28th Sunday A 11 October 2026 Sermon

28^th Sunday A  11 October 2026 Come to the banquet

Why must we come to the banquet the Master has prepared for us? It is because we cannot live without this special food. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you have no life in  you (Jn 6, 53).

Normal food affects the body. This heavenly food affects the soul. It works at a level we cannot see or measure, but we do see the effects.

The signs of a healthy soul are found in the various ways we have of describing goodness:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self‑control.(Gal 5,22-23)

To benefit from this special bread we need to be expectant that it will have good effects.

Expectancy can vary across a wide range. We have saints like St Therese yearning for her First Communion. At the other extreme it is possible to receive the Sacrament mechanically and without any particular expectation of anything resulting.

St Therese wrote of her First Communion that she felt a profound spiritual union, describing it as a fusion with Christ, where she ‘vanished as a drop of water is lost in the immensity of the ocean’  leaving Jesus as the Master and King in her heart.

It will be argued that one does not need this special food, it being possible simply to have good intentions. So I can stay home from Mass and just have good thoughts, and that will be enough!

We will do much better if we follow the way the Church has established. It is always tempting to water down the commitment required, but never as good as actually doing what the Church asks.

Although it is spiritual food, we are physical beings and physical interaction is essential for some things. This is why we have all the sacraments, which help us to receive spiritual benefits through our bodily identity.

The communal element we have at a banquet is also experienced in the Mass and other sacraments. This should increase our unity with each other.  

The more we expect from the Eucharist, the more good results there are going to be.

We can increase our desire, and so receive more. Not more in quantity but in depth of interaction.  There is no limit on how far we can go with this; it is up to us to come ready for action.

Even if the reception is not perfect in terms of the individual’s attitude, there can be many good effects as the receiving soul is transformed at least partially in the process.

It comes down to how healthy the soul is, how much the person is willing to change or be changed as we encounter this greater force for good.

We can resist change for the better, so we need other sources of grace to transcend whatever limitations there are, and gradually we build up expectation. Christ gives Himself to each person as much as He is welcomed.

Those who receive unworthily (symbolised by the missing wedding garment) will be making it worse, because they are accepting the invitation on their own terms when complete submission is required.

In humility we need to confess any mortal sins first, and then receive the sanctifying bread.

God will not abandon us. If received wrongly before that can also be forgiven.

He still has the same burning desire to reach sinners as He had on the Cross. He can forgive today’s sins as well as those of past times.

He will be hoping to get through to each person as soon as possible, to induce a true repentance, and a hope-filled receiving of this very special food.

 

 

 

 

 

27th Sunday A 4th October 2026 Sermon

27^th Sunday A      4 October 2026 Accepting the Son

The vineyard owner tries to collect his rent and all his messengers are mishandled. Finally he thinks, I will send my son – they will not abuse him. And then the bitter irony is that they are even more outrageous with the son than with any of the preceding messengers.

This parable is applicable firstly to the Jews and Gentiles. The Jews had the privilege of receiving God the Son into their midst and they rejected it, even going as far as to kill Him.

We can shake our heads at the Jews for rejecting Our Lord but are we any better? In spiritual terms all nations of the world have rejected God's  message, and His Messenger.

If Jesus came again in a similarly vulnerable form would they kill Him again? Certainly many would.

And we could be said to kill Him by our sins. If we were present when Jesus made His way to Calvary, we would not have struck Him, or spat on Him, and we would not do that now.

Yet, if He died for our sins, it is our fault that He is being led away to death. And all the insults etc. only add to the wrongness of the event.

Anyone who sins adds to the wounds of Jesus. (Fortunately, anyone who does good in His Name, will be consoling Him.)

We learn how merciful God is, that He can put up with this behavior and still be willing to forgive, and to save those who do this.

God loves us enough to die for us. God the Son takes the sin of the world on His shoulders and turns it into a perfect sacrifice. He makes Himself the Victim, more pleasing to the Father than multiple animal sacrifices.

Thus He atones for the sin of the world, and releases many graces for mercy on the human race.

And this mercy can change us, so that if at first we would have killed the Son, now we will receive Him in due honour. When the landowner says, Surely they will respect my son, it turns out that eventually he was right. It took a lot to happen but they do respect the son now, a few millions at least!

This parable, so much like human history with its violence and self-seeking, can be happily resolved after all.  The malice in human hearts can be turned into love and goodwill instead.

We can look on our past sins and weep for them. Regret is not a pleasant feeling but it can lead to peace of soul, and that is pleasant.

If we regret our past sins we can confess them and receive the mercy that is always available.

Better still, we can acquire a more genuine sorrow as we come to understand what God has done for us.

We deserved to die, but He died in our place. We were sorry before, but now we are really sorry. True and complete contrition will result if we follow this through.

It might be proposed that it is better to forget past sins, but if we can learn from them, and if we can develop a deeper contrition then that is a good thing to happen.

We remember all the sins of the human race, particularly those who were among the chosen group - first the Jews, then the Christians. The ones who are closer have extra responsibility to get it right. As His disciples, we show to the world that we have received the Son of God, not turned him away, nor ever will do that again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

26th Sunday A 27 September 2026 Sermon

 26^th Sunday A  27 September 2026 Choosing good 

It is understood that the angels had a choice as to whether they would remain angels under God’s authority, or break from God and become devils instead. They valued their freedom from authority that much. I will not serve, said Lucifer.

Humans also get to choose whether or not they will serve God. Either go with Him and be led to eternal life, or defy Him and live an eternity of loss.

We are different from the angels in that they had only one choice while we can have a lot more than one. We can change whether we are in the light or the darkness, back and forth.

When we sin in a major way we have broken contact with God. When we confess that sin and make amends, we are back to life.

It is how we finish that counts. The first reading (Ez 18)  makes this clear. We can be good and turn evil, or evil and turn good.

We are different from the angels because our wills are weaker. They made once choice and that choice was binding for all eternity. We make a choice, say to give up some bad habit, and we can collapse the next day. As the man said: It is easy to give up smoking; I’ve e done it lots of times!

So we make progress by stages rather than all at once. Gradually we can become stronger.

Our Lady was one exception to human weakness. She was totally given to the will of God and in her case once was enough. She was locked into loyalty to God. Be it done unto me according to thy word. We ask her to help us in our weakness.

We hope to improve and consolidate and never look back at Egypt. I have got this far I am not going to abandon this.

We have seen enough of the goodness of God to stay on track.

It is possible to go wrong for a range of reasons.

Also the choice for evil can be gradual and not all at once. Bad habits not corrected, carelessness about obligations, chasing after false gods, such as pleasure.

We can cease to believe that change is possible.

We can  talk of choice where there is still technically a chance to choose otherwise, but we will not waver if we lock in the right choice.

For those presently lost, God encourages them to take refuge in Him, come to the Sacred Heart, fount of mercy, and all Heaven is pleased.

So much of our prayer and sacramental life is geared towards this invitation to repentance.

God shows His willingness to forgive in His word, in sacraments, in the living out of the good life by saints.

God knows that we are weak and can fall away again. So He gives us ways of not falling too far, and a way of coming back into balance.

He warns us not to delay repentance as the time is uncertain; but also because we can become hardened against the good, as per the fallen angels.

So even with heaven in view we can still stay on the wrong side, as did the fallen angels.

We repent and then we stay on that right side with smaller and more frequent repetitions of that wrong choice.

We encourage each other meanwhile as all being in the same boat, and we depend on each other for example, for mutual prayer, practical help, and forgiveness, and whatever else we can do.  We choose life and good whenever there is a choice.