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.