give us many consolations on the way.

We must not be too attached to the temporary blessings of this life. They are like refreshment points along the way, but not themselves the end of the journey.

We give up things in Lent to acknowledge that we want the heavenly food instead. We do not live on bread along but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mt 4,4).

We learn to live in two worlds at once, this world and the heavenly world. We live by the laws of the heavenly world, at the same time being responsible citizens here on earth; doing all we have to do, but inwardly longing for our true home in Heaven (Ph 3,20).

Whenever we came to faith and baptism, that was getting on course. Everything after that is staying on course – to Heaven.

We make it hard for ourselves whenever we choose to sin. Sin is like being on a journey and then suddenly going sideways or backwards. It does not make any sense, but the temptations are strong, because previous sin clouds our minds and weakens our wills.

A strong dose of clarity from Heaven will enable us to resume the straight path!

6th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 11 Feb 2024 Sermon

6^th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 11 February 2024 Inclusion

It is not a nice thing to be excluded from communities where we would like to be included; to be victims of prejudice or bullying. Somehow, just not one of the gang.

Jesus can heal that sense of exclusion as well as He can heal our physical complaints. The ‘leper’ is restored to his community. Physical healing symbolises the spiritual healing which restores our relationship with God. Sin moves us away from God, and sometimes a long way. Repentance will bring us back.

God does not want anyone to be excluded; He came to save sinners (1 Tim 1,15). He came that they might have life, and have it to the full (Jn 10,10).

For Him and for us, the Church is the ultimate society to which we need to belong. The Church is God's family, and where all of us become one family. We are made one in Christ, brothers and sisters with each other, whatever other relationships we may have.

Salvation amounts to this: that we are saved if part of God's family (the Church), and unsaved if not – always with the door open for any person to enter, or re-enter.

We may not be able to heal physical illness, but it is always possible to heal the spiritual illness of being separate from God.

On this World Day of the Sick, as we pray for all forms of sickness, we give special priority to the spiritual ‘leprosy’, whereby whatever separates a person from God and the Church can be rectified.

We all belong in God's family, even if rejected from other places. Family is one place where they have to take you back! So is the Church, insofar as we must be prepared to welcome sinners. I have come for the sick not the healthy (Mk 2,17).

Many would say that they do not need God or the Church; they have enough human support already. No matter how happy we might be with human love and friendship we still need the divine connection. Our hearts are made to rest in God (cf St Augustine)

Others might say that the Church as they have experienced it, is not welcoming. We must be charitable to all and at all times. Charity means that any differences can be handled in concern for each other’s soul - and under the umbrella of Church teaching, which connects us with Our Lord.

We go to Jesus as the leper did and submitting to whatever He wants us to do. Jesus wants to save us to the point of complete unity with His will.

This is what makes Heaven heaven; everyone agrees with Christ, and therefore with each other.

Does the Church reject anyone? No, we want to help everyone get to where they need to be with God. For some a measure of repentance or instruction may be required, but they are not being excluded. We rejoice with all heaven (Lk15,7) when a sinner repents or when a prodigal son returns. (Lk 15, 11-32).

Unity with each other will emerge as we each draw closer to God. Then we find what is likeable about each person, even people whom we would have found it hard to like.

We welcome all who want to find life, just as the Lord let all come to Him; and they were so numerous the doors and windows were blocked. Cf when they had to lower the man through the roof (Mk 2,3-11).

Jesus is the leper Himself insofar as He is rejected. In which case we need to let Him back in – to His own family, He came to His own but His own did not receive Him (Jn 1,11). We must reverse that rejection.

5th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 4 Feb 2024 Sermon

5^th Sunday (B) 4 Feb 2024 Reward

What is my reward, says St Paul, for preaching the Gospel. It is this – to be able to do it for free; because he does not need a reward, possessing the ‘reward’ already insofar as he could not be any happier, already knowing Christ Jesus.

Well, the only thing he could have better than he has it now is that others would take up what he is offering them – that they too will discover the joy of the Gospel.

We know there is a pleasure in doing good to those in need, relieving suffering of others, we enjoy giving in itself.

It touches a chord within us and this is understandable if we reflect that we are created by God in His image, and He certainly likes to give; He is doing it all the time; it is His nature.

Some giving has a cost. If I give you my last piece of bread then I am foregoing the benefit which that bread would have done me. But is that not the noblest expression of humanity, sacrificing oneself for another.

We put up statues for people who do that. We do not put up a statue for someone who spent his whole life looking after himself!

But there is another way we can give, whereby it costs us nothing. That is, if we have so much of what we are giving it can never run out. This is what happens in the spiritual world. We can do good for each other, pray, encourage, evangelize, catechise – all things which can benefit both the giver and the receiver.

This is how heavenly grace works. God can give all day and still have more to give.

This is what St Paul had discovered. He could never run out of heavenly joy, and the more he gave it to others the more joy he felt.

Apart from making us feel good there will be a deeper effect on us, as we become more generous by nature; and with that will come other good qualities like cheerfulness, patience, charity etc,

God is generous, and He will make us so as well. We can note that in Jesus’s case He could have helped people all day long without costing Himself anything. But to take away the sin of the world He did suffer a huge cost, in His passion and death.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Lk 6,38).

One snag we find when people don’t want to receive the free gift. Free beer they would stop for that but not for Free eternal life!

They know there is a catch with the latter, that it does require some personal commitment. But even then the fine print is joyful. The joy of giving outweighs the sacrifice.

We possess the treasure in the field (Mt 13,44), and at least the beginnings of eternal life. Learning from St Paul’s example, we cannot be otherwise than happy if we possess a share in the infinite graces of Heaven.

There will be hard times and bad days, but the overall direction is Up.

With practice we develop the virtues we need to go through adversity, when joy is hard to find. As we see in the first reading from Job.

He was in a very low point but he did manage to come through; so by the end he had his material fortunes restored, and a much deeper understanding of God's ways.

We hope to come out happy in the end, always happy and never otherwise. It is not a fairy story; it is just what would have been in place a long time ago, if enough people had believed it. And a glorious future is achievable by the same logic.

May His Kingdom come.

4th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 28 January 2024 Sermon

 4^th Sunday Ordinary Time 28 January 2024 Authority

Unlike the Scribes He taught them with authority. (Gospel Mk 1,22)

Authority comes from the same word as Author.

The author of a book has authority over whatever goes in that book. He can make characters live or die, be old or young, and he controls the outcome of the story.

God has written a book, we might say, and we are the characters in it, though in our case we are not fictitious; we actually exist.

The characters on the page have taken on a life of their own.

And we do not always obey the Author. In fact we question Him and argue with Him, and for many people there is a long-term alienation from God.

For His part, He persists with the work He has begun. He will not be deflected from His purpose. He came to save, and save He will.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (Jn 10,10).

He created us to love Him and so that He could love us. He wants to share what He has.

God has created many types of creatures. Of them all only humans and angels have the power to address God directly, with full comprehension

We do not understand all the mysteries of God, but we can at least grasp His existence and its significance for us.

It is always going to be better for us if we accept His authority and work with it, rather than against it. This is because He knows so much better than we do the best way forward.

The whole story of salvation is of people going this way and that, some coming, some going.

If I go my own way I am putting my script over God’s; but I do not have His authority, only wishing I had.

It is a great privilege to relate to Him regarding His plans. We are not just pawns on the board; we have a voice.

We cannot use our voices to overrule God but we can become more familiar with His ways of working, and facilitate the flow of His grace and mercy in all directions.

The Jews of Our Lord’s time did not believe in His divinity thinking him just another human, subject to God. Admittedly it must have taken a while to sink in, as the idea of God living among us was so strange at the time.

He can do it if He wants. Some will say it is impossible that God could become Man, but not if He decides to do it. If He is God then of course He can change things, or intervene, in any way He likes.

He did not make arbitary changes, acting on a whim. He always knew exactly what He was doing, and what each situation required. He was working to the Master plan, which was mainly about salvation – winning souls, turning the hearts and minds of people to worship and obedience to the one true God.

Does God's book have a happy ending? We have some say in that. If we let Him work His wonders upon us and through us we will experience great happiness in this life and more again in eternity.

It just needs enough humility that we will remember our created status. We are not gods ourselves, only people looking for God.

He will help us to find Him and then to work in a creative partnership whereby we are both part of the story and also helping to write that story.

We participate in our own salvation and can help others find their place in the same narrative.

This is a strange teaching, perhaps, but it has authority behind it. Its Author is Truth itself.

 

 

 

3rd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 21 Jan 2024 Sermon

3rd Sunday (B) 21 Jan 2024 The Kingdom of God

The kingdom of God is close at hand (Gospel). The kingdom is not any particular place on the map that we could point to. It is more a matter of how we live than where we live.

Any place where people are resolved to live by the will of God, and consciously acknowledge His goodness and primary importance – that place is the kingdom of God.

Where the will of God prevails, where there is no stealing, adultery, blasphemy etc, where indeed God is regarded as King by the people.

We have become accustomed to the sad reality that people deny God the homage and obedience which He should receive.

People talk of a secular Australia, whereby it becomes increasingly ‘normal’ to push God to the side.

God is fighting back! He calls some of the apostles today, making them ‘fishers of men’. God will speak through the apostles, and later the disciples, to put His case to humanity.

He has created us, and called us, and where necessary forgiven us – when will we acknowledge that? He is asking us to take Him seriously and put His words into practice whether we are the only one, or one of many.

Whether it is easy or hard, whether it looks like we are winning or losing, we pray without ceasing for good things to happen, always according to God's will.

God wants us to make Him obvious. People deny God because they claim they cannot see any evidence. We can give them evidence by the way we live. And this is how God always wanted it to happen. In the early Church people wanted to join in the fellowship of the disciples, so many signs and wonders they worked (cf Acts 5,10-12).

We lost some momentum somewhere along the line. The Church is always battling on many fronts and often reduced in power, yet that power is available to us if we call upon it.

The kingdom is where God is recognized as King; where His will is law, where people think the right thoughts, have the right desires and attitudes, and actively help each other in need.

We have some of this now, but need a lot more.

We are not here for our own benefit but to do a job for God, and that job is to make the places we inhabit one part of the Kingdom of God. If we can get our own house right, or street, or nation - no place too small or too big.

It is not easy to do what it says in the second reading – to be involved in the world but not become engrossed in it. We get better with practice.

The first reading give us a case study of how positive change can be achieved, even quickly.

Notice God's desire to forgive. And Jonah’s desire that the city not be saved (Jonah, not yet in the sprit of things!). And the people did come around. We have to want that for others. Usually prayer for the conversion of others is not so quick in its success, but we chip away as required.

We pray for the kingdom of God to come every time we say the Our Father.

We would not know ourselves if the will of God prevailed everywhere; it would be a lot happier than it is now.

The kingdom will more likely permeate through individual responses rather than come down ready-made.

It is something we have to fight for, as valued achievements usually are. God will honour any efforts we make in His name.

We are the fortunate ones, called before the eleventh hour, preparing the way for others to join us.

May His kingdom come!

 

 

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 14 Jan 2024 Sermon

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 14 Jan 2024 Body and soul

Sometimes people wonder why Adam and Eve were punished so heavily for just one sin. After all, anyone can make a mistake!

It becomes clearer when we realize that before the sin Adam had perfect control of all his thoughts and feelings; he did not suffer from the sort of weakness we experience now.

So the sin he committed was far more serious than it seems to us. It was a major breach of the established order which he knew. It was not just a matter of ‘eating an apple’.

Because of that sin the harmony the human race had enjoyed was shattered. From that time on flesh and spirit would be at war with each other, and concupiscence (sinful desire, tendency to sin) would be a dominant presence.

This is why we experience, as even St Paul did (Romans 7,18-19) that conflict between what we mean to do and what we actually do. We make good resolutions, then find that we cannot carry them out. We do not have full control of our desires and actions.

Should we despair of this? No need. We have a remedy for disordered desires, and that remedy is Jesus Christ.

He was the Second Adam, the New Man. He restored to us the fully integrated human nature possessed by Adam before the sin.

Jesus Himself was sinless. This means not only that He kept all the various rules and commandments, but He did so easily. It was easy because He had perfect control over all His thoughts, words, actions. He was not struggling to keep the rules – it came ‘naturally’.

Natural, because Jesus was able, without effort, to want the same things as God wanted.

We tend to view commandments as an imposition, as hard to keep, and not very desirable either. We are not allowed to do certain things we do want to do, and told we must do certain other things we do not want to do.

If we had what Jesus had, we would never see God’s commands as a burden, but as a delight. ‘Lord, how I love Your law’ (Ps 119, 97).

We can come to this same state by joining ourselves to Jesus. This is what we do when we pray, or receive a Sacrament, and especially at Mass.

We are transformed as we draw closer to Him, study His word, pray to Him. We take on His mind, His heart, His very nature.

We cannot be divine but we can be human, and Jesus was both. We become human as He was human, fully obedient to God, fully integrated, a ‘whole’ person (another way of saying ‘holy’).

Salvation is not just a keeping of a whole set of rules, arbitrarily imposed on us. It is a becoming of the person each of us is meant to be.

We realize we have not been deprived of anything by being Christian, but actually enriched. We are the lucky ones to come so close to the heart of all truth and beauty.

The closer we come to Him the better it gets.

So we joyfully answer His call as demonstrated in the first reading (Samuel) and the Gospel (Andrew and Peter).

In the second reading, (1 Corinthians 6) the Church’s sexual teaching, so much criticised and questioned, is seen to make sense, as being the proper understanding of body and soul.

Once again the passions and desires are able to be controlled and channelled according to our true human identity.

Critics of the Church will say we are out of date. No, we are ahead of the times, being able to find a remedy for disordered passions, and reclaiming holiness of life as the new normal.

May we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity (Offertory prayer at Mass)

The Epiphany 7 Jan 2024 Sermon

The Epiphany 7 Jan 2024 Discovering God

If  Christmas is God's offer to us; Epiphany is our response to Him.

We need God's help to make the right response. There are a number of areas where we could go wrong.

God had so much to teach the human race, and He is still doing that.

The people of that time thought there were many gods. The Jews thought so too, and that the real God who had been looking after them was mainly for them, not for all the nations of the world.

God's plan was to make Himself known to the whole world, but gradually. He worked first with the Jewish race, demonstrating His loyalty to them, forgiving them constantly, teaching them new understandings (such as the need to bless enemies instead of cursing them).

They were the ‘chosen people’, not to the exclusion of others but as a spearhead to make other nations realize that they also could possess this same God.

God loves all people, as we know, but that was not well-known in the Jewish world.

They thought God was there to fight their battles and put down all the other people. The idea of converting their warlike neighbours did not come easily to them.

For us in our time we can see the coming of the wise men as indicating the Gentile world’s acceptance of the one true God. The wise men knelt before one greater than themselves and their offerings were accepted.

Every knee should bow before Jesus Christ, and every tongue confess that He is Lord (Ph 2,10-11). Go and baptize all nations, Jesus said (Mt 28, 19). 

Christianity is often criticised for its missionary past, seeking to bring the light of Christ to foreign nations.

There were no doubt many things done wrongly, but in principle it has to be a good thing to offer Christ to others.

He is light to the blind, health to the sick – the answer to every question, the fulfilment of every need.

It would be a crime not to offer this Good News to others, keeping in mind that it is only ‘offered’ not forced.

We can improve on mistakes and sins of the past, but the idea of converting people to Christ is something that Christ Himself wants.

This has extra urgency because, as the Jews had to discover, and so have we – there is only one true God.

Christianity blows apart the idea of various gods looking after different areas or purposes. One God is enough for all places and purposes, and this God is found in Jesus Christ.

That Jesus Christ is God as well as Man has been a stumbling block for many over the ages.

Another problem we face today is belief in NO God, that is, Atheism. Many deny there is any sort of god running the universe. They base this, usually, on the number of things that go wrong in the world.

Things go wrong not because God is absent, but because the human race is absent to Him, that is they do not honour and obey Him.

The Epiphany feast invites us to correct all deviations from the truth, to renew our faith and trust in the true God, found in the baby Jesus, in His identity and His mission - Who He is and What He came to do.

The real God's commands are clear, if difficult; He will help us understand them and put them into operation.

Worshipping the Christ child is one part of this giant pattern in which we are privileged to find ourselves included.

O come let us adore Him.

 

 

Holy Family 31 Dec 2023 Sermon

Holy Family 31 December 2023   Standards of holiness

It is an interesting thing about human nature how we find ways of cutting corners.

For example, in traffic, if the speed limit is 25 most people will do say, 40. It becomes a kind of unspoken conspiracy that this is just what one does. It is a sort of compromise we make with ourselves that if we keep most laws most of the time it is ok to break a few here and there.

This can apply also to matters of the faith: Jesus tells us, But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Lk 6,27-31)

We translate that as meaning I will treat others as they treat me. If they are good to me I will be good to them; if they harm me I will harm them, or at least not do them any good.

Jesus offers us something beyond the normal ways of doing things. He gives us a way of keeping the rules which will make us happier than we would be by relaxing them.

The key to the whole operation is that God treats us better than we treat Him, and He wants us to apply the same logic to each other.

Today we honour the Holy family, where the ideal was achieved, and that family forever becomes the model for all families.

One might protest that the Holy Family is too holy to be a realistic model. It is true no one else can be that good, but we can at least learn the principle of how it works.

That principle is that if all members of a family give more than they receive then an abundance of good things will come from that.

If everyone does what he/she should it will work. cf second reading: Colossians 3,12-21, each give way to the other.

This is how marriage is supposed to work, and all the other relationships in a family. This is going to be a happy home and fruitful for the surrounding community.

Whatever you are, be the best you can be (father, sister, grandmother etc). Here there is a danger of watering down the demands, like not obeying the traffic rules – giving less rather than more.

Being normal, like everyone, is not enough! We must be like Christ, or Mary, or Joseph. We strive for excellence in other areas (sport, study, appearance etc). We can do the same at home - we push ourselves harder in terms of kindness, courtesy etc.

And we do not seek a medal for being good. It is only our duty (cf Lk 17,9-10). However, there is a ‘medal’ and it comes in the form of eternal life.

The way of Christ is different from the ways of the world; His way might seem impossible but is not so. It just takes a little reorientation.

It is not only possible to go His way but necessary.

All of the above can be forgiven where we fail. So we can think of ourselves as apprentices, getting it better each time, always aiming higher.

The Holy Family welcomes us to come and knock on their door! They have much to teach us.