1st Sunday of Lent (C) 9 March 2025 Sermon

 

1st Sunday of Lent 9 March 2025 Temptation

We can look more closely today at Temptation, and how it works ,and how we might improve our response to being tempted.

The Devil has many ways to tempt us. There are two ways in particular that he can ensnare us into sin.  Flattery and Intimidation.

By flattery the devil tells us how good we are and how entitled we are to take things easy, so why don't we just indulge in one or two things which may not be quite by the book, but what harm can it do? Flattery appeals to our pride, laziness, lustfulness, gluttony. Why not take a bit more? You deserve it.

People will say: I am a good person, so it is ok if I do this thing.

This is self-flattery but it comes from the devil.

By intimidation the devil puts fear into us with the idea of paralysing our response. Intimidation is seen most brutally in time of persecution. eg Deny Jesus Christ, or we will shoot you… 

Intimidation would be seen also in peer pressure where others challenge us to follow their example, which might often be the wrong direction. Peter was intimidated when challenged about his association with Jesus.  

At various times we will be tempted to deny our faith or some aspect of our faith, which goes against the common opinion   eg to be pro-life, pro traditional family.

Satan tried flattery with Jesus this first time, working on Jesus’ closeness to God. You can do whatever you want… (Later at Calvary, it was intimidation. Come down from the Cross and we will believe you).

If one of us had been in that position and subjected to those temptations we would not have lasted as long, but Jesus was made of sterner stuff.

He had come as the new Adam, the leader of the new humanity.  He would save us from the Devil by exposing the latter's tricks and lies for what they were and giving us more substance to look for instead.

When tempted, Jesus shows us what to do by referring back to certain basic truths.

Man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

You shall not put the Lord to the test. 

You shall worship the Lord and Him alone.

He was thus not deflected. He was still walking that straight path before Him – the path to Calvary, and then to Heaven.

The devil works on our weak points, so that we come around eventually to what he wants us to think.

Like the Israelites we forget the Lord who brought us out of Egypt (Deut 6,12).

This is why we need Lent, as a season of re-thinking and  self-denial; a time to straighten out what has become crooked. A time to assert where we stand and resolve not to be moved.

Not only to give up sin, but in a way give up temptation too. Well, we cannot stop temptations coming, but at least we can send them where they belong. In the light of day we see them for the distortions that they are.

Hold firm against the devil’s flattery and intimidation, and we will come through the dark into light – a light that cannot be overcome.

Lord, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.

8th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) 2 March 2025 Sermon

8th Sunday Ordinary Time (C ) 2 March 3 February 2025 Mind  your language

If we were visiting the King or the President or other such important people, we would be careful to guard our language and pick the right words when called upon to speak.

As Jesus points out in the Gospel, the quality of the tree’s fruit will be according to the internal health of the tree. Good tree, good fruit (Lk 6, 43).

If we have our thoughts and attitudes in the right place, then that will mean we speak words which edify, which build up and not destroy.

Anyone can act the part if only for a short time. If something would startle us we might lapse into ‘normal’ speech. This is what we have to change – what we call  normal.

The test of  a man is in  his conversation (first reading -  Sirach 27,5).

What we say will come from within. We need the charity and wisdom that come from Christ . It can be alright to speak words of anger, provided the anger is justified and moderated by charity.

Imagine what Our Lady would have said. Or count to three and then say nothing!

We have to get all the malice out of the system, not just out of the language, but all through, what we think, what we desire.

So, for example, it is good to be honest and not to steal, but we must not even want to steal. The same goes for all moral obligations. 

Regarding language we not only avoid uncharitable speech but develop a preference for the  speech which edifies.

There are different aspects of speech we need to get right.

1) No obscenities or crude language.

2)  No harm done to others. No detraction or calumny. Whoever thinks that he is able,  to nibble at the life of absent friends, must know that he’s unworthy of this table. St Augustine)

It is easy to drag others down, but it lowers the whole standard for everyone.

If we are in a situation where we cannot escape gossip we can at least not contribute to it. And we can set a better tone.

People in Heaven might have fought while on earth but not now. There is no malice in heaven; no desire to talk others down.

Whatever would we talk about if we cannot talk about each other? We will have to find more useful topics!

3) In all things praise and thanksgiving to God. We use the same tongue to praise God and to curse our neighbours (cf James 3,9).

It might be argued that we are only human and therefore cannot comply with such exacting rules. God wants to make us copies of Himself, an ambitious goal, but it must be achievable

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Speaking of which we come to Lent this week. In Lent everything is magnified by way of giving us ways of concentrating on holiness.

The days of Lent have this effect if we let it take full course.

We are supposed to be good all year round, but Lent is a focal point, a more intense quest for getting all the details right.

It is something like Sunday where we take one day to summarise all seven.

We cannot give God anything that is not already His, (cf Ps 50,10-12). But He does appreciate the effort to get right with him.

And we don’t go back to old ways when the season is over. We might ease off on the penances but not the quest for holiness of life.  Good trees, good fruit.

7th Sunday Ordinary Time 23 February 2025 Sermon

7th Sunday Ordinary Time (C ) 23 February 2025  Generous Love

David spares Saul from death showing a merciful attitude and Saul is impressed ( I Samuel 26, first reading.)

This story suggests another one, in which we are involved. God could kill us but instead gives us time to repent and serve Him. Saul was impressed with David’s attitude; so should we be impressed with God's manner of dealing with us.

This kind of event (as in Saul and David) should bring out the best in us and that will make us generous to our enemies. [also story of St John Gualbert, 11th century – meeting his enemy on Good Friday and forgiving him]

I will treat others well even if they mistreat me. This applies to forgiveness and general charity. It is the way Jesus treats us in His crucifixion. We mistreated Him; He forgives us and intercedes for us.

The Golden rule: treat others as you would like them to treat you, not as they do, but as you would like (Lk 6,31).

We hope that others will do the same, but we do not let their behaviour derail ours. 

We pray for others to come closer to God, wherever they stand with Him now.

We desire the salvation of all, even enemies.

In today’s Gospel (Lk 6,27-38) the same theme  continues – that we love those who do not love us; we give without counting the cost; we bless those who curse us – and much more to that effect.

Why should we do this? Because it does a great deal of good, not least that we are thus learning to share in the charitable and merciful heart of God.

What was the good of Jesus’ forbearance on Good Friday? He could have broken free but He was trying to convince the crowd (there, and all other crowds) that this was the way forward. 

He had some success with the people who were there, but the real value of His action has come through to all generations.

What is happening to us? The potential of love in our hearts is being released. We feel a gentler disposition; we are being healed by the merciful love of Christ, and it is changing us.

We need this changing and we can ask for it. We need to get rid of the impurities in our hearts and minds. It may take a while, but it can happen.

This is better than violence. Sometimes violence is required as a last resort: for example going to war to reject an unjust aggressor. Or physically restraining a prisoner.

But this is not the best way; it is only to be used in emergencies.

We can achieve a kind of peace by mutual deterrence, and that is usually the best we can achieve. 

But far better if we could convert our neighbours, albeit that it is much harder. This is what God has taken on Himself to do, in calling us to live in union with Him and one another.

Each one becomes a Christ- like person having a merciful disposition towards others. 

We never sell short what one person can do in this field  because God will recognize a sympathetic heart and reward it greatly.

We are aiming for something that we often mention in prayer – that God's kingdom come among us, with all the associated blessings. No more hate, killing etc, only kindness.

In the meantime, if we cannot have the kingdom in the wider society we can have it in our hearts and minds. Lk 17,20-21

This teaching has never really been accepted. We have had saints, who live like this. Many would simply say it is too hard.

Not so hard if we have Jesus with us, enlightening and empowering us.

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!)

3rd Sunday Ordinary Time (C) 26 January 2025 Sermon

3rd Sunday ( C) 26 January 2025 Australia Day

The people were all in tears as they listened to the words of the Law (first reading  Neh 8,9).

They were tears of joy because they were realising through the words the love that God had for them.

And there was shame in those tears too as they realized how poorly they had responded to that love.

Then we go to the Gospel, where the response to the word of God is very different. Through a combination of pride, stubbornness, jealousy, hard-heartedness – the people of Jesus’ own town would not accept Him – mainly because He was from that town!

If they had listened carefully to the words and not pre-judged, they might have responded as the people in Nehemiah’s time.

Now we come to our time, our day. It is Australia Day and we are again called upon to respond. Do we believe these words that we hear in the Bible, and in the teachings of the Church? And if we believe them, do we then live them out in our lives.

First, the gratitude: what has God not done for us? In creating us, sparing us punishment, becoming one with us, enduring insults, dying for us, extending His time among us through the sacraments, offering us endless mercy.

Is that a good day’s work that deserves some gratitude?

Then we find Australia is richly blessed in peace,  space and sunshine, physical beauty, food and wine, sport, blending of many cultures in one place, and many more.

Should we be grateful for these things?  And then all the blessings that come from being human, and thus loved by God.

After gratitude we acknowledge our sins and ask for the pardon that will always be there.

Australians are mostly tolerant and will not try to throw Jesus off a cliff (Lk 4,29). We are rightly horrified at any violence of that sort.

But we might, as Australians, use that tolerance to avoid making any definite commitment ourselves – to treat all religions as the same, and therefore nothing to get excited about.

God does not agree with that policy,  however. He reminds all nations very strongly that there is one God and only one, and He is it!

For those who do believe, our job  is to make Australia look more like the kingdom of Heaven, where all is perfect.

For example, in business, instead of trying to exploit the other person, rather ‘ought you not let yourselves be cheated?’ (1 Co 6,7-8).  And that is very much in the ‘jubilee’ idea.

We are supposed to be like Israel was on its better days, under God’s laws and making progress. It worked for Israel when they obeyed, but still they did not remember.

Many people acknowledge God and the Church for generosity to the poor and needy.

However, there is another layer. We do not just hand out food and supplies, we hand out the gospel as well and this is where it can get tense.

Sometimes we agree with the surrounding culture (eg fighting bushfires, making the streets safe, justice for everyone).

Sometimes we disagree, like on life issues: (eg abortion, euthanasia, marriage).

We call freely on God’s mercy to hold us over till we can get it right. Thus we ask mercy for Australia for any false beliefs or wrong turnings.  We ask for mercy and we learn from it.

There is one more thing we must do and this is often missed. We must worship God, sing His praises. God is to be loved, not feared.

May we get all this right. We pray for a better tomorrow for Australia, and every nation.

Till His kingdom come!