6th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) 16 February 2025 Sermon

6th Sunday of year (C)  16 February 2025  Pursuit of happiness

Everyone looks for happiness, even if it be only a reduction of misery. We are built to pursue happiness, we could say.

Well, we are built to know, love and serve God, and that would be our greatest happiness, once we actually do that.

Not everyone knows they are meant to love God, and many do not love Him, especially if that love is understood as putting God first, ahead of all else.

There are many possible sources of happiness; some get further than others, but all will be inadequate if we are not properly grounded in God.

Even legitimate happiness is limited in where it can take us. We tire of things we had previously thought would be enough for our happiness; there is a certain flatness about achievement. I have climbed the mountain, swam the sea, but I still feel the need for more.

Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee. (St Augustine)

A lot of the time people are just grasping for whatever happiness they can find, be it moral or immoral. They do not have a clear objective; they are just flitting from one experience to another.

Live for today is one piece of advice. But sometimes we have to factor in tomorrow to make a good decision about today.

Take today’s Gospel, where we have Jesus turning things on their head as in presenting the negative side of things as the source of happiness.

So, happy are you who are hungry now, you shall be satisfied, or happy are you who are poor, yours is the kingdom of God. Or Happy are you when they persecute you on My account.

We can be happy even while undergoing hardships because any suffering we have in he service of Christ will be superseded by the greater consolation. I may be hungry and poor and friendless now, but I will be the opposite of those things for all eternity.

We come to see the pursuit of happiness not as an accumulation of one experience after another  but  a deepening experience of God Himself, leading us to union with Him.

This is a life-long project, therefore not to be abandoned because of apparent setbacks.

We must be careful not to fall into the same errors the unbelievers make. 

We learn to be patient in the workings of God's will. 

We live ordered lives, based on the calm certainty of God’s eternal and infinite goodness.

Then we are like trees drawing water (grace) from the stream (first reading and psalm). We never run dry and are always bearing fruit.

Sin, on the other hand, leads to desolation and desert-like conditions; holiness leads to greenery, and lots of it.

Yes, we have to make some sacrifices, but any serious pursuit of happiness requires that.

Even the secular world demands self-discipline (look at the athletes, for instance). 

We understand that the things that really matter are out of normal reach and require some effort to attain them.

We don’t mind the quest, as we see the great prize, coming ever closer.

Then we will be happy, and all the time and in all possible ways. It is worth striving for such an outcome.                                                    

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) 9 February 2025 Sermon

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) 9 February 2025 Conversion.

In all three of today's readings there is an encounter between God and a person God has chosen. Each person feels inadequate to the task, but God provides the necessary support.

Isaiah is given a vision of the majesty of God and says, Woe, I am a man of unclean lips. God sends an angel to cleanse his lips with a hot coal.

Paul is given the task of proclaiming the Gospel; acutely humbled by his experience, he considers himself the last and the least of apostles.

Peter is overwhelmed by the miraculous catch of fish as he senses the presence of divinity. Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful man.

Although for a time they were made uncomfortable from their brush with divinity, all three were greatly blessed by the experience and never the same again. And they all went on to do great things.

They had been converted by their encounter; they had changed direction. Having laid their hands on the plough they never looked back (Lk 9,62).

So it should be for all who have this same conversion – to be pointed towards the Lord, never again to look away.

To have an experience of God brings us to our knees, and a real shame for our sins; but there is also a joyful sense of hope, and we are quickly stood up again with new confidence.

God does this to people because He can see what each one needs, and how each person can be brought to his happiest state.

There are many stories of people being changed overnight by maybe a dream, or some strong sense that they have to do something.

God will not give up as He pursues each person - not to harm them but to open up a new life.

He can call more than one person at a time, for example, with the apparitions of Our Lady; especially the final apparition at Fatima (1917).

There are prophecies of a universal warning which will reveal to every person in the world the state of his soul before God.

If that happens, it will be a conversion experience for many. When sufficiently moved we are ready to promise anything. It just then becomes a matter of keeping the good resolutions in mind.

We will not usually have a strong emotional factor helping us. God expects us to walk in faith most of the time.

We cannot manufacture conversion experiences. We can do certain things that will make conversions more likely to happen  - simply draw closer to God, through prayer, through quiet, through the sacraments.

We can make the first move, give ourselves up voluntarily. Don't make Him look for us; don't be hiding in the first place. Seek Him confidently, and He will guide us gently to do whatever has to be done.

Conversion is not always sudden and dramatic. It can be  as gentle as the breeze, and steady as the growth of a plant.

If we are responsive to God's calling, and willing to obey we will then yield the fruit that God wants from each one of us - the fruit that Isaiah, Paul and Peter were able to yield.

May God reach us by whatever means necessary and bring us all to eternal life.

Presentation of the Lord 2 February 2025 Sermon

Presentation of the Lord 2 February 2025

The  Jews had to offer their first-born sons to God, as a sign of their gratitude for being set free from Egypt (Ex 22,28-29). That son could be called the ‘price’ of salvation.

Jesus was a first-born son, and He was the price of salvation, not only for His family, not only the Jews, but for all people.

We no longer offer our first-born sons, but Jesus Himself. We offer Him in gratitude for being set free (from sin and death), and in atonement for our sins.

All the while we maintain an attitude of humility towards God. We remember our smallness in relation to Him. 

We acknowledge our dependence on Him. He is the maker of all, and we must be prepared to give up anything we have, even our own life.

Mary and Joseph lived with these attitudes anyway, but for others there may be different points where we have to make changes.

We give back to God whatever He might ask of us. We can reach a point where we are glad to give back to Him, rather than clinging to what we have.

We see in the lives of the saints how they always wanted to do more for God. Many of the saints desired martyrdom. Why would anyone want that? 

When we love enough, we do not count the cost.

Abraham was ready to give up his son, Isaac (Gen 22,1-19).  He did not argue when told to sacrifice his son, even though it did  not seem to make much sense, given that the same son was promised by God.

Abraham’s faith was being tested. God does not always ask for the hardest possible option; but He does ask us to be willing to give whatever He asks, without complaint or resistance.

There is a story in the book of Maccabees about a mother who had seven sons, and they were all put to death before her eyes, one by one to increase the anguish. She encouraged the  sons to go through with their ordeal. She loved God more than she loved her own preferences (2 Macc, chapter 7).

This is where we must be. 

On the contrary, many people give up faith in God when stricken with some kind of loss, leaving them bewildered and grieving. Why would God do such a thing? We may not know. 

We can ask, but it should be in a respectful way, recalling that all things come from God and belong to Him. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord (Jb 1,21).

Mary felt the full force of Simeon’s prophesy but did not recoil from what lay ahead.

Not only should we accept the Lord’s wisdom we should rejoice in it, be thankful. We say thanks be to God regardless of circumstances.

He is the same God; he does not diminish, nor forget, nor go back on His word.

The human race has been very fickle with God. He is trying to help us to trust Him.

Mary was faithful all the way to Calvary, and beyond. She knew her Son was God's Son first, and she could live with that. She never doubted God or grumbled in her heart, for taking away what he had given.

Her faith was in God Himself, not for some particular set of events. 

The things He give us might disappear but God Himself never.

He tests our faith to make it stronger, knowing that our greatest happiness lies there.

He wants everyone to be like Our Lady having real faith, without bitterness.

How can we acquire such faith? Ask and you shall receive. (Keep asking!)