3rd Sunday of Lent 7.3.10 A new heart
St Paul in the epistle is instructing us to avoid impurity of any kind. Good advice certainly. And the same could be said for any sort of sin: avoid outbursts of anger, avoid seeking revenge for injuries; avoid stealing, lying and so on.
We agree with it all, and we only wish we could put all those things into practice.
But the sad tale is that we are not as strong as we would like to be and we often do things the opposite of what we intended. (As St Paul himself observes in Romans 7).
At which point many Christians will simply pull out of the race as far as seeking perfect holiness is concerned and settle for a kind of comfortable mediocrity – sometimes getting it right; often wrong, but not worrying too much either way.
However, with a little perseverance we can discover a very different outcome.
What God commands He also enables.
What He tells us to do He enables us to be.
One of the psalms says, Create a clean heart in me, O God. In Ezekiel and Jeremiah God promises to take our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh instead.
When God says, for example, Be pure, He is not just giving us a rule to follow, as though leaving us to our own devices. He would not be so cruel as to command the impossible.
He is saying, Be pure, and I will enable you to be that because I will put purity into your heart.
(And likewise for charity: love your neighbour and forgive your enemy - and I will put charity in your heart. And so for all the virtues and commands.)
He will give us a different set of desires. What makes us want to be impure? It is that our desires and passions are disordered; they are all the wrong way round, like an untidy room. If the room is tidied the desires find the right place and balance.
The key to the process is the sacramental encounters we have with God (Jesus). When we receive Him in Holy Communion, for example, He is entering our hearts, taking possession there.
The Gospel today speaks of evil spirits occupying us, and this can happen. But so can God occupy us with exactly the opposite results.
With God possessing us we are likely to manifest the behaviour described by St Paul in Galatians 5 as the fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity
God takes over our minds! Not to the point of removing our free will but by way of giving us a new way of looking at things. We see the futility of sin, the damage it does, and we gladly reject it. We see the freedom and beauty of God’s ordered creation and we gladly follow His ‘commands’ which are now seen, not as burdensome but as friends along the way. ‘Lord, how I love your law’ as the Psalmist puts it.
This puts a whole different light on Church teaching, rules and regulations. It is routinely asserted in the media and often by Catholics themselves that Church teachings are too hard and should be relaxed. The real answer lies in invoking the power of God to come into us and give us new hearts, new ways of seeing things, new desires. Then we are Christ-like. Disciples of Christ were never meant to be just following a book of rules; to be His disciple means to have His vital spirit within us, guiding us and motivating us at the same time.
It is possible after all, and being possible it is compulsory, because it would be an insult to Christ to refuse what He is offering us.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
2nd Sunday of Lent 28 Feb 2010 Sermon
2nd Sunday of Lent 28.2.10 Transfiguration
The Church has always understood that the main reason Our Lord showed Himself to the three apostles in glorified form was to strengthen them (and through them all disciples) against the scandal of the Cross.
When they would later see Our Lord crucified and apparently defeated they would remember this vision of His glory and maintain faith in Him despite adverse appearances.
Yet we know they were still overcome by the sight of His suffering. They had seen Him work so many miracles but now His power seemed to have run dry. They allowed themselves to lose hope. He had healed the sick, walked on water, even raised the dead, but apparently He was finished. Not so, as we know. Yet we are no better. We also are inclined to lose hope as soon as something goes wrong.
It is alarmingly easy to forget consoling things when we are under pressure of some kind. We have not only the Transfiguration but the Resurrection itself, and then Pentecost and countless other miracles; yet we can still be overcome by adversity and feel as though we are losing our faith.
We also have to confront the scandal of the Cross and the mystery of suffering in our lives. We will cope with these things if we anchor ourselves on Christ and what He has demonstrated. He is stronger than death and sin and can set His followers free from these things.
There are times when it might appear God is absent, or when we cannot work out what He is doing; but it can never be true that He is really absent, nor that He is somehow working against our interests. He is the same every day; He never loses power; never changes His mind; never forgets us.
We are very subject to time and we simply forget things, or we let time erode our previous fervent convictions.
If God ever worked a miracle the power of that miracle still applies.
The remedy for us is to immerse ourselves into the consoling aspects of our faith. In our creeds, our prayers, in the scriptures – there are reminders everywhere of God’s power and fidelity to us. ‘Behold I am with you always, until the end of time’ (Mt28,20)
And if words are not enough there are countless miracles we can recall, some of them embedded in our sacramental life such as the miracle of the Eucharist. There we have Our Lord Himself, present in all His power and love.
We learn to re-think our understanding of time. Just because a miracle happened a long time ago does not mean it has somehow ceased to be relevant. Miracles do not wear out. Nothing belonging to heaven wears out with time.
It is all just as true now as when it first happened. Our Lord’s rising from the dead is just as real this present Sunday as the original Easter Sunday. We can be just as happy now as those first disciples were then.
When things look dark we go through the drill of reminding ourselves that God is still God; that His promises are still reliable; that with His help we will come through whatever this crisis is and have all the more reason to praise Him.
We can take a lesson from Joseph in the book of Genesis. In the good years he set aside food for the lean years. So with us, when we recognize God’s blessings we can store that up for the lean times when His presence is not so obvious. We train ourselves to believe in Him in all times and conditions.
Good Fridays turn into Easter Sundays; dark into light. When things look dark, remember the Transfiguration!
The Church has always understood that the main reason Our Lord showed Himself to the three apostles in glorified form was to strengthen them (and through them all disciples) against the scandal of the Cross.
When they would later see Our Lord crucified and apparently defeated they would remember this vision of His glory and maintain faith in Him despite adverse appearances.
Yet we know they were still overcome by the sight of His suffering. They had seen Him work so many miracles but now His power seemed to have run dry. They allowed themselves to lose hope. He had healed the sick, walked on water, even raised the dead, but apparently He was finished. Not so, as we know. Yet we are no better. We also are inclined to lose hope as soon as something goes wrong.
It is alarmingly easy to forget consoling things when we are under pressure of some kind. We have not only the Transfiguration but the Resurrection itself, and then Pentecost and countless other miracles; yet we can still be overcome by adversity and feel as though we are losing our faith.
We also have to confront the scandal of the Cross and the mystery of suffering in our lives. We will cope with these things if we anchor ourselves on Christ and what He has demonstrated. He is stronger than death and sin and can set His followers free from these things.
There are times when it might appear God is absent, or when we cannot work out what He is doing; but it can never be true that He is really absent, nor that He is somehow working against our interests. He is the same every day; He never loses power; never changes His mind; never forgets us.
We are very subject to time and we simply forget things, or we let time erode our previous fervent convictions.
If God ever worked a miracle the power of that miracle still applies.
The remedy for us is to immerse ourselves into the consoling aspects of our faith. In our creeds, our prayers, in the scriptures – there are reminders everywhere of God’s power and fidelity to us. ‘Behold I am with you always, until the end of time’ (Mt28,20)
And if words are not enough there are countless miracles we can recall, some of them embedded in our sacramental life such as the miracle of the Eucharist. There we have Our Lord Himself, present in all His power and love.
We learn to re-think our understanding of time. Just because a miracle happened a long time ago does not mean it has somehow ceased to be relevant. Miracles do not wear out. Nothing belonging to heaven wears out with time.
It is all just as true now as when it first happened. Our Lord’s rising from the dead is just as real this present Sunday as the original Easter Sunday. We can be just as happy now as those first disciples were then.
When things look dark we go through the drill of reminding ourselves that God is still God; that His promises are still reliable; that with His help we will come through whatever this crisis is and have all the more reason to praise Him.
We can take a lesson from Joseph in the book of Genesis. In the good years he set aside food for the lean years. So with us, when we recognize God’s blessings we can store that up for the lean times when His presence is not so obvious. We train ourselves to believe in Him in all times and conditions.
Good Fridays turn into Easter Sundays; dark into light. When things look dark, remember the Transfiguration!
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
1st Sunday of Lent 21 Feb 2010 Sermon
1st Sunday of Lent 21.2.10 Learn from the Master
When we see a master of his craft doing what he does well we say, He makes it look easy.
Whatever the skill someone can do it better than anyone else, be it ice skating, singing, writing, lawn bowls.
If ‘being good’ could be called a skill then we have the Master of that skill in Our Lord Himself.
Today, in confronting and defeating the temptations from another master, He makes it look easy.
To each temptation presented to Him Our Lord simply answers with a word from Scripture and that is the end of the matter.
If only we could do it as easily as that. But we allow ourselves to get tangled up by the prospect of quick happiness which temptation essentially offers.
Eat this and you will be happy; gratify your senses; why deny yourself anything? Don’t let a few old commandments bother you. Don’t let the Church or the Pope tell you what to do.
So, all too willingly, we listen to the temptation and succumb.
Our Lord went into the desert to represent us all. He was captain of the team and the team was called humanity. He went in on our behalf. Previously our win-loss record against the devil was very poor, but this time it was a win for the humans.
In achieving this victory He changed the balance of power. The devil’s grip on the human race had been loosened.
The devil is also master of his craft, that of tempting. He was defeated by Our Lord but he surveyed Our Lord’s followers and thought they looked a ragged enough bunch and would still be ripe for temptation.
So he has been throwing things at us ever since, in any and every way possible trying to deflect us from the main task of getting to heaven.
He will use flattery or intimidation, either holding out to us the delights of worldly happiness or the horrors of worldly rejection.
Many a disciple has fallen for his deceptions, some totally, others partially. We ourselves have fallen many times and greatly regret the fact.
We could regard the season of Lent as a kind of training period. Those skills the masters make look easy take a lot of practice.
Even the best have to be practising all day to keep their talents at the highest level.
We learn from our mistakes (or sins).
We practise resisting temptation, practise finding the right thing to do in each situation - in short, being holy or good.
It does not come automatically. Many think that if they are not robbing banks or killing someone they must be good people, but it is not so easy as that.
There are more subtle sins: like making snide remarks about people; being envious of others’ good fortune; wasting time on trivial matters; chasing after false gods like money or status; sins of omission - and a thousand other things.
Could any of us go through even one day without committing some sort of sin? Our Lord went through His whole life, but He was the Master. It was easy (relatively) for Him.
Is it possible for us to be like Him? It is itself a temptation to say that we cannot help what we do; to say that we are only frail humans so we cannot hope to be good beyond a certain point.
No. We may not be as good as Christ but we can be a lot better than we have been in the past.
We may never reach master level of this craft but we can rise up through the ranks and especially in the training time of Lent we resolve to do that.
Ultimately, any one sin less is a victory; any one sin more is a disaster. If we call on the grace of Our Lord we will make great progress over time. We will despatch temptations as easily and directly as Our Lord in today’s Gospel.
When we see a master of his craft doing what he does well we say, He makes it look easy.
Whatever the skill someone can do it better than anyone else, be it ice skating, singing, writing, lawn bowls.
If ‘being good’ could be called a skill then we have the Master of that skill in Our Lord Himself.
Today, in confronting and defeating the temptations from another master, He makes it look easy.
To each temptation presented to Him Our Lord simply answers with a word from Scripture and that is the end of the matter.
If only we could do it as easily as that. But we allow ourselves to get tangled up by the prospect of quick happiness which temptation essentially offers.
Eat this and you will be happy; gratify your senses; why deny yourself anything? Don’t let a few old commandments bother you. Don’t let the Church or the Pope tell you what to do.
So, all too willingly, we listen to the temptation and succumb.
Our Lord went into the desert to represent us all. He was captain of the team and the team was called humanity. He went in on our behalf. Previously our win-loss record against the devil was very poor, but this time it was a win for the humans.
In achieving this victory He changed the balance of power. The devil’s grip on the human race had been loosened.
The devil is also master of his craft, that of tempting. He was defeated by Our Lord but he surveyed Our Lord’s followers and thought they looked a ragged enough bunch and would still be ripe for temptation.
So he has been throwing things at us ever since, in any and every way possible trying to deflect us from the main task of getting to heaven.
He will use flattery or intimidation, either holding out to us the delights of worldly happiness or the horrors of worldly rejection.
Many a disciple has fallen for his deceptions, some totally, others partially. We ourselves have fallen many times and greatly regret the fact.
We could regard the season of Lent as a kind of training period. Those skills the masters make look easy take a lot of practice.
Even the best have to be practising all day to keep their talents at the highest level.
We learn from our mistakes (or sins).
We practise resisting temptation, practise finding the right thing to do in each situation - in short, being holy or good.
It does not come automatically. Many think that if they are not robbing banks or killing someone they must be good people, but it is not so easy as that.
There are more subtle sins: like making snide remarks about people; being envious of others’ good fortune; wasting time on trivial matters; chasing after false gods like money or status; sins of omission - and a thousand other things.
Could any of us go through even one day without committing some sort of sin? Our Lord went through His whole life, but He was the Master. It was easy (relatively) for Him.
Is it possible for us to be like Him? It is itself a temptation to say that we cannot help what we do; to say that we are only frail humans so we cannot hope to be good beyond a certain point.
No. We may not be as good as Christ but we can be a lot better than we have been in the past.
We may never reach master level of this craft but we can rise up through the ranks and especially in the training time of Lent we resolve to do that.
Ultimately, any one sin less is a victory; any one sin more is a disaster. If we call on the grace of Our Lord we will make great progress over time. We will despatch temptations as easily and directly as Our Lord in today’s Gospel.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Quinquagesima Sunday 14 Feb 2010 Sermon
Quinquagesima Sunday 14.2.10 Giving up sin
Approaching Lent we wonder what we should give up. Sugar in the tea, butter on the bread, television programmes...
Of course what we really should give up is Sin.
That is the point of the whole operation. We give up the legitimate things to gain self-control so we can give up the illegitimate things.
It would be far better if we spent Lent covered in sugar and butter, and without sin, than with no sugar and butter but covered in sin.
One temptation for us is to think that if we have made an effort to give something up, that means we have done enough, and we can then go on sinning the same as normal.
All our energy goes on the sacrifice and we have nothing left over for the real contest.
This must be what Our Lord had in mind when He chided the Pharisees: What I want is mercy not sacrifice.
Alternatively we might be tempted to think that we can overcome sin without any sacrifice of a penitential nature. This is to overrate our own strength.
We need to practise making voluntary sacrifices because we have disordered desires, and we need to practise re-ordering them.
If we are faithful in small things we will be faithful in bigger.
Desire is at the heart of it all. What we desire determines the way we act.
What we are trying to teach ourselves is to desire God above all else. This has always been the first and main commandment - to love God, but we get distracted by a million other things, and we lose God in there somewhere.
Penance helps to remind us of what is really important.
If I am hungry for food, it reminds me that I am even more hungry for the food of heaven.
If I reduce my interest in trivial and wasteful activities it reminds me that I am here to save my soul, to get to heaven and to help others get there too.
We can consider what loving God requires from today’s epistle, where St Paul says that even if he does apparently good things like prophecy, or even laying down his life - without love it would mean nothing.
It seems that the motive behind our acts is the crucial thing. The motive we most need to have is to please God.
I could give a thousand dollars to the poor because I am looking for a tax deduction, or because I love God and know that it would please Him if I helped these people. Only in this second case is the gift of Charity working at its best.
This is what St Paul is advocating - that our ‘love’ be without self-interest and totally to please God. Of course it will probably please the other person; it is not that we are indifferent to them but God comes higher still.
St Paul is appealing for a right ordering of desires, getting things the right way up and this is the only way to make things work properly.
Penance is part of the process of getting things the right way up, of re-ordering our desires to the way they should be.
We could see what we give up for Lent as a gift back to God. He has given us so much and we have often reached out our hands for forbidden fruit. Now we can give Him something that we are allowed to have, but for love of Him we give it back.
Approaching Lent we wonder what we should give up. Sugar in the tea, butter on the bread, television programmes...
Of course what we really should give up is Sin.
That is the point of the whole operation. We give up the legitimate things to gain self-control so we can give up the illegitimate things.
It would be far better if we spent Lent covered in sugar and butter, and without sin, than with no sugar and butter but covered in sin.
One temptation for us is to think that if we have made an effort to give something up, that means we have done enough, and we can then go on sinning the same as normal.
All our energy goes on the sacrifice and we have nothing left over for the real contest.
This must be what Our Lord had in mind when He chided the Pharisees: What I want is mercy not sacrifice.
Alternatively we might be tempted to think that we can overcome sin without any sacrifice of a penitential nature. This is to overrate our own strength.
We need to practise making voluntary sacrifices because we have disordered desires, and we need to practise re-ordering them.
If we are faithful in small things we will be faithful in bigger.
Desire is at the heart of it all. What we desire determines the way we act.
What we are trying to teach ourselves is to desire God above all else. This has always been the first and main commandment - to love God, but we get distracted by a million other things, and we lose God in there somewhere.
Penance helps to remind us of what is really important.
If I am hungry for food, it reminds me that I am even more hungry for the food of heaven.
If I reduce my interest in trivial and wasteful activities it reminds me that I am here to save my soul, to get to heaven and to help others get there too.
We can consider what loving God requires from today’s epistle, where St Paul says that even if he does apparently good things like prophecy, or even laying down his life - without love it would mean nothing.
It seems that the motive behind our acts is the crucial thing. The motive we most need to have is to please God.
I could give a thousand dollars to the poor because I am looking for a tax deduction, or because I love God and know that it would please Him if I helped these people. Only in this second case is the gift of Charity working at its best.
This is what St Paul is advocating - that our ‘love’ be without self-interest and totally to please God. Of course it will probably please the other person; it is not that we are indifferent to them but God comes higher still.
St Paul is appealing for a right ordering of desires, getting things the right way up and this is the only way to make things work properly.
Penance is part of the process of getting things the right way up, of re-ordering our desires to the way they should be.
We could see what we give up for Lent as a gift back to God. He has given us so much and we have often reached out our hands for forbidden fruit. Now we can give Him something that we are allowed to have, but for love of Him we give it back.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Ash Wednesday Mass time
Mass on Ash Wednesday at St Monica's, Walkerville, will be at 6.45am (instead of the usual Wednesday time of 8am).
Masses at Holy Name, St Peters, that day will be 11am and 6.30pm
Masses at Holy Name, St Peters, that day will be 11am and 6.30pm
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Sexagesima Sunday 7 Feb 2010 Sermon
Sexagesima Sunday 7.2.10 Vision of heaven
As one saint said, It is only a foolish traveller who would forget his destination and stop instead to idle his time in some pleasant field along the way.
On most trips we undertake we would remember where we are going and we would arrive there, yet the most important trip we are all on is the one that takes us to heaven and not everyone, it seems, does arrive there.
It is possible and all too easy to be distracted and fall somewhere along the wayside. The parable of the sower and the seed describes at least three ways in which the traveller can be diverted from his path.
He may not even get started. He may give up because the path gets too difficult. Or he may give up because he finds other pleasant things along the way and just forgets where he is trying to reach.
To keep the vision of heaven foremost in our minds is quite a challenge, yet it is essential we do this if we want to guarantee we will arrive there.
St Paul had a vision of heaven, which he alludes to in the epistle today. He cannot tell us much about it because there are no words for such things. We have words only for everyday things and visions of heaven are too rare for words to be developed.
So we have something of a problem here. We have this place, Heaven, which is so marvellous that it is beyond our powers to describe or even to imagine, and because it is so far outside our normal experience we find it difficult to think about or to focus on. We are then inclined to fall back on more familiar things, and this is where we can become derailed.
We are inclined to limit our quest for happiness to the things of this world and let the next life wait until it comes... Heaven can wait, as the saying goes.
But if we are too immersed in the things of this world we may miss out on heaven altogether, because we will become distorted in our values and desires. We will find false gods to replace the true God.
We will make all sorts of compromises trying to make this life as easy and comfortable as possible, avoiding anything which seems too hard, and seeking pleasures without worrying whether they are permitted or not.
It may seem the promises of heaven are too vague and too distant to be compelling; that we need something more tangible, more here-and-now.
Heaven is not vague, however. It is a very real place. Just because we have trouble saying much about it does not lessen its beauty. The reason we cannot say much about it is that it is so good it is beyond our limited experience.
It is not too good to be true; it is too good to describe, but it is true all the same. It is truer than a lot of things we find on earth!
We need to nurture our belief in heaven and our hope of arriving there. The virtue of hope is a confidence that we can arrive in heaven, assisted by the mercy and grace of God. If we keep on course on a daily basis, trusting in God’s providence, we will arrive on time, whatever time He has decreed for each one of us.
We experience glimpses of heaven in this life, in certain ecstatic moments, in foretastes of the glory of God through His creation here; in experiences of love and joy. These are enough to drive us on to seek the fullness that can only be known in Heaven.
Anything short of that is not enough, and we must not settle for it.
This is not our true home.
As one saint said, It is only a foolish traveller who would forget his destination and stop instead to idle his time in some pleasant field along the way.
On most trips we undertake we would remember where we are going and we would arrive there, yet the most important trip we are all on is the one that takes us to heaven and not everyone, it seems, does arrive there.
It is possible and all too easy to be distracted and fall somewhere along the wayside. The parable of the sower and the seed describes at least three ways in which the traveller can be diverted from his path.
He may not even get started. He may give up because the path gets too difficult. Or he may give up because he finds other pleasant things along the way and just forgets where he is trying to reach.
To keep the vision of heaven foremost in our minds is quite a challenge, yet it is essential we do this if we want to guarantee we will arrive there.
St Paul had a vision of heaven, which he alludes to in the epistle today. He cannot tell us much about it because there are no words for such things. We have words only for everyday things and visions of heaven are too rare for words to be developed.
So we have something of a problem here. We have this place, Heaven, which is so marvellous that it is beyond our powers to describe or even to imagine, and because it is so far outside our normal experience we find it difficult to think about or to focus on. We are then inclined to fall back on more familiar things, and this is where we can become derailed.
We are inclined to limit our quest for happiness to the things of this world and let the next life wait until it comes... Heaven can wait, as the saying goes.
But if we are too immersed in the things of this world we may miss out on heaven altogether, because we will become distorted in our values and desires. We will find false gods to replace the true God.
We will make all sorts of compromises trying to make this life as easy and comfortable as possible, avoiding anything which seems too hard, and seeking pleasures without worrying whether they are permitted or not.
It may seem the promises of heaven are too vague and too distant to be compelling; that we need something more tangible, more here-and-now.
Heaven is not vague, however. It is a very real place. Just because we have trouble saying much about it does not lessen its beauty. The reason we cannot say much about it is that it is so good it is beyond our limited experience.
It is not too good to be true; it is too good to describe, but it is true all the same. It is truer than a lot of things we find on earth!
We need to nurture our belief in heaven and our hope of arriving there. The virtue of hope is a confidence that we can arrive in heaven, assisted by the mercy and grace of God. If we keep on course on a daily basis, trusting in God’s providence, we will arrive on time, whatever time He has decreed for each one of us.
We experience glimpses of heaven in this life, in certain ecstatic moments, in foretastes of the glory of God through His creation here; in experiences of love and joy. These are enough to drive us on to seek the fullness that can only be known in Heaven.
Anything short of that is not enough, and we must not settle for it.
This is not our true home.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Septuagesima Sunday 31 Jan 2010 Sermon
Septuagesima Sunday 31.1.10 Answering the call
The older we get the more memories we have, the more people we have met and lost contact with along the highway of life; the more we can muse, Whatever happened to so-and-so? How did he end up? Is he still alive even? etc
When we ask, How did this or that person ‘end up’, we do that with particular relevance in relation to the Faith.
From a class of Catholic children in the 1960s (as in my case) how many would still be practising the faith? How many have fallen by the wayside in terms of faith, however much success they might have achieved in other spheres?
We fear the answers may not be very comforting. We live in an age of widespread scepticism and even outright denial of the faith. That does not make the faith any less true but does bring home to us how easily the ‘precious pearl’ can be thrown away.
St Paul alludes to this in today’s epistle: he confides that he has fears for his own salvation. He, the great Paul, who is one of our most exalted saints, yet considers that he may still end up in hell! Today no one is allowed to talk about going to hell like that; it just isn’t polite.
But it is possible all the same; possible for anyone no matter how highly thought of to lose the plot, to fall out of union with God through one or more wrong turnings, leading at some point to mortal sin, unconfessed, unrepented.
So here we are now. Whatever happened to us, people might ask. They haven’t seen us for years. Maybe they would be surprised to know we are in a church right at this moment. Somehow he never seemed the type for that!
But we have ended up here, and if we are wise will stay here – in the safety of the flock of Christ, answering the call of the Good Shepherd, seeking the mercy of the Prodigal Father who welcomes back the straying child.
We are here, however we got here, however many twists and turns our lives may have taken. We are in the right place and will not leave it.
[For the young, of course, you have not had twists and turns yet, and you don’t have to have them either. It is not compulsory to spend some part of your life in the wilderness. Best to stay here and grow in grace as long as you live.]
All of us are called to be labourers in the vineyard. Whether early or late we must answer that call. In fact, because God is merciful, He gives people usually many chances. We can reject His call at various ages and still come in before the end. If we do we will be saved.
But it is better to answer the call as soon as possible.
For one thing it gives us more chance to serve Our Lord, the Master of the vineyard. We may think that to serve Him is going to make life harder, but He explains that His yoke is easy and His burden light. The serenity of conscience that comes from serving Him far outweighs the ill-gotten gains of a godless life. We are happier if we are in His employ than if we are outside.
Further, by coming in early we have more chance to help others find their way in. Many have lost their way; so we will bring many back into the fold by our prayers, works and sufferings. We will let the power of God work through us to call sinners to repentance.
Further still, the more we learn about this work the less likely we are to throw it away in some late-life rashness. It is possible to be lost but it is not likely if one follows basic disciplines and has frequent recourse to prayer and sacraments.
So this is how we ended up [so far]. A surprise ending perhaps, even to ourselves, but the best thing that could have happened. As we may not be finished yet, and some of us may have a long time to live, we cannot rest complacent, but persevere to the end (like St Paul’s athlete); persevere in the Lord’s service, where we are paid much more than we deserve.
The older we get the more memories we have, the more people we have met and lost contact with along the highway of life; the more we can muse, Whatever happened to so-and-so? How did he end up? Is he still alive even? etc
When we ask, How did this or that person ‘end up’, we do that with particular relevance in relation to the Faith.
From a class of Catholic children in the 1960s (as in my case) how many would still be practising the faith? How many have fallen by the wayside in terms of faith, however much success they might have achieved in other spheres?
We fear the answers may not be very comforting. We live in an age of widespread scepticism and even outright denial of the faith. That does not make the faith any less true but does bring home to us how easily the ‘precious pearl’ can be thrown away.
St Paul alludes to this in today’s epistle: he confides that he has fears for his own salvation. He, the great Paul, who is one of our most exalted saints, yet considers that he may still end up in hell! Today no one is allowed to talk about going to hell like that; it just isn’t polite.
But it is possible all the same; possible for anyone no matter how highly thought of to lose the plot, to fall out of union with God through one or more wrong turnings, leading at some point to mortal sin, unconfessed, unrepented.
So here we are now. Whatever happened to us, people might ask. They haven’t seen us for years. Maybe they would be surprised to know we are in a church right at this moment. Somehow he never seemed the type for that!
But we have ended up here, and if we are wise will stay here – in the safety of the flock of Christ, answering the call of the Good Shepherd, seeking the mercy of the Prodigal Father who welcomes back the straying child.
We are here, however we got here, however many twists and turns our lives may have taken. We are in the right place and will not leave it.
[For the young, of course, you have not had twists and turns yet, and you don’t have to have them either. It is not compulsory to spend some part of your life in the wilderness. Best to stay here and grow in grace as long as you live.]
All of us are called to be labourers in the vineyard. Whether early or late we must answer that call. In fact, because God is merciful, He gives people usually many chances. We can reject His call at various ages and still come in before the end. If we do we will be saved.
But it is better to answer the call as soon as possible.
For one thing it gives us more chance to serve Our Lord, the Master of the vineyard. We may think that to serve Him is going to make life harder, but He explains that His yoke is easy and His burden light. The serenity of conscience that comes from serving Him far outweighs the ill-gotten gains of a godless life. We are happier if we are in His employ than if we are outside.
Further, by coming in early we have more chance to help others find their way in. Many have lost their way; so we will bring many back into the fold by our prayers, works and sufferings. We will let the power of God work through us to call sinners to repentance.
Further still, the more we learn about this work the less likely we are to throw it away in some late-life rashness. It is possible to be lost but it is not likely if one follows basic disciplines and has frequent recourse to prayer and sacraments.
So this is how we ended up [so far]. A surprise ending perhaps, even to ourselves, but the best thing that could have happened. As we may not be finished yet, and some of us may have a long time to live, we cannot rest complacent, but persevere to the end (like St Paul’s athlete); persevere in the Lord’s service, where we are paid much more than we deserve.
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