Monday, November 20, 2006

Sermon for 24th Sunday after Pentecost 19.11.06

24th Sunday after Pentecost 19.11.06 Leaven in the bread

We are to be the leaven in society.

If we cannot convert people directly we can at least influence the kind of world we have. We are helping to civilise and direct the world to the right end.

It is not easy to convert people, but we can at least put the truth in front of them by the way we speak and act.

A lot of our present struggle is whether the Church is leavening the world or the other way round.

Much of worldly thinking has infected the Church, eg feminism, syncretism of religions.

We have to be very clear that the Church is teacher of the world, and not the other way round.

Yes, we can learn from the world sometimes, but only as to detail, never as to basic belief and policy.

So, for example, if we have an atheist neighbour who is generous with his time and possessions, we can learn from him to be generous, but not to be an atheist.

So the Church beckons the world to come to Christ, come to the water and be saved.

The world says it doesn’t need to come anywhere. The Church in fact should move, relax its standards and apologize for past wrongs.

Then, with a vague blend of spiritual values all the world will live in peace.

But you can’t be in peace if you don’t have the basic link with truth.

Only Christ can save. There is only one God and only one Saviour.

This is the stunning simplicity of our belief.

So much more fashionable to believe in many gods without taking any of them very seriously.

This throws us back onto humanism. We decide for ourselves what is right - and we get it wrong.

If we don’t make Christ known the whole world will drown in its own ignorance. Darkness will prevail.

We must give the world what it needs. To know Christ; to come to full faith, baptism, eucharist, eternal life.

General goodwill is not enough. Tolerance is definitely not enough.

We ourselves have a lot to learn as we seek to be leaven.

In this sense the growth of the Church is in two ways: in holiness and in numbers.

We want to get bigger and we want to get better.

Certainly if we get the holiness right the numbers will rocket. It is only our lack of holiness that impedes our growth.

As the Church has always produced saints in every generation so there has been growth.
Imagine how much more that growth would be if more rank and file Catholics took the faith seriously.

If saints, instead of being one in a million, were one one in a hundred.

Why not? The grace is there; the truth is there.

Without holiness our growth in numbers will be just nominal (like higher population), but no real life.

We must get both right – be what we are supposed to be and we cannot help but get bigger.

The birds will fly to the tree when they see how safe and strong it is.

Or the nations will flock to Zion when they see how tall it is.