Christ The King 24 November 2024 Sermon

Christ the King 24 November 2024 Two kinds of King

Christ can be seen in different lights. He is humble, taking blows and insults, yet all the while He had the power to crush those mistreating Him. He showed another kind of power in restraining Himself.

Consider Ph 2,6 that He did not cling to his divinity but humbled Himself to become like us.

This feast celebrates His greatness, infinite goodness and power. It also acknowledges His humility stemming from love which motivates His actions.

Christ can be seen in both lights - glorious and sorrowful.

We can admire and respond to both aspects.  As to the sorrowful, we are grateful that He has not annihilated us many times over. Just because He does not punish straight away, people take liberties.

At Fatima, when people though the sun was falling on them, they became very contrite!

Most days there are no major disturbances, so it is easy to put off any spiritual aspirations.

We cannot make light of our sins just because there may be no obvious punishment. God does take sin seriously, serious enough to die for.

We can imitate Him in His humility if not His greatness. And He wants us to do that.  And that will enable us to discover our true human nature, as originally in the design of God’s holy will.

Unless we see signs and wonders we will not believe (Jn 4,48). We start doubting God if we slacken in our awareness of His past miracles. We have 2000 years to call upon, plus another 2000 years in the Old Testament.  We have to assimilate what has been already and draw strength from that.

Eventually, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Ph 2,10-11).

We can anticipate His glorious return, and we get to know Him that way too. We worship God for His goodness; this is one of the reasons He created us.

If we bring ourselves under His providence we will blossom, and so prepare for eternal life. 

This double aspect of Christ’s kingship can be applied also at world level.

The kings of the world have often misbehaved in their exercise of authority.

They have tried to rule with power, without worrying too much about being humble first. They just charged in and took what they thought was theirs.

Often using brute force to stay in power, they missed the point entirely. A king is there to serve His people, enhancing his own dignity because he is following in the steps of Christ.

There have been some saintly monarchs, and we honour them. They have put into practice the example that Our Lord has established.

His model of leadership is what all nations should be doing, instead of fighting each other.

Many would be too cynical to try Christian humility against the weapons of the worldHumility has never caught on fully, and certainly not lately in world affairs.

This is why Christians have been martyred in such numbers, because violence has been for so many the main way of operating.

Try instead submission to God’s way, and there will be a lasting peace.

In the meantime, we have to be prepared to be treated about the same as Our Lord was treated. 

If we identify with our King, we will be prepared to do as He does. Not for us the luxuries of royal life, but more like the combat of soldiers in the heat of battle.

Christ will prevail in both aspects. His glory will shine out in full, and His humble charity will be our motivation.  

Long live Christ the King!

33rd Sunday Ordinary Time 17 November 2024 Sermon

 33rd Sunday Ordinary Time 17 November 2024 Readiness

There are two things that we need to get right -  one is to be ready for the coming of Christ when He comes on the Last Day. The other is to be ready today and every day to be doing the will of God, living according to His will. Readiness for one should help with the other. 

We are ready if we are on good terms with the Master, such that His sudden appearance would not startle us too much. We make sure we are in a state of grace (free from grave sin); generally living good lives.  We can do this with His help, and we call constantly for that help.

We express our desire to meet the Saviour every day of the year, greater and lesser days. Most days do not look like the end of the world but we still find a place for what will end certainly, and might end suddenly.  

It is mostly little things we do yet there is a sense of urgency about getting those things right. To live in such a way is to have a good chance of earthly happiness, and also of reaching other people, to convince them that they too should be ready for the Master to return.

Procrastination is not helpful here. One might have a sense of getting around to it eventually. 

I will start praying and go back to church but not yet. It is always possible to put if off another day. But, says St Paul Now is the acceptable day (2 Co 6,2).

The end of the world, or the end of one person’s life – they can both come suddenly, and we have to keep both of them in mind.

It is easy to give all our attention to other matters, so this is why the word of God comes through the Bible and the teachings of the Church to remind us of the real perspective on time.

In our time and place  most people do not worry about religious matters, but this is a false calm before the storm. There are questions each person must face, and we need to get that right before we die, not after. We need to be – everyone needs to be – ready to meet the Saviour.

He does not want us to be afraid of Him, and we will not be if we have developed the habit of living with Him, according to His will.

As His disciples we should be seeking to please Him, not out of fear but love.

We seek to please Him for His own sake, not just because He is the boss or the landlord.

He wants more from us than to be servants, or employees. He calls us friends, or disciples, a more intimate connection.

Some things change, like fashion and food and language and a lot of things. But things of the spiritual order do not change. They remain fixed as regards how we interact with God. Things like the commandments: thou shalt or shalt not do those things. No amount of time can make these things less important.

We seek to please God for His own sake, but fortunately that will have the effect of making it more certain that we will stay faithful to the end; and also gives us more chance to influence others to make necessary changes in their lives.

And this will offer hope to people who generally do not have much. Let’s all be ready for the coming of Christ, and all that comes with that event.

32nd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 10 November 2024 Sermon

 32nd Sunday Ordinary Time  (B) 10 November 2024 Generosity

The woman gave more than the others because she gave more of herself. It was ‘all she had,’ whereas the rich could give plenty, but they still had a lot in reserve.

It was the same story with the widow in Elijah’s time (first reading). She was preparing what she thought was her last meal, and yet was willing to share it with the prophet. To make matters worse the prophet insisted that she feed him first – a clear hint to us about whether we give first place to God or to ourselves.

To be people who give rather than take. God is Love. The essence of Love is to give without counting the cost. God gives of Himself within the Blessed Trinity, and then extends that out to us, giving of Himself to us in His healing, forgiving, comforting, strengthening etc.

It is not the amount we give but the attitude with which we give it.

This is why a poorer person could give more than a rich one – because he has an attitude of giving. The willingness to give defines his humanity and brings Him close to the Heart of God. When God became human it was generosity that was one of His clearest attributes.

He was generous to the point of death, and this was ‘while we were still sinners’ (Rom 5,8-9).

It is then up to us whether we learn the lesson – in some ways a lifelong lesson.

If we do have a generous attitude, we will receive a hundredfold in return (Mk 10,30) we will have discovered the key to the whole business.

Generous to neighbour, but first to God, in gratitude and obedience.

God will know if we mean it or not, and He will help us to mean it, by implanting His grace – His giving nature. We cannot measure spiritual qualities like purity of the heart, but we can always do things which will increase that quality – such as prayer, such as risking generosity and seeing what happens.

The cynical will deny that true goodness is possible, dismissing it as unrealistic and unattainable, grasping meanwhile for what they can get and keep. We learn instead from the evangelical simplicity of Our Lord, and other saints through the ages who were nearly always in material poverty yet knowing spiritual joy. 

While we want to reduce poverty, we want even more to bring about a change of heart for the better in each person. 

So, we resist the temptation to dismiss generosity as impractical, and we turn to the Lord in prayer to derive every necessary grace from Him. The widow’s food did not run out, and nor will ours if we take this path. God will give us our daily bread, and reward us for our trust in Him.

If we can put all this into practice we have discovered the key to eternal life, the precious pearl that is worth selling all else to possess (Mt 13,44).

So, we also strive for evangelical simplicity, to be generous to the poor even if we are ourselves poor, and so discover a great spiritual richness, which will after all express itself in financial form, while at the same time making the world a more pleasant place to inhabit. 

31st Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 5 November 2000 Sermon

 

[This is one from the archives, as I did not get to write one last week]

31st Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 5 November 2000 Desire for God

We are told in the Gospel that we should love God above all else, with our whole heart, soul, and mind.

We can find this difficult because God can seem remote or abstract, whereas we are more comfortable with people and things that we can see and touch.

Even if we want to love God we can find it hard to know precisely how to do so.

We can learn something of how to make progress here from considering another important topic at this time of year - the souls in Purgatory.

We are asked to help the souls in purgatory by our prayers. Help them to do what precisely?

To see the face of God. That is their greatest longing.

If you had been crawling through the desert for three days, your greatest longing at that time would be for a drink of water.

If you had been stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean your greatest longing would be to see a ship come by.

Well, if you are in purgatory, your greatest longing is to see the face of God.

They are close enough to God to know how good He is, but not close enough to be able to see Him, and it is a great frustration for them.

We could make an inadequate comparison from our own experience whenever we have just missed experiencing something that we really wanted to do.

If we just missed out on a trip, or seeing a particular concert, or being present at a memorable event.

Or, more seriously, the feeling of grief for the death of one we love.

It is that sense of nearly having, but not having it now. It becomes the one main desire.

In purgatory the souls have nothing else to distract them. (We are insulated from this pain by having other things to do.)

In this they can teach us what it means to love God - loving God means not putting a dozen other things ahead of Him.

On earth we tend to crowd God out as we can get so busy with other things. We mean to get around to God, but well, the time just seems to get away.

But even on earth we get snatches of awareness of God, which really pierce the heart.

The effect of some music, for example, which seems to awaken long ago and far away memories, or hopes that we could not easily put into words.

The almost unbearable feeling of nostalgia that can grip us at times as we think of lost friendships and pleasant moments that can never be recaptured (in this life at least).

We have a way of glossing over the past. The ‘good old days’ itself is indirectly a longing for heaven, as we sense within us the possibility of something better than this.

Nostalgia is a good image of what purgatory must be like, because it is a sad and sweet experience at the same time. We possess partially what we like, but it escapes our grasp.

So we learn from these moments that there is a greater world beyond. The hard-boiled dismiss these experiences and get on with life. But for us with faith, and hope, these moments are signs of something better to come.

We can use them to motivate us to seek out God. Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is thirsting for You, my God.

If we do this, we are fulfilling in a way that we can understand the command given by Jesus: to love God above all else.

This is not just a commandment, it is a desire. A desire that we ourselves have. We will realize it in purgatory; why not realize it now and set about seeking Him?

The best thing about all this is that if we are seeking Him we will eventually possess what we desire. It may seem a long time coming, but once we have possession we won’t mind that!

30th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 27 October 2024 Sermon

 

30^th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 27 October 2024 Perseverance in Prayer

The blind man called out loudly - which indicates to us that we should exert ourselves  when asking for heavenly favour.

The story is for our benefit so that we will have more confidence in God, and present our needs to Him more boldly. We don’t have to shout, but we do have to believe, and the stronger our belief the more effective the prayer is going to be.

(See also the Canaanite woman, the nobleman who petitioned for his son, the ten lepers, the friends lowering a man through the roof.)  

1) Jesus wants us to approach Him: Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened (Mt 11,28)

And He give us parables to reinforce this. The importunate widow and the troublesome friend. (Lk 18,1-8; Lk 11,5-13) God does not get annoyed like we would do. He is always awake, always listening.

2) He wants us to trust in Him, that He has both the power and the will to heal us.

The blind man believed both of these.

So we cry out to Him when we are in any kind of trouble. Our cry is heard. The Lord hears the cry of the poor. Ps 34,17)

There are things we can do to build up our faith.

One thing is to keep our contact with God always current. We do not allow our faith to cool off. We thank him for past blessings and ask for current needs non-stop. This way we will not be discouraged. In this pattern of prayer we unite ourselves with the whole Church, which is always praying.

Perseverance in prayer is itself an expression of faith. We believe just the same whether the prayer is answered immediately or with a delay. Because we are dealing with the same God, who never changes one time to the next.

We are tempted to think we are alone and so stop praying, stop expecting any change for the better.

We are never alone. Praying will enable us to have a stronger sense of God’s presence. It is that sense of being alone that probably impedes us, a kind of ‘what’s the use’ feeling.

So when we are in trouble we pray more not less. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! (Ps 126,5)

The more prayer, and the more people praying the better.

But if we are all discouraged we will stop too soon.

3) Pray like the saints. It does make a difference who is praying. Mt 11,28)

A saint will pray with more love of God, and therefore more trust and more power will come from that.

The more we ‘agree’ with God the more smoothly everything will run.

This is what makes things give way, when we love God enough we can make a request without fear. We fit ourselves into His plans and whatever He is doing or not will be ok with us. Son, they have no wine is the ultimate prayer. Mary understood her Son and was at one with His will. (Jn 2,1-11)

God wants us to be absorbed in His will and take comfort there. Whatever difficulties we have with prayer will always stem from a certain distance on our part, whereby we do not fully trust God, or do not know Him well enough.

We learn from the blind man to be uninhibited in the face of divine power and love. Call out to him without fear and we will be heard.

[Universal prayer for universal need. We pitch in here as well, with the whole Church.]