3rd Sunday after Pentecost 21 Jun 2020 Sermon

3^rd Sunday after Pentecost 21.6.20 Hidden sins

Who can understand sins? from my secret ones cleanse me, O Lord (Ps 18,12).

The epistle today says the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion ( 1P 5,8).

It would be easier for us if the devil were as visible and audible as a roaring lion! We have enough sense to run away from a real roaring lion, but the devil is a more subtle adversary.

‘Roaring lion’ refers only to the ferocity of the devil. He is ferociously angry with us, as he seeks to do us as much harm as possible. This realization should sober us.

We humans are too inclined to rely on our sense experience. If we can see a danger we respond; if not we become complacent.

This is why there are so many warnings in the Scriptures about being ready even though nothing seems to be happening. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Mt 24,44)

Instead, be like the wise virgins (Mt 25,1-13) or the industrious servants who are ready when the master returns. (Mt 24,45-47).

The devil does not want to be detected. He will work quietly to unpick the threads of our world, and lure everyone into complacent abandonment of previously held beliefs.

So we see a decline in morality and faith on many levels: attack on family, life, truth, self-control etc.

Things which were considered sinful are no longer so considered (even though they are still sins)

People are edging closer to hell but they cannot sense it; they cannot see the flames! Or hear the shrieks of the tormented souls.

If they could see and hear these things there would be no doubt a major repentance.

God wants us to come to repentance without needing such stimuli. He wants us to love Him for His own sake, and not just to keep out of  hell.

For us here, we do not need a vision of hell to keep us on the straight and narrow. We are  not killing and robbing – do we need to change anything?

Back to those  secret sins - if the devil is a lion he is also a snake, meaning sneaky.

He has ways to tempt us based on our weakest points. So we can be proud, unforgiving, vain, lazy, lustful, self-serving and a host of similar things, which may not look like much, but can cumulatively lead us astray.

We will detect these things if we are attentive in prayer and meditation on the ways of God.

We will learn how to go against the tide of popular opinion. We will learn how to make decisions based on God's truth, and not just passion or sentiment.

We call on the angels and saints to help. Our side has invisible forces too and is strong enough to expose the deceptions of the devil. They pray for us; they give us good example. What they did we can do. Once we see those deceptions we are not going to fall for them. We will walk in the light. (1 Jn 1,5-7)

All sins, hidden or not, can be swept away by the infinite love of Christ, who seeks out the lost (Gospel)

If only one turns to Him, even in partial recognition of his need, then things will happen.

If God is seeking us, we can help greatly by seeking Him. This will accelerate the process.

The Sacred Heart burns with love for lost souls, confused and broken by adversity. Come to Me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. (Mt 11, 28-30)

2nd Sunday after Pentecost 14 June 2020 Sermon

2^nd Sunday after Pentecost 14.6.20 No choice

We have just had the feast of Corpus Christi - ironic in a time of deprivation of the Eucharist.

Our lack of receiving and adoring the Blessed Sacrament should at least sharpen our hunger for the things of God.

Not everyone regards the Blessed Sacrament as important. It could be they do not believe or do not care, or even if Christian, not believe in the Real Presence.

When there is a Eucharistic procession there are people who will walk in faith with the procession. Others will look on indifferently, or bemused, as if to say, This has nothing to do with me.

Someone might say: I am not a Catholic, or a churchgoer, so I am exempt from all these things. But, [W]e must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.’ (2 Cor 5,10)

It will be awkward, especially for the atheists!

There are no exemptions at this point. There is, and only ever has been, one God, from whom comes all creation., and to whom all must account:‘Therefore every one of us shall render account to God for himself.’ (Rom 14,12)

Today individualism is the popular creed. You decide for you; I will decide for me. No one can tell anyone else what is what.

Religion is seen as entirely an optional thing that you may or not take up. But there is that judgment scene.

In today’s Gospel we see that God invites people from all over. He wants all people in the world to respond to His invitation, even if they have rejected Him many times before.

He invites them to a banquet. A banquet symbolises for us all that is desirable. To attend the banquet is to have everything we need and want; to miss out on the banquet is misery and darkness.

The invitation is intensely personal. He wants you, not just anyone, but you in particular.

Even here one might say, but I don’t need your banquet… but you do need it more than food or air; because this is how you are made, the way you are designed.

You need the Eucharist as much as fish need water.

Many will laugh at us, but it is not funny to be dicing with life and death – when Eternity is at stake. It is not funny to reject Jesus Christ.

He could reveal His full power and glory at any point, but He holds back to give people time to accept His offer.

To accept the offer means that we become His disciples, not just nominally, but fully, willingly, ready for anything.

For us who do believe already, we need the Eucharist to sustain us, and keep us focused.

We will hold firm, for our own sake, and to make it easier for others to accept.

There is no physical force to make anyone comply.

But there is a moral force – stemming from the wisdom that God plants in us, and then reinforces with His Holy Spirit. All signs press us to see that there is not really any choice.

This is an offer you cannot refuse because we are dealing with the One who made it all.

The corona virus has shown how powerful some authority can be. Well, what about the authority of the One who controls all things?

At present we cannot freely receive the Bread of Life, but we can still adore Him, and express our willingness to receive Him. That will keep us close to Him.

We pray that all people will realize their need for Him, and come to the Banquet.

Trinity Sunday 7 Jun 2020 Sermon

Trinity Sunday 7.6.20 Immersed in the Mystery

We have feast days for angels and saints. If they deserve a feast day, how much more the One who is far and away the greatest Being. So today could be called the Feast of God Himself, one God, three Persons.

As we worship God we grow in understanding of Him, and love for Him.

We seek to love God for His own sake, and not just for what He can do for us. It is good to be grateful, and we could never recount all His kindness to us; but even better than gratitude is a pure response to His infinite goodness.

We are created to know, love and serve God. ‘Serving’ we can understand as that is definable – we do certain tasks, for instance.

But ‘loving’ God seems more abstract.  We are dealing with someone so much greater than ourselves. We love in proportion to how much of Him we experience.

That in turn will depend on how seriously we seek Him, or are open to receiving His initiatives.

We can love God while still having only imperfect understanding of Him. There is Mystery, which we can approach but never exhaust.

If we dive into an ocean we lose ourselves in a vast sea; our interacting with God is like that - we immerse ourselves in Him.

We let go of our own ideas and desires; and trust that God can give us something much better.

We open our hearts and minds to His influence; and the more we do that the more responsive we become.

Rather than expand ourselves towards God, there has always been the temptation to try to reduce God to our size.

The Trinity has been a case in point. Some say: you cannot have more than one God, so there can be no Trinity.

We reply that we also believe in one God, but it is not for us to limit Him; our part is to respond to what He reveals to us.

Clearly He has revealed Himself as a Trinity of Persons. Whether we understand or not does not change this basic truth.

Then there is the tendency to demand that God fit into our expectations: if something happens that we do not like, we blame God.

Or again, the tendency to love the things that God has given us – food, wine, the wonders of nature, human love and friendship etc - to put all these things ahead of the One who has given them to us.

Shedding all possible errors and imbalances, we present ourselves in the Divine Presence, and submit every thought or desire to His providence.

This is how to love God – total submission because we trust.

We share in His perfect oneness, where there is no discord or rivalry. Our human communities could learn some lessons from the Trinity.

Of the three Persons it is God the Son we know best. He is our main contact point, but we can approach any of the Three, and we find our prayers indicate that.

We have many images of God, and we can use them whenever they are helpful; remembering that no image can do more than point us in the right direction. No image can exhaust the full reality of God. He is not a triangle, or a shamrock!

Any one Divine Person possesses the full nature of God, so if you are speaking to One you are speaking to all.

We  benefit being caught up in such company! The closer we come to any of the three Divine Persons the stronger our human frailty will become.

There is a constant interaction between the three Persons, making God a Source of perfect love.

Anyone who thinks that God is passive and remote is very mistaken. There is great vitality in His inner life; and we are lucky enough to share in that life.

All Glory to the Blessed Trinity.

Pentecost Sunday 31 May 2020 Sermon

Pentecost Sunday 31.5.20 Be not afraid

The economy requires consumer confidence. If we all spend up that will create jobs and production and everything gets going.

If everyone stays home it all grinds to a halt.

We can see a spiritual parallel in the coming of the Holy Spirit.

If everyone has the confidence to believe in God and all the story of our salvation, then there will be a collective enthusiasm. The churches would be bulging; evangelising and catechising would be everywhere, and there would be miracles.

But if there is no prayer there will be hesitation and confusion; no one will be passing on the faith.

There is definitely a lack of confidence abroad at present.

In any case we cannot do it on our own. We cannot spend the economy into action nor be able to motivate whole Church, but we can do our bit.

This will be good for us and for the Church.

When we pray Come Holy Spirit it is an appeal that He work on us, making us ready for action.

He will cleanse our souls and make us bold in reaching others.

We also ask Him to come on everyone else - the whole Church, the society, the world - in the hope that enthusiasm, commitment and faith will spread (like a fire).

We have said it before Come Holy Spirit,   but we always need to keep current.

Just as we have to eat and drink every day, so we must pray. It is an ongoing need for us, as we live in time, and can take things only one at a time.

Each of us can ask for all that we need in each situation.

Our faith has to be on the boil, ready to grasp and to exercise.

We cannot afford to cool off with the passing of time. This would happen if we neglect the essential points, such as daily prayer.

With enough prayer we will have greater insight into God's will, realizing that it is not always spectacular things He calls us to.

We do not all have to be preaching in the public square; but we do all have to be sensitive to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

And to be filled with Him, meaning that our wills are at one with His: whatever He wants we will do it, even die for Him.

Are we ready to die for Him? We will be if we dwell long enough in His presence.

Fear is always some sort of emptiness, something missing. When the Holy Spirit comes He fills that empty feeling.

The apostles were hiding for fear of the Jews. But when the Holy Spirit came they were bursting down the door, never again to give way to fear.

Unfortunately that state of affairs did not last long. The first Pentecost was the highest point of the Church’s history. We have been recovering and re-starting ever since. We are forever trying to recapture that first fervour and apply it in our time.

No matter how much we have failed we can make a new start. Every moment is a new chance. We are renewing every moment our beliefs, and our desire to put those beliefs into action.

Come, renew the face of the earth.

Renewal is not change of beliefs or rules, but the deepening of beliefs, with a greater understanding of the rules that go with that.

The ‘newness’ that many seek is to change everything; instead we should look for renewal in getting back to where it all came from – the ancient truth which is ever new.

It is the same Holy Spirit, the same human need, the same plan of salvation as two thousand years ago.

It is within our reach, at least individually, to claim the Holy Spirit’s guidance, knowing that whatever improvement we can make as individuals will help the whole Church.