3rd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 21 Jan 2024 Sermon

3rd Sunday (B) 21 Jan 2024 The Kingdom of God

The kingdom of God is close at hand (Gospel). The kingdom is not any particular place on the map that we could point to. It is more a matter of how we live than where we live.

Any place where people are resolved to live by the will of God, and consciously acknowledge His goodness and primary importance – that place is the kingdom of God.

Where the will of God prevails, where there is no stealing, adultery, blasphemy etc, where indeed God is regarded as King by the people.

We have become accustomed to the sad reality that people deny God the homage and obedience which He should receive.

People talk of a secular Australia, whereby it becomes increasingly ‘normal’ to push God to the side.

God is fighting back! He calls some of the apostles today, making them ‘fishers of men’. God will speak through the apostles, and later the disciples, to put His case to humanity.

He has created us, and called us, and where necessary forgiven us – when will we acknowledge that? He is asking us to take Him seriously and put His words into practice whether we are the only one, or one of many.

Whether it is easy or hard, whether it looks like we are winning or losing, we pray without ceasing for good things to happen, always according to God's will.

God wants us to make Him obvious. People deny God because they claim they cannot see any evidence. We can give them evidence by the way we live. And this is how God always wanted it to happen. In the early Church people wanted to join in the fellowship of the disciples, so many signs and wonders they worked (cf Acts 5,10-12).

We lost some momentum somewhere along the line. The Church is always battling on many fronts and often reduced in power, yet that power is available to us if we call upon it.

The kingdom is where God is recognized as King; where His will is law, where people think the right thoughts, have the right desires and attitudes, and actively help each other in need.

We have some of this now, but need a lot more.

We are not here for our own benefit but to do a job for God, and that job is to make the places we inhabit one part of the Kingdom of God. If we can get our own house right, or street, or nation - no place too small or too big.

It is not easy to do what it says in the second reading – to be involved in the world but not become engrossed in it. We get better with practice.

The first reading give us a case study of how positive change can be achieved, even quickly.

Notice God's desire to forgive. And Jonah’s desire that the city not be saved (Jonah, not yet in the spirit of things!). And the people did come around. We have to want that for others. Usually prayer for the conversion of others is not so quick in its success, but we chip away as required.

We pray for the kingdom of God to come every time we say the Our Father.

We would not know ourselves if the will of God prevailed everywhere; it would be a lot happier than it is now.

The kingdom will more likely permeate through individual responses rather than come down ready-made.

It is something we have to fight for, as valued achievements usually are. God will honour any efforts we make in His name.

We are the fortunate ones, called before the eleventh hour, preparing the way for others to join us.

May His kingdom come!

 

 

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 14 Jan 2024 Sermon

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 14 Jan 2024 Body and soul

Sometimes people wonder why Adam and Eve were punished so heavily for just one sin. After all, anyone can make a mistake!

It becomes clearer when we realize that before the sin Adam had perfect control of all his thoughts and feelings; he did not suffer from the sort of weakness we experience now.

So the sin he committed was far more serious than it seems to us. It was a major breach of the established order which he knew. It was not just a matter of ‘eating an apple’.

Because of that sin the harmony the human race had enjoyed was shattered. From that time on flesh and spirit would be at war with each other, and concupiscence (sinful desire, tendency to sin) would be a dominant presence.

This is why we experience, as even St Paul did (Romans 7,18-19) that conflict between what we mean to do and what we actually do. We make good resolutions, then find that we cannot carry them out. We do not have full control of our desires and actions.

Should we despair of this? No need. We have a remedy for disordered desires, and that remedy is Jesus Christ.

He was the Second Adam, the New Man. He restored to us the fully integrated human nature possessed by Adam before the sin.

Jesus Himself was sinless. This means not only that He kept all the various rules and commandments, but He did so easily. It was easy because He had perfect control over all His thoughts, words, actions. He was not struggling to keep the rules – it came ‘naturally’.

Natural, because Jesus was able, without effort, to want the same things as God wanted.

We tend to view commandments as an imposition, as hard to keep, and not very desirable either. We are not allowed to do certain things we do want to do, and told we must do certain other things we do not want to do.

If we had what Jesus had, we would never see God’s commands as a burden, but as a delight. ‘Lord, how I love Your law’ (Ps 119, 97).

We can come to this same state by joining ourselves to Jesus. This is what we do when we pray, or receive a Sacrament, and especially at Mass.

We are transformed as we draw closer to Him, study His word, pray to Him. We take on His mind, His heart, His very nature.

We cannot be divine but we can be human, and Jesus was both. We become human as He was human, fully obedient to God, fully integrated, a ‘whole’ person (another way of saying ‘holy’).

Salvation is not just a keeping of a whole set of rules, arbitrarily imposed on us. It is a becoming of the person each of us is meant to be.

We realize we have not been deprived of anything by being Christian, but actually enriched. We are the lucky ones to come so close to the heart of all truth and beauty.

The closer we come to Him the better it gets.

So we joyfully answer His call as demonstrated in the first reading (Samuel) and the Gospel (Andrew and Peter).

In the second reading, (1 Corinthians 6) the Church’s sexual teaching, so much criticised and questioned, is seen to make sense, as being the proper understanding of body and soul.

Once again the passions and desires are able to be controlled and channelled according to our true human identity.

Critics of the Church will say we are out of date. No, we are ahead of the times, being able to find a remedy for disordered passions, and reclaiming holiness of life as the new normal.

May we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity (Offertory prayer at Mass)

The Epiphany 7 Jan 2024 Sermon

The Epiphany 7 Jan 2024 Discovering God

If  Christmas is God's offer to us; Epiphany is our response to Him.

We need God's help to make the right response. There are a number of areas where we could go wrong.

God had so much to teach the human race, and He is still doing that.

The people of that time thought there were many gods. The Jews thought so too, and that the real God who had been looking after them was mainly for them, not for all the nations of the world.

God's plan was to make Himself known to the whole world, but gradually. He worked first with the Jewish race, demonstrating His loyalty to them, forgiving them constantly, teaching them new understandings (such as the need to bless enemies instead of cursing them).

They were the ‘chosen people’, not to the exclusion of others but as a spearhead to make other nations realize that they also could possess this same God.

God loves all people, as we know, but that was not well-known in the Jewish world.

They thought God was there to fight their battles and put down all the other people. The idea of converting their warlike neighbours did not come easily to them.

For us in our time we can see the coming of the wise men as indicating the Gentile world’s acceptance of the one true God. The wise men knelt before one greater than themselves and their offerings were accepted.

Every knee should bow before Jesus Christ, and every tongue confess that He is Lord (Ph 2,10-11). Go and baptize all nations, Jesus said (Mt 28, 19). 

Christianity is often criticised for its missionary past, seeking to bring the light of Christ to foreign nations.

There were no doubt many things done wrongly, but in principle it has to be a good thing to offer Christ to others.

He is light to the blind, health to the sick – the answer to every question, the fulfilment of every need.

It would be a crime not to offer this Good News to others, keeping in mind that it is only ‘offered’ not forced.

We can improve on mistakes and sins of the past, but the idea of converting people to Christ is something that Christ Himself wants.

This has extra urgency because, as the Jews had to discover, and so have we – there is only one true God.

Christianity blows apart the idea of various gods looking after different areas or purposes. One God is enough for all places and purposes, and this God is found in Jesus Christ.

That Jesus Christ is God as well as Man has been a stumbling block for many over the ages.

Another problem we face today is belief in NO God, that is, Atheism. Many deny there is any sort of god running the universe. They base this, usually, on the number of things that go wrong in the world.

Things go wrong not because God is absent, but because the human race is absent to Him, that is they do not honour and obey Him.

The Epiphany feast invites us to correct all deviations from the truth, to renew our faith and trust in the true God, found in the baby Jesus, in His identity and His mission - Who He is and What He came to do.

The real God's commands are clear, if difficult; He will help us understand them and put them into operation.

Worshipping the Christ child is one part of this giant pattern in which we are privileged to find ourselves included.

O come let us adore Him.

 

 

Holy Family 31 Dec 2023 Sermon

Holy Family 31 December 2023   Standards of holiness

It is an interesting thing about human nature how we find ways of cutting corners.

For example, in traffic, if the speed limit is 25 most people will do say, 40. It becomes a kind of unspoken conspiracy that this is just what one does. It is a sort of compromise we make with ourselves that if we keep most laws most of the time it is ok to break a few here and there.

This can apply also to matters of the faith: Jesus tells us, But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Lk 6,27-31)

We translate that as meaning I will treat others as they treat me. If they are good to me I will be good to them; if they harm me I will harm them, or at least not do them any good.

Jesus offers us something beyond the normal ways of doing things. He gives us a way of keeping the rules which will make us happier than we would be by relaxing them.

The key to the whole operation is that God treats us better than we treat Him, and He wants us to apply the same logic to each other.

Today we honour the Holy family, where the ideal was achieved, and that family forever becomes the model for all families.

One might protest that the Holy Family is too holy to be a realistic model. It is true no one else can be that good, but we can at least learn the principle of how it works.

That principle is that if all members of a family give more than they receive then an abundance of good things will come from that.

If everyone does what he/she should it will work. cf second reading: Colossians 3,12-21, each give way to the other.

This is how marriage is supposed to work, and all the other relationships in a family. This is going to be a happy home and fruitful for the surrounding community.

Whatever you are, be the best you can be (father, sister, grandmother etc). Here there is a danger of watering down the demands, like not obeying the traffic rules – giving less rather than more.

Being normal, like everyone, is not enough! We must be like Christ, or Mary, or Joseph. We strive for excellence in other areas (sport, study, appearance etc). We can do the same at home - we push ourselves harder in terms of kindness, courtesy etc.

And we do not seek a medal for being good. It is only our duty (cf Lk 17,9-10). However, there is a ‘medal’ and it comes in the form of eternal life.

The way of Christ is different from the ways of the world; His way might seem impossible but is not so. It just takes a little reorientation.

It is not only possible to go His way but necessary.

All of the above can be forgiven where we fail. So we can think of ourselves as apprentices, getting it better each time, always aiming higher.

The Holy Family welcomes us to come and knock on their door! They have much to teach us.

Christmas Day 2023 Sermon

Christmas Day 2023 The kindness of God

Zachary notes the loving-kindness of the heart of our God, who visits us like the dawn from on high (Lk 1, 78).

God is generous; He has loving-kindness towards us. It is His generous loving nature that motivates Him to create whomever and whatever He does create. He did not need anything extra as to His own existence; He is all-sufficient, and cannot suffer pain.

But it is in the nature of love to offer itself to others. Love implies the need for a beloved. God had His own community of love in the Three Persons of the Trinity, but wanted to go further, to include human beings.

This is what God was looking for. He did not need us, but He takes pleasure in seeing us receive what He is giving. So He gives us a chance to do that.

We hear of something being the ‘chance of a lifetime’. Well, we have it here – the chance to base our lives around the will of God, to experience a share of the perfection of life found in God Himself.

God makes this possible by creating us, and all else that is needed.

To enable a more loving response from us, God gives us free will. It is a great privilege but it can be used wrongly.

And if it is used wrongly there will be all sorts of trouble, as we have seen in our time and in all ages of human history.

Will God abandon us because we have been so ungrateful? No, He has another card to play. He brings into operation another dimension of love, and that is Mercy.

Mercy is when Love gives itself even when not returned, even when brazenly rejected.

Today at Christmas especially we express our own sense of wonder at God's goodness.

We are moved to gratitude for His goodness, and shame for our lack of appreciation up to this point; not to mention the ongoing ingratitude of much of the world.

Christmas is part celebration of what we have achieved, and part prayer for what is still lacking.

God initiates, we respond.  The more we respond, the more the love of God can take hold in our world and its fortunes.

A world which truly seeks God would have many blessings presently unattainable.

Love enables more love.

This Love or Mercy will move sinners to repentance. They will see their sins in a new light and be ashamed of them; and they will have sufficient desire to renew their lives.

We can think of Jesus in the Crib, an apparently small presence, but all of God's infinity was concentrated at that moment – one place and one time; and those who could discern His presence and what it promised were filled with joy and hope.

We come along much later but we can benefit from Christ’s coming as much as those who were there that night.

We have been attempting to capture that scene ever since, and especially on this day of the year – to be as humble and focused as were those gathered around the Christ-child.

Many have lost belief in God's coming among us; they see the suffering but not the relief that comes with it.

One thing we can say: if more would obey more relief would be evident.

We can also say that God's plans take time, as He is working on such a grand scale, seeking to save every person on earth.

We must be patient if we want to see better days. Meanwhile we give God the chance to work His plans in us and through us, and we do as we sing to each other: O come let us adore Him.

3rd Sunday of Advent (B) 17 Dec 2023 Sermon

3^rd Sunday of Advent (B) 17 Dec 2023 Gaudete Sunday

We hear of people who have won the lottery but do not know it, and everyone is trying to work out who it is.

We could say such a person is in a happy state but does not know it.

We could say the same thing for the human race, only that we have done better than win the lottery by receiving the offer of salvation. Many do not know it; they do not know that God is their Creator and Saviour who is offering them daily help in this life, and then a glorious future life.

Too good to be true, perhaps? But it is true anyway.

Only a few can win the lottery but everyone can win eternal life.

Perhaps hardened by so much disappointment many cannot bring themselves to trust in such a happy prospect.

In this life we know so much and so many kinds of suffering that indeed it is easy to sink into a blend of cynicism and scepticism

God knows we find it hard so He keeps telling us how well-disposed to us He is. He encourages us to approach Him and place our needs before Him.

It is normally easy to tell someone good news. The one who receives the news is grateful and all is well.

In our case it is not so simple. We tell the good news to people that they can be saved and they might react angrily, or in any case simply refuse to believe.

It is complicated because our offer of good tidings requires a response which will include giving up of false gods, sinful ways – and this can be painful.

So it comes to this: receive the Good News which is free and forever. The only bit of small print is that you will need to live a regular life, keeping the commandments, loving one’s neighbour etc.

Some will refuse on the basis of that small print, but really we are streets ahead in terms of happiness if we go with God's offer.

We are accepting what He asks of us and what He offers by being here today. Our response may not be as complete as it needs to be but we are at least on the way.

Today is Gaudete Sunday, a day to take stock of where we stand with God and how happy we can be if we accept His terms.

The second reading tells to be happy at all times.

How can we be happy when so much is wrong with the world, and all of us could probably produce a list of things not to be happy about.

Well, we can be happy and sad at the same time.

An image that may help is that of a pool of water. The surface of the water can be turbulent, but deeper down the water is still.

We deal with turbulence in our lives, but we do not say that all of life turbulent.

Deep down we are calm, because joined to Jesus Himself, and He has the answers for every problem.

Psalm 1: we draw on His grace like a tree does from water.

So the reading goes on to say that we should give thanks to God for all things.

We are giving thanks not so much for the ‘things’ but for Christ who manages all things.

We regularly express our trust in Him to bring all things around to where they need to be.

Having Him on our side how can we not be happy?

He helps us, not necessarily removing all our troubles, but helping us to come through them in the best possible way.

This will include that we see our sins in a new light and are therefore able to change our attitudes or behaviour without regret. Even the sacrifices asked of us start to seem very small along side of the joy which is available to us.

2nd Sunday of Advent (B) 10 December 2023 Sermon

2^nd Sunday of Advent 10 December 2023 Character

When we are in trouble, among other things, we pray to God.

We know He can help us in every need, and has helped us a million times before.

He can help us in two ways – He can remove the trouble, or He can leave the trouble in place, and give us the necessary strength to deal with it.

Either way we come out happy. While we are enduring the trouble, however, it can seem like there is no help coming.

Many lose faith in God when the troubles seem too many and too hard to bear.

We might face the same temptation. Can we guarantee that we will not abandon our faith, even under great pressure?

God will rescue us, or strengthen us, or a bit of both. If we recognize this pattern in His ways of dealing with us we will feel a lot more secure.

As to rescuing us, we have guardian angels, who are known to have intervened supernaturally in saving lives and injuries. Many of these occasions we would not know because we do not see them, yet they do arise.

As to giving us the strength to deal with troubles, this also is a largely invisible thing, yet it is what God wants to do for us. He builds up our characters so that we become stronger people.

This way we become more able to cope with difficulties and overcome them – because we have more grace operating in us than before.

This can explain why God lets us suffer, always a sore point with the human race!

Even the good suffer, the best people (saints) most of all. This seems the wrong way round from one point of view. The good people should get it easy and the bad people hard (so human wisdom would have it). Eventually it will be that way, but God is acting to make the good people better, and grow to their full potential.

Consider your own life to this point. Can you recall a time when you felt God was letting you down? Can you see how you have benefited from going through such a time and you are still believing?

We learn and we become stronger through meeting adversity and overcoming it. We are stronger to deal with life, able to answer new challenges.

In the Advent season we hear of John the Baptist. He lived a hard penitential life, seeking in all things to do the will of God.

It is good to be comfortable, but better still to be pushing ourselves harder in seeking self-discipline, aided by God's grace.

God wants to make us stronger, and we find that we want it too.

It is much easier to live a happy life if we are strong. We can endure the pain more easily and do more good at the same time.

John denied himself much of what other people sought. And look at all he achieved. If he had been like everyone else, none of that would have happened.

Over a lifetime, it is what we have become that counts. What sort of a person am I, which way have I been heading?

God does not want us to see Him as just a fixer of problems, someone we call in an emergency, but only in emergencies (like a plumber or electrician).

His objective is that we come to know Him as He is, and not just what he can do for us.

Further, His objective is to make us good people, in His image; not just doing good but being good. Be you perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5,48).