Easter Sunday 20 April 2025 Sermon

Easter Sunday 20 April 2025 Two ways of rising

The rising of Jesus was a matter of fact; it really did happen. 

His body was physical; it could be touched (cf St Thomas) as anyone else could be. There was nothing shadowy or cloudy about His being. As you see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones like I have (Lk 24,39)

Some will say Jesus lived on only in memory, an inspirational presence;  but it was much more than that.

Jesus, as head of the human race was setting new territory for us to follow. We are accustomed to death followed by burial, and then decomposition of the body.

He went through death and burial, but more to demonstrate His power over them, than any necessity of nature. There was certainly no decomposing. He was in control.

We still have death but only temporarily. Our bodies will rise again on the Last Day. 

No more to die, and from then on free from pain and suffering, able to do various things we cannot do now – like travel at the speed of light, pass through solid barriers, feel no pain, have complete control over thoughts and feelings.

Is this too good to be true? It is good, certainly, but also true. We have not seen it yet, but we can believe that God is capable of it; having already created us once, He can re-create or put back together what has been broken.

Before we experience our own resurrection of the body we have another kind of rising – of holiness over sin. Sin degrades and enslaves us; there is a better way.

Through faith we are joined with Christ in His glory. His rising is our rising, insofar as we are one with Him. In Him we can throw off the burdens of sin and discover an inner joy that nothing can take from us.

We feel the order returning where disorder has been. We rise above sin. 

We can merit this outcome even though it is beyond our level of worthiness.

Jesus will pass onto us what He has, and we will benefit, without any loss to Him.

Stand close to a fire and we feel warmth. Stand close to Jesus Christ and we start to think like He does, to want what He wants. He radiates goodness, and some of that heat and light will come onto us, especially if we are looking for it.

It is sin which has cast darkness and disorder on the world, bringing death and leading people to conclude that there is nothing more.

We learn to live in Christ, always with His help making the right choices, developing our virtues and eliminating our vices.

In this way we are ready to move on to other stages of our journey. Having come to life in Christ we then live each day according to His will.

This in turn will mean we are ready to negotiate death whenever it comes. If we are in union with Christ we continue life in our souls, either in Heaven or Purgatory, awaiting the final resurrection.

This is the path we are on. We remind ourselves of this hope and it will strengthen us in time of doubt.

If we look at the world, we might conclude that good and evil are in a contest and neither is the winner. Some things are good, some things are bad. It is just the way of things.

No, it does all come to an end; the good will break free and become dominant. 

We can be part of making that happen, and of benefitting from it.

We will taste more of this final victory in advance as we increase our union with Jesus Christ.

He is Risen, and increasingly so are we! 

Palm Sunday 13 April 2025 Sermon

 Palm Sunday 13 April 2025 Greeting the Lord

Our waving of the palms signifies our joy at seeing Our Lord  enter our domain. We are glad to see Him.

In the original Palm Sunday the people turned quickly from welcoming Jesus to calling out for His death.

We learn from this that to welcome the Saviour it has to come from the heart.

We are glad to see Him because of who He is, and not just in response to prevailing circumstances, where we might be glad one day, but not the next.

Our gladness will require a certain amount of faith insofar as we do not know what is coming, certainly not in detail.

But whatever our problems we are saved from them by the Saviour.

Having the Saviour on hand is like having the key to all locks.

The Jews were happy with Our Lord’s healing miracles, but not so keen on His demands – such as to take up their crosses daily.

They wanted life to be easy, free from sickness and struggle. 

People today still see God as a fixer of problems - like a secretary.

They do not want to know Him beyond that point.

He wants to know us, however, and to bring us to a level of trust and obedience to Him. Joyfully not grudgingly.

So our welcome stays at the same pitch all the way through. Our Palm Sunday does not turn into Good Friday; it stays at Hosanna to the King.

But if we should get this wrong, God can still work things to our advantage. As He did on that first Holy Week. The infidelity of the Jews led to the Crucifixion and that led to the New Covenant in the Blood of Christ. 

The more we reject, the more He offers us mercy. 

The one who has been forgiven more will be more grateful (Lk 7,43). This is our position, today and through this Holy Week.

We marvel at God's reversal of the usual way things are done. Injuries usually bring hatred and the desire for revenge - not in this case.

Our Lord does not hate the people for what they are doing; He does not forget why He came – to save sinners, to save the world. Hosanna to the King!

5th Sunday of Lent (C) 6 April 2025 Sermon

5th Sunday of Lent (C) 6 April 2025 Cast the first stone

There are two things wrong here, the adultery and the self-righteousness.

The adultery is the more obvious sin and attracts everyone’s attention. But the self-righteousness is a serious problem.

If the pharisees had been anxious about the matter simply because they wanted God's  order restored, or the commands of God to be honoured, it might have been alright.

But they did not really care about God’s order, or the spiritual welfare of the woman. Or the sanctity of marriage. They only wanted to trap Jesus.

He exposed their hypocrisy. He was not saying that adultery is alright, but pointing out the less obvious sin, which may be more deadly.

At least the adulterer can repent of his sin; while the self-righteous may not realize he even has a sin.

If their hearts were free of malice the pharisees would have seen things as Jesus saw them.

He was interested in the state of souls, and wanted to lead souls to repentance, while still upholding God's commandments.

In this world we are so far from the original innocence that we have many types of sins compounding each other. To repair one sin will require that we have to change other factors as well.

Sin leads to more sin. Lust might lead to gluttony or sloth. Then pride, because we think someone else is worse than we are. Then angry if we are corrected. And so on.

A simple and humble appeal to God's mercy will bring it all into alignment. If sin leads to sin then so does repentance lead to repentance. And we can repair the damage - not only the damage to an individual soul, but the damage a whole society suffers when it turns away from God.

True upholding of the commands requires a deeper understanding of the need for mercy.

We learn through mercy what is false about the sinful behaviour;  we come to be repelled by that behaviour, and thus do not repeat the sin.

What do we do with sinners now? We don’t stone them to death, which is some advance. But we might pardon them more through apathy than through a genuine mercy.

Apathy, insofar as we may not care whether or not adultery is committed, or more generally God's  laws are kept.

Nor are we much advanced when it comes to our reaction to the sins of others. We might feel superior to others instead of seeking to uproot the sin in ourselves (cf plank in one’s eye Mt 7,3-5). 

As St Paul put it: Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins… but rejoices in the truth etc (1 Cor 13).

True charity is that we help each other to get these things right. We want other people to be saved, and we want God's kingdom on earth. Both goals can be worked on at the same time.

This is what Our Lord was trying to demonstrate to the people. It was hard, even for Him. It is not much easier today.  We are tempted to overplay one thing while ignoring the other. Too severe in our judgments of others; too lenient in dismissing serious sin.

Let us cultivate in prayer the mercy of God, acting within us and in the wider society.  

4th Sunday of Lent (C) 30 March 2025 Sermon

4th Sunday of Lent (C ) 30 March 2025    Contrition

The Prodigal son returns home, expecting to be scolded for his wastefulness, but in fact is lavishly welcomed.

Thus we learn of  the sinner’s need to repent; of the sinner’s hope of receiving mercy; of God's eternal desire to give mercy, and to restore the sinner to full status.

The process begins with the son realizing his degraded position. The move to repentance begins with an awareness of the damage that sin can do.

This is not yet full repentance but inclines one to that position. It may be only a kind of self-awareness. How could I have been so foolish as to get into this mess?

The son addressed his first problem: how do I get to a better place than where I am?

He was not yet seeing things from the father’s point of view. He felt only his own pain, not that of his father.

This parallels what the Church calls Imperfect Contrition. Our sorrow for sin is real but not yet complete. We are sorry mainly because we have put ourselves in trouble and are afraid of what consequences might follow.

It is a start, however, and one which enables further progress to be made.

The son, having got himself home, then experienced the welcome he did not expect. He was not even sure that he would get a position as a servant. Instead, he was treated like a prince - which we all are, insofar as we are God's children, and He is King.

Was the son grateful? We can hope that his experience of mercy would compel him to stay on the right path for the rest of his life. When we realize how much we have been rescued from, we can promise God we will never forget His blessings (eg The Lord remembered us in our low estate, for His mercy endures forever; Freed us from our foes, for His mercy endures forever; And gives bread to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. Praise the God of heaven,for His mercy endures forever.” — Psalm 135 (136) and many other psalms).

We foster the gratitude which God deserves, and which we need to express. We are grateful to God, and grateful also for those who prayed for us while we were ‘away’, or while our consciousness of these matters was very hazy.

Eventually we can come to Perfect Contrition, whereby we are sorry for our sins, now for the extra reason that we have caused pain to our Father. We have offended His infinite majesty. We are more concerned for Him than for our own plight. That is a more generous position to hold. 

This is what Our Lord wants us to become -  sorry for all sin, and for the grief it causes to Almighty God (and all the company of Heaven).

We become more loving towards God as we interact constantly with His goodness.

This is what we are called to - not just ‘keeping the rules’ but learning to love the One who is  the source of all blessings.

God has programmed us to be receivers and givers of His charity, directed outwards to others.

We can renew our sorrow for past sins. We do not have to re-confess them, but we can express our gratitude to God for past mercies, and for the grace not to offend Him again.

We say it all the time; let us say it especially today – Lord, have mercy!