Trinity Sunday 26 May 2024 Sermon

Trinity Sunday 26 May 2024 Eternity

Where did God come from? If He made everything who made Him? These are questions which arise.

No one made God because that would mean there is someone superior to God, which there cannot be.

He did not ‘come’ from anywhere because He had no beginning. Beginnings imply the presence of time. God lives outside of time, in eternity. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

He is Creator of all that is, seen and unseen. The world was perfect when it left His hands, but has deviated off course because of sin.

Not so much off course, however, that we can still see the beauty of His work.

Human beings are the most complicated part of God’s creation because we have free will and can defy God’s will.

Other parts of His creation do not have the capacity to reason or decide things. People are a danger to themselves because we can decide wrongly.

Whereas if we could learn from the lesser creation to obey at all times we would be a lot happier.

It would not be slavery for us to do this but a true release where we work with God and establish a pure connection to His power and goodness.

Anyway there is no where else we can go for such a result.

The more we know about God the better, and the more likely we are to entrust ourselves to Him, and not be looking elsewhere for what can be found in Him alone.

So we have the chance today to focus on the nature of God Himself. What is He like? How much can we know Him? He wants us to know all that we can.

He has revealed Himself to us as a Trinity of Persons in one nature, which is God.

The Father begets the Son, the Son returns to the Father, the Spirit comes from both. These are all acts of humility as each Person yields to the other and claims nothing for His own use.

We learn there some clues relating to ourselves.

That goodness fills all the universe, that in an endless flow of giving and receiving which we see in the Trinity we learn humility, generosity, community.

We can learn to live together peaceably, and share whatever there is fairly.

God does not need us but He does want us. We cannot add to God's glory which is infinite, but we can help all the same, by making Him more widely known.

We are important to Him, but sadly the human race does not generally return the compliment, and either ignores or defies God’s infinite goodness.

We can atone for that neglect and disobedience, and give full praise and thanksgiving to a very generous God.

We can always find Him at short notice in prayer, in any time or place; and we will derive some comfort from that. It is not the full eternal joy of Heaven but it is a step in that direction.

We are drawn into divine life as we imitate it in our own lives now. We are not yet outside of time in blissful eternity, but we are practising for what that is like!

The more generous, humble… etc … we are, the more we are conforming to the inner life of God and can hope to share that life.

One key is Giving, wanting to give more than receive. This is what the Trinity does, and we are learning it.

All glory to the One God, Three Persons.

 

Pentecost Sunday 19 May 2024 Sermon

 

Pentecost Sunday 19 May 2024 The cenacle relived

We ask the Holy Spirit to come upon us. it is not as though we are asking Him to do something He does not want. He wants it more than we do because His love is greater. And when He comes upon us it is essentially an act of love, to change, heal , transform us.

The love of God, in particular, changes us and makes us as the apostles were, ready to die for others, even complete strangers, so great was their zeal for the Gospel.

To receive the Holy Spirit we must be open to Him, not putting conditions on Him, telling Him what He can or cannot do.

We do not necessarily start with such openness. It might take years to reach the sort of spiritual maturity that is required to receive fully the Holy Spirit.

Even in that Upper Room, with all the exalted company there, it took nine days for the Holy Spirit to come. This is telling us that preparation is always important.

For some things a lot of prayer is needed. We repeat the prayer, not because we doubt God, but because there are a lot of barriers to be overcome. Eg praying for world peace.

Still we should ask for what we think we need. The more pressing on the door the better. And God knows how to work things around so all our prayer is material for Him to work with. He can tie all the loose ends together.

We are ourselves part of the prayer as when we say Come, Lord we are volunteering ourselves for whatever purpose God wants.

If we do not feel quite ready to be so abandoned, that also can be matter for prayer.

Sometimes in the spiritual world we might promise things we don’t fully mean; but we can come to mean what we have said through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

It just needs a little perseverance and time.

When we ask God for something there is always implied that we are asking to come closer to Him. We do not just seek isolated blessings. We want to come closer to God, to know Him better.

He wants us to love Him more than any other person or thing. Not easy, but again it can be changed through prayer.

To be right with God is always the reference point.

We let Him do what has to be done, to form us, like a sculptor, chipping here and there  to get us to the state He desires.

He can rework even our sins, as we see most strikingly in the Crucifixion from which so much good has come.

(In our cenacles we imitate the first great Cenacle. We have a lot to learn and our prayer will help us do that.)

Our prayer is never wasted. People do convert to the true faith, and confess after many years and change the way they are living. We just need a lot more of it.

We have enough sense to turn up here at church, and that is a good start. We are trying to get used to the richness that we deal with here, real as it is, and unworthy as we are.

It is like having a cure for a terminal disease but very few want to know it.

We work on our own response to God's generous mercy; at the same time praying for success in helping others to receive it.

We pray for the courage of those first disciples, and the love which makes the courage possible. We love enough to die for the cause. We can change the world after all!

The Ascension 12 May 2024 Sermon

Feast of the Ascension 12 May 2024 Living in Heaven

Today, we mark Our Lord’s Ascension into glory. He rose from the tomb, which was one triumph. Then He rises to Heaven, to complete that triumph over sin, death, and corruption. He had to leave this earth because His true home is in Heaven. From there He can direct us to make the best of every situation here on earth. But we also are not meant to stay here forever.

The best way to prepare for Heaven is to live like we are already there, in our attitudes and inclinations, reflecting heavenly values.

We can be already living in heaven in our minds and hearts. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3,1-2).

Seek the things that are above. This does not mean we abandon practical concerns, becoming absent-minded.

In fact it should mean we are more alert because we will be operating at a higher level of energy and commitment.

If we have the right understanding of matters we will be practical and useful.

The same could be said for immediate tasks or one’s whole approach to life.

It makes a great deal of difference if we have an idea of the purpose of our lives.

Many do not think there is any overall purpose to life; for them it is just a matter of making the best of it. Oh well, we are here, so here goes.

This leads to some very arbitrary approaches to what is right or wrong. Who can say what is what if we have no God, no overall authority?

But we, as Christians, have a very clear purpose for being here, We are here to know, love and serve God, expressing this love in the way we live especially as regards charity, and all related qualities.

Living without God will lead to a distorted view of life and many wrong decisions will come from that.

This life is an exile but if we know where our true home is the exile becomes a lot easier.

We can attend to all our earthly concerns at the same time as seeking the will of God in all things, even as to our thoughts.

The will of God directs us to love our neighbours, forgive our enemies, to be charitable and merciful to all comers, helping others to carry their burden whenever we can.

We avoid false attachments, and disordered desires, which will be offered to us as sources of happiness, but they are ‘forbidden fruit’.

The life of a disciple of Christ requires discipline, good order, restraint - which might sound unappealing, but it leads to happiness in this life.

This is living already in Heaven, where our hearts and minds have achieved some degree of possession.

We live earthly life by heavenly laws, and this brings great peace to the one who does that, as well as going a long way to healing the whole world.

Jesus has gone before us in all things, all the processes of this life, and then preparing that final dwelling place, His true home, and ours too because we are one with Him.

He has not really gone away from us insofar as we have His presence in the Eucharist, and in His word, and His many answers to prayer which we make to Him.

And next Sunday we re-live His return with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

So as He says, He does not leave us orphans (Jn 14,18). We just need His help to navigate our way to our eternal home.

 

 

 

 

6th Sunday of Easter (B) 5 May 2024 Sermon

6^th Sunday of Easter (B) 5 May 2024 Love one another

Prior to the fall it must have been easy to love God and Neighbour. Before sin it would have been easy because there was no deviation from God's will to our own will.

Then sin happened and there was a huge rupture between God and us.

The pure waters of God's truth have become polluted by sin and we have become tired and cynical in the process.

It is hard for us to believe in the fulness of blessing that God promises us – such as the glory of Heaven.

We have never seen that much goodness and glory, so it is hard for us to believe in such things.

Only partially believing the Gospel and only partly identifying with the Church people pray less, and when they do pray, without conviction.

This is not how it was meant to work, but it is entrenched in each generation.

We note that each generation seems to repeat the same mistakes of every other generation.

Yet it is clear that God wants us to rise above that.

We cannot stop others from hating and killing. We can at least get our own part of the world right.

We make prayer of reparation for ongoing sin. Every day the world offends God; every day we offer sacrifice for sins, especially the Mass.

We would love to see these things change, so we must not give up.

It cannot be as difficult as we make it. It is just that we get deflected very quickly and stop seeking the solution in the only place it is found, namely Heaven.

God makes it easy for us, giving us example and instructions. And grace which works through the sacraments.

Love comes from God; it is essentially outgoing. This is why He made us and keeps us in being – to be receivers and returners of His love.

To cure cynicism and tiredness, we look at the light first, and the darkness will not overpower us. But if we look at the dark first then we are going to be disorientated and miserable. This is what many people do, and why they even conclude there is no God.

We pray for the blindness to be lifted.

So that it is no longer a furnace of charity on one side and a pale flame on our side. Instead we develop a strong faith, hope, and love, covering every area of need. We can get better at this. Prayer, sacraments, good deeds and the like will help to purify the polluted waters of our understanding.

God can multiply our small offering, our ‘five loaves’, and feed a multitude (Mt 14,17-21). The harvest is rich but the labourers are few(Mt 9,37).

We bring what we have, including the belief that God can act. We bring the ‘five loaves’ acknowledging God's power to make it happen.

Then we make the necessary application that He asks of us.

This will bring about conversions. People will see charity in action and will realise there is a better way. They realise how good God has been to them and they are ashamed of their hardness of hearts.

We pray for each other to discover what has not yet become the normal practice, though it is very simple in its essence. Let God's love take effect in our world, transforming the people in it, and the world itself.

We can become tired and cynical but we resist that outcome. Instead we acknowledge every day as a new beginning, and a chance to get it more right than ever before.

5th Sunday of Easter 28 April 2024 Sermon

5^th Sunday of Easter (B) 28 April 2024

What does it mean to be in union with Jesus? Like a branch to the vine (Jn 15,5).

It is more than just obeying Him, or asking for things. It is more like we dwell in Him or He dwells in us. We have a sense that we can reach Him at all times.

The contact may not be as clear as we would like it, but it is certainly better than no contact.

We do not see God as some distant entity from whom we seek favours, or as an angry being from whom we fear punishment, and ask to be spared.

It is more natural than that. When we pray we do not need to shout into the void, but we can call on Him with a quiet word – like Mary at Cana (Jn 2, 3).

How do we achieve or maintain such a union? There are many things we can do – come to Mass, pray frequently, ask pardon of our sins, do acts of kindness, forgive those who offend us.

These will bring us closer to God, close enough that we are joined to Him like a branch to a tree, drawing life from Him, and even bearing fruit. And if Jesus sees we are taking Him seriously He will prune us so that we can bear even more fruit (Jn 15,2).

It all helps deepen our link with Him, a link that we must never allow to be broken.

He is with us in every part of our lives, not restricted to churches or Sundays.

With His dwelling in us we are more able to know how to behave. We come to see things as Jesus Himself would see them. We take on His character, His ability to put others first, to sacrifice His own comfort for the good of others, to avoid all that tastes of evil.

We obey Him, not as in keeping a law, a cold impersonal process, but simply wanting what is right and good.

There are those who will say they can do good without Jesus. No doubt they do some good, but we need help to sustain our frail human nature.

To be a disciple of Christ requires a lot of learning; it is not just something we can do easily. Some things are easy but not all of them. Being Christian is more than just a breezy cheerfulness.

We might face persecution for instance. And we all have weak areas where we are vulnerable to temptation.

We need Our Lord to have the vision of what is good, and consistently so.

And we need also to seek to please Him for His own sake. This is the love that we can give back to God.

We cannot add to His glory but we can make it more visible, and this we seek to do.

We understand that He takes pleasure in us. He could do everything Himself but He wants us to be part of the process.

For example, God could feed a  hungry person directly, or He can inspire someone else to feed the hungry. That way the goodness of God is given more scope and everyone comes out happier.

In the spiritual world there is no clocking off at 5pm, nor even holidays, as we always have the chance and the obligation to make God's glory better known.

God values our praise; it might seem improbable but He chose to create us so that we could know, love and serve Him.

We bear fruit from the vine, but also flowers in the garden. God creates beauty and He claims it from us too.

God wants to get as much out of us as He can, and this is not to exploit us but to give us more chance to receive and express His glory.

And we can grow in understanding of what pleases Him and why that should please us.

We are more than servants, employees, slaves, and the like; Our love for Him is not servile but filial. All glory be to Him.