27th Sunday C 5 October 2025 Sermon

 27^th Sunday C   5 October 2025 Obedience of faith

 “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, ‘Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Lk 17,6 Gospel)

Not many have that sort of faith, but we can move in that direction.

Our Lord expands the theme by likening it to a master-servant relationship.

Servants interpret everything in terms of what they must  do for the master.

The servant must obey the master at all times. So must we be on a permanent footing of obedience to our Master, Almighty God.

Obedience to a kind and just master will draw one closer to that master, in terms of wanting to please him, anticipating his wishes, making sacrifices for  his sake.

This is about us and our Master, Jesus Christ.

If we are obedient to Him He will entrust us with more (cf parable of talents – you have been faithful in small things, I will entrust you with greater Mt 25,14-30.)

God created us to share His life, to participate in His ruling of the earth.

The first man, Adam, enjoyed supernatural authority over creation. Had he not sinned he would have grown in faith and power, also love for God.

If the wind had been blowing too strongly, for example, Adam could have stilled the wind with a word (just as Jesus could calm the storm Mt 8,23-27).

We find ourselves a mixture of power which is still there, and power lost through sin.

If we would come back to a perfect relationship with God we would be working miracles too, or at least contributing to them.

The key is to obey, even if it is against our inclinations. If we do obey we will be coming into right order with God and all His creation.

Many have given up on prayer thinking that it does not ‘work’. It will work when the one praying makes a resolution to obey God in all things.

Increase our faith , say the apostles in today’s Gospel.

Every prayer, every good work can help us to grow in our understanding of God, and willingness to please Him.

This has to be every day. We are told in other spheres of life that we have to eat well, get enough sleep, enough exercise etc. Even more so, we have to get enough supernatural life - enough prayer, communing with the Divine, gradually coming into better relationship with all who seek union with God.

We make this world a place where God is taken seriously. This would be the ‘kingdom’ for which we pray.

We can tell God that we are not happy with the current state of affairs, provided we are humble and respectful. (today’s 1^st reading Hab 1,2-3 and 2,2-4). How long am I to cry for help, Lord, while You will not listen?

God does not tell us much, as in words we can hear. But He shows us a lot, leaving it for us to put two and two together, and adjust our position accordingly.

We are asking not because we are losing faith, but because we need help piecing it all together.

We know that the fault cannot be with God, so it must be somewhere else, maybe a lot of places, where God is not honoured.

Any way we can unravel the difficulties the better off everyone will be.

Just simple obedience will set things off in the right way. Do whatever He tells  you  (Jn 2,1-11).

And watch what happens! 

 

 

 

 

 

26th Sunday (C) 28 September 2025 Sermon

26^th Sunday (C ) 28 September 2025 Multiculturism.  Today is the 111^th world day of migrants and refugees, and we celebrate it here in this parish, combined with the main theme of the Jubilee year - Pilgrims of Hope.

In this parish we have a lot of evidence of different cultures blending harmoniously. We take the chance to pray for all the relevant and connected themes of the day.

That we can all live in peace is a constant prayer. Whenever we look at any country or region we see too many signs of discord.

Everyone should treat everyone with respect, but it does not always happen. Through our prayer we express the hope that it can be done differently; that the change brought about in the human condition by the coming of Christ will penetrate hearts and change will result at the ground level.

The place to start is to recognize the common humanity which binds us, either in an already established peace, or in a peace which is waiting to be realised.

St Paul tells us that now there is no Jew or Greek, but only Christ (Ga 3,28).

Christ made us one, and can keep us one if enough people will unite themselves with Him.

We can speak of two things that need to happen.

One, as we have been saying, is that we learn to live in peace, so that no matter how many people are in one area they can learn to get along.

Two, is that as many as possible, and potentially the whole world, can come to an explicit complete union with Our Lord Jesus Christ, through faith and baptism. This is the source of unity that St Paul was speaking about.

We offer to those of other religions, or no religion, the greatest gift of all – the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the pearl of great price (Mt 13,45-46), for which we should give up all we have.

Our primary method of influencing others to believe in Christ is to be the very best disciples we can be.

We are to be Pilgrims of Hope, one of the main themes of the Jubilee year.

We can achieve peace (important) through faith, hope and charity (even more important).

Christ is the overall source of culture, if we take ‘culture’ to mean the way people live, the way they set values, make decisions.

We can still celebrate our differences on less essential matters. So nations have different customs on matters of art, literature, food, clothing, music, language, history, geography, sport etc.

Being Christian does not mean we have to be the same on all points. As long as we have that unity with Jesus Christ we can then expand into other areas, never losing our focus on Him.

We are one when we need to be, and diverse when appropriate, but never forgetting where all this richness comes from.

We become more like Him, and meet in the middle, where He is found.

Mentally it is easy to see that we are all one, or should be, but who is going to live like that?

We have to forgive everyday, seeking a standard of holiness which is demanding but also rewarding.

History has been pushed out of shape many times, and the world we have now is very different from that which Christ would have wanted for us. But such is the marvel of God's mercy that from any position on the spectrum He can forgive us and give us a new start.

Genuine repentance, seeking the approval of God is the key. Always we are saying, Lord have mercy. Always He is granting it. Today, may He forgive all sins against unity in Him.