Sermon for 2nd Sunday after Easter 22.4.07

2nd Sunday after Easter 22.4.07 Church and world

Last week we were reminded of Our Lord’s intention to build up His apostles and disciples into a fighting unit, fully convinced of their faith and able to make inroads into the unbelief of the surrounding world.

Ever since, the Church has been attempting to do this, to make converts of as many people as possible and to convince the world that Christ is risen, and thus Saviour of all who unite themselves with Him.

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, reminding us in a different image that Our Lord gathers us into one body, one flock – for our protection, for one thing, but also to go out again to bring others into the flock.

We are a flock being protected, but not in the sense of being huddled together in fear. We are more like a fortress where we both gather strength and prepare to make further sorties into the surrounding world.

We are not a passive flock but very active (or at least supposed to be).

We are the Church which goes into the world, not the World which comes to church!

We are not just people who ‘go to church’, but rather people who ‘go to world’, from the Church in which we are firmly embedded.

Our identity as Catholics, members of the Church, is our most fundamental identity.

We may be other things, like president of the indoor bowls club, or longest serving bar attendant – but to be a Catholic Christian is far more than any other description that could be placed on us.

It is even more important than our family identity, certainly more important than our racial identity, or academic achievement or good looks or whatever other way we distinguish one person from another.

So, with this identity firmly established we go to the world. We may feel afraid of the world, feeling heavily outnumbered, perhaps.

Or we may feel the world is beyond repair, people being so set in their ways that nothing we could say or do would change them.

No. Fear and doubt are two qualities that have no place in the flock/fortress of Christ.

We have those qualities removed by constant exposure to His grace, and we are recharged to go out into the world and make converts.

If we take enough of His reality into our hearts and minds we cannot fail to make an impact when we go back outside.

We believe Christ is risen, and we believe everything else that He wants us to believe about Him – such as His teachings.

One of the objections to the teachings of Our Lord is that they are unrealistic, set too high for ordinary consumption.

So we have to water them down if we are going to have any hope of reaching people, especially children and young people.

Not a bit of it. It is the world that is unrealistic, setting its sights too low, living like animals when they could be living like angels; putting the things of the flesh over the things of the spirit.

And this can be our problem too. We might be bringing worldly thinking into the church instead of Church thinking into the world.

How can we train ourselves to be more Church-centred, more Christ-like? No short cut. Just lots of prayer and good reading and self-discipline and sacraments.

So what’s it like being a Christian? Don’t know, haven’t started yet.

Well, we have started, but we are like frightened sheep too much of the time, and we need an injection of courage and charitable aggression to get us on the attack.

We can convert the wolves that would devour us, or at least pluck a few sheep from the wolves.

Good Shepherd, gather us and send us forth in Your grace!

Sermon for Low Sunday 15.4.07

Low Sunday 15.4.07 Faith

Faith comes to different people differently.

I wonder why Our Lord did not appear to the unbelievers like Caiphas and Pilate etc. Would that not have converted them?

He appeared only to His own disciples, to confirm rather than convert them.

There are two types of conversion required. The proud need humbling and the timid need reassuring.

The latter is much easier to achieve. Our Lord worked on this group, His timid disciples, and put new heart into them

As for the proud and the rebellious, they would need a lot more work. Some of them would be beyond any reaching, having sold out to the devil long ago.

Others no doubt were converted, eg, as at Pentecost, those who were cut to the heart at Peter’s words.

But the initial appearances were not for the rude gaze of the public but reserved to those who had established some sort of right to the see the Lord – those who at least had some love for Him.

They were reassured and given the gift of strong faith, although they still needed Pentecost to make really sure.

Our Lord’s plan was to build up strong disciples who in turn would convince others, even some of the proud and rebellious.

He was not ignoring the proud, just approaching them indirectly. They would have their chance to repent, but for now it was vital to get the Church up and running.

So it has been ever since. We are the Church, we are the collection of timid and doubting apostles who need reassuring. The way we operate sometimes we could not convince a flea of the truth of Christ’s resurrection!

So He comes to us; He convinces us of His reality. Touch and see, it is really I.

And we are convinced, partially at least, and so the Church becomes at least a little bit stronger and we have more chance of converting some of the hard cases.

The battle is fought at two levels.

The Church itself has to believe. That is one major battle.

And then the Church has to convert the world. That is another major battle.

Both are hard to win. If we could win the first the second would go a lot better.

As it has been so far for 2000 years the Church has limped into the battle with only moderate faith and has had only moderate success in converting the world.

The more we believe these things to be true the more powerfully we will proclaim and live the word.

And the converts will come rolling in, as they have at various times in Church history – eg St Francis Xavier.

So our task today, and in this Mass is to let ourselves be convinced by the Lord’s appearances to us.

He does not directly appear but comes to us through the infallible word of scripture and through His real presence in the Sacraments.

It is not through the physical senses that we are convinced but through the soul and its faculties.

Why does He not appear physically to us? It would help us no end.

Blessed are those who have not seen… Their love is greater for having had to do it the harder way.

What He denies us in sense experience He supplies other ways.

He can move in our souls to give us the certainty of faith, to form us into apostles who will go through fire and water for love of Him and to convince others.

No more doubt. We can’t afford it, either for ourselves or for the harvest of souls that is waiting the word of life from us.

Sermon for Easter Sunday 8.4.07

Easter Sunday 8.4.07

Our Lord rose in the body. It was necessary that He do that because otherwise the victory would not be complete.

The devil would have no part of Our Saviour, and to leave him the body would have been like giving him a trophy.

It was impossible for the Holy One of God to suffer corruption.

The devil must have been left wondering that all his plans has come so unstuck.
Just a few hours earlier Jesus had looked a wreck. He was dead; His body was mutilated by all the punishment; His followers had scattered.

Then suddenly Jesus is back alive, His body is glorious (even better than before) and His followers have regrouped with new heart.

It is a lesson for us that things might look dark but God can shed light very quickly and nothing is impossible to Him.

The devil is decisively defeated here. Death has lost its sting. The gates of heaven have been thrown open and ordinary people can enter there.

But the devil has one card still to play. Deception.
He can rob us of the joyful assurance of our final victory, and he does this by planting fear and doubt in our hearts.

Despite the triumphant rising of Jesus the world is still shrouded in darkness. We simply do not believe in this event as fully as we should.
We do not give it its full weight and value.

Why do we doubt it? Some doubt that it happened.

Others (probably our position) believe in it as an historical event, but doubt that it has direct relevance for us.

It’s all very well for Jesus to be rising from the dead, but I am still going to be afraid as I face my death.

I don’t feel fully confident that I will be committing my life into His hands; that the same power by which He rose will also raise me.

Curious breakdown of faith just when we need it.

The devil has got at us and tricked us into thinking only by the standards of the flesh.

We believe only what we know or have experienced. Beyond that we are unsure.

But we should not limit belief to what we have seen or been through.

God is not limited to our experience. He can do a lot more things than that.

We are dealing with a powerful Creator who has brought life out of nowhere.

We have to pitch our thoughts towards Him and His unlimited power, rather than the very limited world of the flesh.

So we should not doubt or fear. The only fear of death should be whether we are ready to meet the Lord in judgment, but never for a second doubt His power to raise us again.

This feast is very much inviting us to look higher than usual. To look beyond the limits of the flesh and the usual way that things happen.

The raising of Christ is in one way a miracle, because it is such a spectacular event.
In another way it is ‘natural’ because it is how thing had to be. Death could not hold Him. It would have unnatural if He had stayed in the tomb!

This event sets a whole new tone, and a new precedent.
From now on anyone who is identified with Christ will rise in Him. The faith is in Him rather than ourselves. I certainly could not raise myself from the dead; but He can do it easily.

This is a great feast we celebrate. We have trouble letting its full import sink in. We are accustomed to playing down good news and being cautious, but this is one story we can and should believe.

Don’t let the devil rob you of your place in heaven, or your peace of mind now.

Sermon for Passion Sunday 25.3.07

Passion Sunday 25.3.07

The epistle speaks of the superior nature of Christ’s sacrifice as against bulls and goats etc. His blood is far more effective in cleansing from sin. So the new covenant is superior to the old.

We offer this blood every time we celebrate the Mass.

We are very fortunate to have such an effective ‘bargaining tool’.

We can come before our Heavenly Father and say, Father I have sinned, but I can give You something which is going to be pleasing to You. It is the fragrant offering of Your Son.

He is highly likely to forgive us when we have such a powerful sacrifice advocating for us.

Yet, just offering a sacrifice may not be enough. We know from the Old Testament that God often rejected the burnt offerings of the Israelites – because they were not sincere, just going through the motions.

They saw the sacrifices as a way of buying their way out of trouble, but they had no intention of changing their lives.

As we offer the sacrifice in Mass we must get two things right.

1) The sacrifice will ‘work’ for us only when we align ourselves with the qualities of the Victim.

We cannot offer a humble, loving Christ if we are ourselves proud and resentful.
We must change ourselves to be the same as that which we offer!

The Victim is meant to represent us. He cannot do that if we are not interested in being represented in that way.

2) Also that we must be consonant with His manner of offering. His blood is poured out on the ground. We do not have to do that at Mass, but we should at least be prepared to invest ourselves in the process. His blood is spilled for us. We must be willing to put all of ourselves on the altar with Him. How can we offer the Mass half-heartedly, casually, as though there were nothing at stake?

We have to get down on our knees and weep and wail a little bit, at least figuratively.
Be really sorry for our sins, really grateful for mercy, really determined to eradicate faults.

Perhaps we would like to be forgiven but not to change anything about ourselves. Ah, that is the temptation is it not?

To offer the sacrifice in a perfunctory way: not really having our hearts in it.

In the Gospel today we see a typical passage indicating how much Our Lord had to struggle to get through to people. How they opposed Him at every point and resisted the obvious graces He was offering.

His blood is shed in vain for those who will not accept Him.

He wants to save them, but they put themselves out of reach
***********
As I reflect on 25 years of priesthood, I think of the eucharistic sacrifice, this central plank of priesthood and the life of the Church.

I must have offered Mass at least 10000 times, and in my life received Holy Communion many times more again!

Yet, what good has it done me? I know that in none of those times have I been as fully receptive of Our Lord as say one of the great saints, such as St Therese of Lisieux.

There is always progress to be made. That I, and each one of us, can enter the sacrifice more fully, with more Christlike qualities, and with more intensity of offering.

It is so easy simply to ‘do’ Mass, and to be the same when we finish as when we started.

This must not be. We are to be transformed by this close encounter with the Lord Himself and be made into pure bread ourselves, free from sin, fully given over to the Lord as victims with Him.

The power of Christ, Priest and Victim, can make us so.

Sermon for 4th Sunday of Lent 18.3.07

4th Sunday of Lent 18.3.07 Prosperity

Some Christians hold to what is called the Prosperity Gospel. They believe that if you have sufficient faith in God then He will bless you with material and physical blessings.

You will have good health, a long life, and a large bank balance. And then you go to heaven as well.

Sounds too good to be true? It needs a little correcting here and there.

We don’t say that to be healthy and wealthy is a bad thing. It is not compulsory to be poor and sick if you are a Catholic.

It’s just that earthly happiness is not guaranteed to the disciple of Christ.

We may achieve it some of the time. It comes and goes. If we have it, fine. If we don’t have it, also fine. St Paul said he could cope with full stomach or empty, rich or poor.

Happiness, to a Catholic, is a state of union with God. If we are in union with Him we are happy; if not, unhappy.

It does not matter if we have ten houses and twenty cars – if we are apart from God we are miserable, or at least we should be.

Some, it is true, have so far forgotten the importance of the spiritual life that they would look exclusively to the material world for their satisfaction, but these people are lost.

Many people, Catholic or otherwise, would judge God by their own standard of comfort.

If there is money in the bank and food in the fridge, then God is good.
If there are bills piling up and sickness, then God is not so good - maybe He doesn’t even exist.

With this approach faith goes up or down like the stock market. There is no real logic in this position.

Either God exists or He does not. If He is good when He blesses us with food then He must still be good when He withholds food.
The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.(Job)

Why does God not guarantee earthly happiness?

1) Because this earthly phase of our lives is preparation for something better.

The miracle in today’s Gospel, the multiplication of the loaves, is a sign of this. The people were ready to crown Our Lord King because He could give them free food.

But He was about to teach them that they should look for food that lasts, heavenly food.

Happiness does not consist in having lots to eat. You can eat ten dinners a day and still be empty inside, hungry for something more. What is it? It is union with God. Only He can fill the void.

2) Because to get to where we are going we have to travel light, and not become attached to our surroundings or possessions.

The more attached we are to the things we have now the less we are seeking what we could have.

We have to be like pilgrims, ready to move, anxious to press on to our final home.

It is because of this tension that we have Cross as well as Resurrection in this life.

God sometimes appears as God of the Resurrection, blessing and healing and multiplying,

and sometimes as God of the Cross, taking away from us, asking for discipline and sacrifice.

Whichever side is uppermost – joy or sorrow – it is still the same God, no less real.

We have to be patient with Him while He leads us to where we need to be. Otherwise we will never have more than a superficial understanding of Him and never be able to love Him properly, let alone cope with life.

We are very fortunate people, but we cannot guarantee happiness on every point at every time. Not yet, but later, Yes.

Sermon for Third Sunday of Lent 11.3.07

3rd Sunday of Lent 11.3.07 Purity

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Just to think of our bodies as houses of any sort would be some progress.

Because we do to our bodies what we would not do to our houses.

Sexual impurity is like bringing in the rubbish bin and tipping it over the lounge room floor, and no one would do that, but nearly everyone it seems suffers from impurity.

Not just in this generation but ever since Adam and Eve discovered their nakedness. Original Sin put us into disorder so that our passions and desires are not in the right place.

And the disorder concerning the human body itself is one of the worst affected areas resulting from the original sin.

St Paul addresses his generation and says that any sort of impurity should not even be mentioned among the saints.

What about now when indecency of every kind is spoken of, displayed and even paraded down the main street? Plus we have television, films, and internet to magnify the occasions of sin.

It is hard for us to keep our eyes averted from so much obvious indecency, but we must do so.

Purity, like all the virtues, comes from God and is planted inside us when we receive the Holy Spirit.

We are made pure by our baptism and this is confirmed in Confirmation.

We have the gift; we just need to develop it.

We need in our society, not just the commandment, which is not enough by itself. We have to re-educate, rebuild what has been lost.

People just forget who the real God is. Impurity in all its forms is really idolatry, the worship of a false god – be it the god of pleasure, of attempted independence, of the human body itself.

They say: what is wrong with taking pleasure in the human body? Nothing, if it is in union with God’s will, and everything if against God’s will.

Remember we are HIS temple, not our own. We would not bring false gods into this church; nor can we use our bodily temples to worship false gods.

They say: yes, but there are worse sins than impurity. What about justice? Fine, we will attend to justice too, but we must also be pure. We cannot justify one kind of mortal sin by saying we don’t commit another kind.

They say: But it’s only my body; it’s not really me that’s doing these things. I am still a good person.

Our bodies R us. We understand this when it comes to violence. If I am bashed in the street, I don’t say, Oh that was just my body, it wasn’t really me.

But if I commit adultery, I say, Oh that’s just my body doing that, it wasn’t really me.

In other words I am still a good person even if I let my body do impure things. No, it cannot be.

I am what I do, and what my body does, I do, and therefore I am impure. And the temple needs a steam clean.

And when we get that clean we will feel a lot better.

We need to get our houses (temples) in order so that we can desire things the right way round and experience what it is God is trying to give us.

So far we haven’t been waiting around long enough for Him to have a chance to reach us.

May the Lord help all who struggle in this area and enable us to take control of our own bodies – a vital step on the way to holiness.

‘Use your body for the glory of God’ (1 Co 6,20)

Sermon for 2nd Sunday of Lent 4.3.07

2nd Sunday of Lent 4.3.07 Transfiguration

The Transfiguration is Our Lord’s way of assuring us of His glory in the midst of His degradation.

While He (or we) go through suffering there is always that backdrop or foundation of glory to sustain us in hope and joy.

The question is: will we hold on or give up when things get difficult?

If our first introduction to Our Lord was seeing Him on the Cross, we might not be inclined to join whatever religion He was starting. Yet how wrong we would be, and how deceptive appearances can be. We have to look deeper to find the glory that is there.
As did St Lawrence who could joke with his executioners in the midst of excruciating pain (and many other martyrs have shown composure and joy in similar moments).

So when we see Our Lord on the cross we are always aware of His resurrection, and that the Cross is temporary.

This is how we are meant to see our own crosses in this life.

We have trouble coming to terms with suffering. We hate it and find it very hard to say anything good about it.

Yet our religion teaches us that suffering is good for us, and we should not only endure it but actually embrace it.

Take up your cross each day and follow Me, says the Lord. And He means take up with both hands and full will, not just a sort of half-hearted reluctance.

Our mistake is that we don’t focus enough on the glory side of suffering. We focus on how much it hurts.

If we were to be thrown to the lions tomorrow we would be thinking about lions’ teeth and blood and pain etc.

When St Felicity was thrown to wild beasts she was in such a state of ecstasy that she did not even know it was happening. She came to consciousness and said, when are they going to start proceedings, only to be told that she had already been mauled by one of the beasts. She was focused on glory and this greatly diminished the suffering.

The Scriptures exhort us everywhere to look to future glory as the anchor for what we go through now.

And they tell us that what we go through now is trivial by comparison with future glory.

Also that what we suffer now can be good for us by purifying us of earthly attachments, atoning for sin, and helping others to be saved.

We will be more certain of future glory which will seem not like some far off thing but the main focus of our whole lives. We long for heaven like the deer yearns for running streams. This life is like crawling through the desert. Heaven is the water we seek.

Not only that, we will see the good that suffering united with Christ can achieve. It is a pure form of suffering, softened by divine consolation, and useful for others.

If you were asked to suffer some intense pain for a period of time and promised that your pain would bring world peace and an end to all cancer, would you not consider the suffering worthwhile?

You might doubt your strength to do it, but you would will to do it, and then God could provide the rest.

A lot of our trouble is not with suffering in principle – we are capable of making sacrifices – just that we don’t see the good that it does.

The transfiguration is a reminder of the spiritual world around us and an encouragement to trust that any suffering, cheerfully offered in union with the cross, is going to do some good somewhere. And the more suffering and the more cheerful the more good it does. (cf great saints, saving many souls, many miracles).

Sermon for First Sunday of Lent 25.2.07

1st Sunday of Lent 25.2.07 Jesus, God and Man

I read a recent commentary on Our Lord’s time in the desert, which said that Jesus went into the desert to find out who He was!

This is typical of a lot of modern scriptural commentary which tends to downplay the divinity of Christ, portraying Him to be not only human but a rather dithering human at that.

In this school of thought, Jesus was not quite sure of anything much, just groping along, and eventually being crucified.

The Church has always been far more confident in the identity of our Saviour. He was God and He knew it, from the moment of His conception.

In fact, Jesus had the beatific vision throughout His earthly life – so much for not knowing who He was!

But yes, He was human. One person, two natures – divine and human.

And we should not play down His humanity. He did experience temptation, but did not yield.

Even in the matter of temptation, however, there is a difference. We must remember that Our Lord was without original sin. Therefore He was operating without the disturbance of passion which we experience.

He could be tempted, but it was more like the tempation faced by the angels – or by Adam and Eve. Was He for or against God?

He was not going to be tempted at the level we experience it – like whether to steal or lie or commit impurities. Jesus was far beyond that. As if He could have impure thoughts about a woman – being God Himself!

The devil would have more sense than to try.

But to tempt Him at this higher level – that the devil did attempt. In the desert, as recorded today, and even more acutely in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Still without success, but it was the best the devil could do.

Jesus went into the desert, not to find out who He was, but to begin the process of restoring humanity to the state it should never have lost.

When Adam and Eve sinned we were plunged into darkness.

Now the time had come when God would begin to bring us back into the light.

Jesus started His public life in the desert as a symbol of where the human race stood. Very barren, very empty, desolate, wild. No fruit.

He would change all this, and this was the first step.

As the new Adam He leads humanity out of the desert and into the fertile garden of union with God.

He shows us the way, and He paves the way by doing what we must do: listen to the word of God and obey it; do not put the Lord to the test; and have only one God.

This is the formula for life. Jesus lived it as well as taught it.

He became like us so we could become like Him.

To say that Jesus is human does not mean we have to bring Him down to our level, and make Him as weak and confused as we are.

Rather, He is human as human should be, and He will raise us up to His level. This is what salvation means,

and this is what is happening to us.

He not only knew who He was, He remembered, and when put to the test was easily able to dismiss temptation.

We are sorely tried in this life, but if we remember we are children of God, destined for heaven, we will act with appropriate dignity and choose life over death.

Sermon for Quinquagesima Sunday 18.2.07

Quinquagesima Sunday 18.2.07 From the heart

Certain contradictions can occur in the course of our spiritual lives. A Catholic coming or going from Mass might get into an altercation in the car park even with other Catholics going to the same Mass!

It is funny in one way but also serious, as it just reminds us how hard it is to internalise our religious beliefs. We can do the externals fine but to get those same realities into our hearts and minds is another matter.

Love is the necessary quality, as explained in today’s epistle, 1 Corinthians 13.
St Paul says that even if he let his body be burnt in martyrdom it would count for nothing if he has not love.

There has to be that commitment from the heart, to make the external actions fully authentic.

Churchgoers in general, and Latin Mass Catholics in particular, are often accused of being pharisaical. They say we only care about the externals – the incense, the singing, the genuflections etc – and having got those things right we don’t care about charity or anything else for the rest of the week.

We would admit to lacking in love certainly, but would protest we are not entirely wrapped up in externals.

The externals are meant to help us with the internal things, not replace them

Our genuflections, bows, signs of the cross, devout posture, keeping silence in church – all these should help us to reach the reality they signify, a genuine reverence and love for God, extending to love of neighbour.

The more exactly we observe God’s will the better. So we do both. We do the ritual things and we love one another.

With regard to Lent the same issue can arise. I can give up sugar in my tea, or chocolate biscuits, or whatever else.

This kind of sacrifice is meant to help me to become a holier person not to replace the need for holiness.

It is no use if I give up sugar but keep the poison of uncharity in my heart. But giving up something I like should help me to find charity. I give up one short term delight for a much greater one (eternal life).

Penance will help me to grow in self-control and to remind me what I am really seeking in life. I am not here just for my own comfort and entertainment. I am here to do God’s will and I am not here for long. The Lenten penance reminds us of our true purpose and the shortness of our stay on earth. We hunger for the lasting delights of heaven.

What I want is mercy not sacrifice, Our Lord said. He meant He did not want fake sacifice replacing mercy. Really He wants both. The sacrifice (if properly understood) will help us achieve mercy – mercy towards others and mercy for own sins.

May the Lord help us, this Lent, to come closer to the full internal acceptance of all that we profess externally.

Sermon for Sexagesima Sunday 11.2.07

Sexagesima Sunday 11.2.07 Our inheritance

Esau, son of Isaac, is one of those people who has gone down in history for one big mistake he made. He was so hungry one day that he agreed to give his privileged position to Jacob, his younger brother, in return for an immediate meal of soup. He thus made himself a lesson for future generations in not trading a long term goal for a short term gain. (Genesis 25,29-34 and Hebrews 12,16)

We are tempted to do the same thing as we travel through this life. Our ‘birthright’ is that we are children of God and we have an inheritance waiting for us – a place in the kingdom of heaven.

We can be robbed of our inheritance by the various forces acting on us – all originating with the devil, the great Deceiver.

When we look at the world we see that there are many people who are not living as children of God, in various ways stunted in their spiritual growth, held captive to one or more besetting sins. People suffer from all kinds of addictions, false beliefs, chasing after false gods, looking in the wrong places for happiness.

Thus we see before our eyes today’s parable (Sower) lived out. This parable gives three different ways of selling our birthright and ending up with nothing.

Some people don’t listen to the word of God, or they don’t have it told to them. These people live as though there were no God, seeking all their happiness in this life. They are not aware that they are destined for eternal glory.

Others have some exposure to the word of God and may even be His disciples for a time, but they give this away either because they cannot cope with the sacrifice required or they seek other short-term delights.

Only some persevere to the end (and we must be among this number) and yield a harvest many times over.

Only this last group can live with true human dignity, aware of who they are, and holding on to that birthright, giving it up for nothing or no one.

In short, we must not let the devil rob us of what we have. He will offer us anything else if only we give up our privileged position.

As we approach the season of Lent we can look at our own lives and see where we may suffer from stunted spiritual growth, where we may be lacking in full response to the word of God.

Do I suffer from addictions to false ways, besetting sins, chasing false gods, always trying to take the easy way out, always seeking my own comfort and pleasure above all else?

We not only do not want to lose heaven, but even in this life we want to live as free children and not as slaves of sin.

The New Testament is always telling us to break free from sin, not to go back to Egypt.

Who would go back into slavery after being released? Answer, Christians.

How do we avoid all these pitfalls.

1) Keep the vision, remember the long term goal, and reaffirm it every day. I am a child of God, a disciple of Jesus Christ, and I will live as such this day.

2) Be watchful at all the attempts the evil one will make to deceive and distract us.

3) If we have a particular area of weakness, where sin comes easily to us, we may not be able to break free from this straight away.

So we have to work on it a little bit. Avoid obvious occasions of sin. Seek counselling or spiritual direction if necessary. Use the sacraments for extra strength. Develop the practices of penance and self-denial. Keep life as simple and clear as possible. If we must live in the world then may as little as possible accumulate on our souls. We travel best if we travel light.

We can tackle the big problems with a combination of keeping the long term view and inching our way through the short term struggles.

By His grace we can conquer (My grace is enough for thee… today’s epistle).

Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday 4.2.07

Septuagesima Sunday 4.2.07 Salvation

St Paul mentions that he is working on his faith like an athlete prepares for an event. In another letter he says he is working out his salvation in ‘fear and trembling’.

St Paul does not take his salvation for granted mentioning in one place that he himself could still be lost.

Today people would politely laugh at St Paul and tell him that no one as good as he is could possibly be lost.

It is fashionable today to see salvation as highly probable, bordering on certain, for most people.

You would (in this view) have to be very bad not to be saved.

Still there are some who see themselves as so bad that they could not be saved.

So we have the situation where some are so good they don’t need saving, and others are so bad they cannot be saved!

The readings today speak to both groups and try to draw people away from the extremes.

The people who think they are so good they hardly need to be saved from anything are not actually sinless.

It’s just that they have lost the sense of sin. They are still committing sins but no longer consider what they do to be sins.

This is because of eroding moral standards in our society, which enable what used to be considered outrageous to be normal now (eg living together before marriage).

Unless you rob a bank or kill someone you are without sin. If you are as good as most other people then you are a good person and guaranteed salvation!

St Paul and other saints call us to a much more sober view of reality. Anyone can be lost and it requires vigilance to ensure that we stay in a state of grace.

The people who think they are so bad that they could not be saved are reminded frequently that God is merciful and desires their salvation.

The Gospel today speaks of those who come in at the eleventh hour and are still paid the full reward – that is, eternal life.

It is right to be ashamed of our sins and humble before God. But not so self-absorbed that we lose sight of God’s mercy and desire to save. It is by His grace we are saved and healed. Nobody is so bad as to be beyond the power of God to change.

So people have to come in from the edges to a more balanced position. We are neither too good nor too bad; neither certain of salvation nor certain of damnation.

We can make salvation certain and this is what St Paul was setting out to do.

He was working out his salvation.

‘Work’ has two senses.

1) The work of vigilance to make sure that we are confessing our sins and uprooting them. If we fall we acknowledge it, we get up and we go on. We are not overwhelmed with guilt; nor do we deny guilt – through it all the grace of God carries us.

2) The other aspect of ‘work’ is that we should be productive in God’s service.

Our Lord referred to those who heard and kept the word of God as yielding a harvest, even a hundred fold.

If we think we are too good or too bad to worry we are not being productive. But if we have a healthy awareness of our weakness and of the Lord’s mercy we can then be productive each day as we take the opportunities for good that present themselves.

So we come, individually and together, to the final payment, the one denarius of eternal life.

4th Sunday after Epiphany 28.1.07 Prayer

When the apostles woke Our Lord as He slept they were engaged in an act of prayer. Save us, Lord, we are going down. Straight to the point! Prayers in emergencies tend to be very short and very sincere.

‘Get me out of this, Lord, and I’ll be good for a month’ etc

Yet they were rebuked by the Lord. There was something wrong with their prayer. It lacked real trust in Him. They were panicking when they should have remained serene.

So they received one more lesson in prayer on that occasion. Our Lord was constantly teaching His disciples about prayer. May He teach us something today.

Lord, teach us how to pray.

Prayer presents certain difficulties for us. We often do not feel much like praying. It can seem like a chore or a task that has to be done, like washing the dishes.

We would rather be outside playing, or inside watching television, or a dozen other activities, but not many people would regard prayer as one of their favourite things.

Prayer sometimes brings emotional uplift but often not not. We don’t always feel better after praying; we don’t always see much result to the prayer.

The world seems much the same whether we pray or not, so we can become discouraged and pray less (this is why many no longer pray, even though they were brought up on it.)

Also prayer is an open-ended reality. There is no clear end point. If I have another task, like washing the dishes, I know when I am finished, but with prayer there is always more that could be done.

Because of the lack of emotional stimulation and the lack of clear results, we tend to measure off our prayer on the lighter side, and pray less rather than more.

This is not a good idea. Prayer is not a task; it is communion with one we love and who loves us.

Romeo did not regard time with Juliet as a chore. He would have liked more time. This is how we should be with God. It is a meeting of lovers.

And think of all the things we pray for. What is enough?

We could take any one aspect of prayer, eg asking for mercy, and if we did that every second of our lives, it still would not exhaust the need for mercy.

Or the praise of God. If we did that every second of our lives there would still be more to be said in praise of God’s infinite glory.

Always more prayer is possible and always more prayer is better than less.

Two Hail Marys are better than one (presuming always sincerity in the one praying).

The more Masses the better; the more people at Mass the better. We want to establish a chorus of non-stop prayer. Praising, Thanking, Interceding, Asking for mercy.

The whole Church prays around the clock, but we can still do a lot more and a lot better.

Because it is not a chore this is not something that should alarm us. Prayer will reveal to us its own delights. If we are not ready just yet to see prayer as exciting and rewarding it will become more obvious as we go.

God makes Himself known to those who seek Him (remember the wise men).

And then we do not count the prayers like getting through some task. It is a communion of love. Time stands still when we pray.

The apostles were rebuked because their prayer was from shallow roots. They had not established a communion of love and trust with Our Lord. This is what we need to do.

We don’t pray just when the brakes fail or the boat starts to sink. We pray all the time, so that when a crisis emerges it is just a matter of gently turning to the Lord and He will help us deal with it. Son, they have no wine…

Sermon for 3rd Sunday after Epiphany 21.1.07

3rd Sunday after Epiphany 21.1.07 My soul shall be healed.

It is a lot harder to heal a soul than a servant. Because a soul has so many moving parts.

We can be forgiven a sin, or tackle one particular fault only to find it is leaking somewhere else.

Overcome selfishness today and lust tomorrow and you are still not perfect but becoming so.

If the Lord can heal it by a word, we wish He would.

But we start to realize the complexity of the matter. We sense that by ourselves we are never going to be able to plug all the leaks.

So we ask the Lord to speak the word. He does that and He also enters our souls despite our claims of unworthiness.

He comes inside us and starts to tidy up the house. He restores order just as He dined among sinners and the castoffs and brought order to them.

Cleaning up a room means putting everything in its proper place. Jesus helped the sinners to put their desires in order. They sensed His mercy and kindness and desired those qualities more than money or pleasure or whatever else they had known so far.

They may not have known how they were going to achieve this new vision, but they knew they wanted it above all else. (This is the essence of repentance and conversion – the detail comes later, but at least we know where we are pointing.)

This is what happens for us also. The Lord heals us by offering us a new way of looking at things.

It is all a matter of desire. We desire the wrong things. We chase after false gods.
The soul does not know its own sickness, only that it is restless. So it dangerously goes in all directions looking for satisfaction and often makes things worse.

Our Lord heals the soul by giving it the right object to seek – Himself, and His kingdom.

He will draw us to Himself like a magnet makes all the little filings point the same way. He will ‘fix’ our gaze on Him so that we will not look away again.

Then all our various desires and passions will be in place and our souls will be running like new engines.

We will want what He wants. Simple as that. That is what a ‘healed soul’ looks like!

It doesn’t sound so hard when we put it like that, does it?

In practice it will take a while because we are not used to this, and it takes a lot of learning.

We have been thinking and desiring too long in worldly ways. It is not easy to change the way we think. But the lesser will give way to the greater.

And the way the Lord ‘heals’ us, changes us, is to draw us to Himself. By revealing His own beauty and goodness we are drawn irresistibly to Him.

(This is why they cannot sin in heaven. They still have free will but no one would want to use it against God’s will).

So this process goes on until we are fully healed. Like repeat visits to the doctor.

He is the Doctor after all, and He called Himself as much.

It is our very sickness (sin) that makes us unworthy to receive Him, but in removing the sickness He makes us worthy, restores us to His friendship and gives us a share in His glory.

My soul shall be healed, and also guided, led (custodiat) into eternal life.

The rest of our lives is a constant process of being healed and strengthened, finding the right order in our souls, preparing for eternal glory.

Sermon for Feast of Holy Family 7.1.07

Feast of The Holy Family 7.1.07

Many committed Catholics find themselves at larger family gatherings over the Christmas period. And what can happen is that discussions start over religious matters, and this can often turn ugly as various lapsed or dissenting family members poke fun at those who still believe these things.

This is what Our Lord referred to when He said that He had come to divide a family, three against two, father against son etc.

It was not Our Lord’s will to have people quarrelling but that He knew there would be division as a consequence of the different reactions that would be made to Himself.

In every family here, no doubt, there are non-practising, non-believing members, and we pray for their return to the faith (or first coming).

Ultimately so we can be reunited and find the true source of all human unity – Christ.

No use being a close family if we are all in the wrong place!

So we pray passionately for union with Christ, and through Him with each other.

Unity in belief; unity also in peace. In the Holy Family we find both. Total union with the will of God in belief and practice.

we might feel excluded from such exalted company. How could we hope to set foot in that house, where holiness burns like a fire.

It is as though they are on top of a mountain and we are down far below just looking up and wishing we could be where they are.

After all, in our houses, there is quarrelling and nasty comments being made, and a lot of inconsiderate and selfish behaviour.

How could we hope to have a house like that where everyone is thinking of the other first?

Rather than be discouraged and just declaring that we can’t do it, we can try another approach.

If we spend some time in their house, we can allow the effects of their holiness to rub off on us.

When we spend time in the company of others we are influenced. Ever visit a convent or monastery where there is a holy atmosphere, and you feel different? Or even a quiet church full of statues and stained glass windows.

The atmosphere affects us and we feel a little bit holier. Not saints all in one day, but just a slight improvement.

Well, the same principle applies here. Let us visit the house at Nazareth in our prayer and meditation.

Praying the Rosary is one way, especially the Joyful mysteries.

But every Mass, every time of quiet prayer is a chance to enter this holy environment and draw a lesson or two.

I emphasize ‘quiet’. The Holy Family would not have been listening to Triple X, Y or Z, would not have been playing on the computer all day and night, would not have turned the television on as soon as they stepped in the door – they would have lived in tranquil silence, we imagine. It is hard to imagine any noise more discordant than the sound of carpenters’ tools.

And no shouting matches either! What sort of a place is this?

Not boring as some would venture. Another dimension altogether. Getting in touch with ourselves. You pay a fortune to go on a course to ‘find yourself’.

You could find yourself at home if you turned off enough gadgets.

Just try a little silence and a little kindness. We cannot do this just by willpower, but we don’t have to.

We can drink in this shower of grace that comes from a higher place.

Take this drink and it changes from being ‘don’t argue’ to you ‘won’t argue’. The nastiness simply goes out from us and we actually become holy.

Not a dream, just reality waiting to happen.

Sermon for 2nd Sunday after Epiphany 14.1.07

2nd Sunday after Epiphany 14.1.07 Cana

We have been celebrating in the Christmas season that God the Son took on human nature, joining it to His already existing divine nature.

Today’s miracle at Cana has been traditionally understood as an epiphany, a showing forth of God’s glory, the first public miracle worked by Our Lord.

An epiphany requires to be ‘seen’ to have its full effect. Can we see what is happening here? Have we eyes to see?

The symbolism of this miracle can teach us much. Water is turned into wine. And it is the very best sort of wine.

In every Mass we pray that through the mingling of water and wine we may come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.

If divine is wine and human is water, the lesser is taken up into the greater and enriched forever.

Once God has taken on human nature humanity can never be the same.

We have been upgraded. Our Lord said on another occasion: we cannot put new wine into old skins. The skins would burst and the wine would be lost.

New wine, new skins. If our human nature is to hold divinity we must be remade, be new people.

The ‘epiphany’, the point we must see, is that we cannot be new humanity if we continue to live in the old sinful ways.

We cannot be lazy, lying, lustful, bearing grudges and rages, and still hope to be sharing in the divinity of Christ.

This is old skins and the new wine will not hold.

Nor can we fulfil this new state just by ritual observance (such as going to Mass once a week)

Nor by minimal observance of the commandments, cutting corners at every possible chance.

What is required is no less than a complete makeover, a complete new person, like a new building from the foundation up.

To be incorporated into divinity is no small thing.

We must rise to the occasion.

How do we do this?

Just think that you probably came to this Mass in a car. How many came on horseback? A hundred years ago everyone would have come on a horse, or pulled by one.

We have upgraded. We do this for every area of our lives except the most important.

When it comes to our human nature - when an upgrade is available – we stay with the old. We stay with our sins because we are used to that way of living.

Hard for us to change, even if we do see the need, because old and bad habits die hard.

How to dig them out? Gradually it can be done.

One more prayer, one more act of penance, one more good deed, one little bit more exertion, one more sacrament…

Just push ourselves a little harder and we find new doors to grace opening and we become stronger.

We can reach a new platform from which other progress can be made.

Supposing we overcome one bad habit. If there was a certain sin we were committing five years ago, but are not committing now, this is progress. It gives us another starting point.

We don’t go back to the old ways and we can head further into new territory, the land of holiness.

Living in union with divinity is a skill to be learnt, but we can practise it and get better.

At least know what is required. ‘See’ the revelation, grasp the point, and don’t try to pretend that nothing has happened at Cana.

You are marked for greatness; don’t settle for less.

Sermon for Octave Sunday of Nativity 31.12.06

Sunday in Octave of Christmas 31.12.06 Innocence

One of the features of Christmas is the theme of innocence. The Child, the Mother, St Joseph, the humble shepherds, even the animals, the peaceful scene, plus our own sense of wanting to be better and wanting a better world – all adds up to an admiration for and desire for innocence.

We want to be delivered from evil in all its forms and taste the goodness of the Lord.

Innocence is good in itself because it is a freedom from evil.

Innocence is also very useful because it is a powerful weapon in getting the desired result.

When we pray for things to happen we have much more chance of having our prayer heard if we pray with pure hearts.

For example we cannot sincerely pray for world peace if we have war in our hearts.

Then also when our hearts are pure we are in communion with God and we are close to Him. We do not have to shout our requests across a chasm but can whisper in His ear.

Lile children on their father’s lap (Abba, Father).

So we ask the Lord (and Mary) to give us pure hearts, to take the sin out of our system, so that we can pray with the innocence of children.

Unless you become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom.

Child-like but not childish. The quality of children that we seek is their relative innocence. And their capacity to trust. They just assume that they will be looked after.

So we should trust God in the same way.

When we look at the world in all its complexity we might propose various solutions. More study, more dialogue, more education, more meetings, more troops, more spending…

but none of those could match innocence. Be childlike; be good; trust in your heavenly Father, come to Him with all your needs.

See how we labour to find worldly solutions for worldly problems. We make the problem through our sin, and then we try to relieve the problem through worldly ways. eg education on how not to get Aids.

When all we need is pure innocence to avoid getting into trouble in the first place and then to get out of trouble if we are in it.

Simple to understand, not easy to achieve. How to get to be pure when we have been otherwise.

Ask the Lord to make us so, to cleanse our hearts of malice, envy etc and our minds of worldliness in all its forms.

Need to make frequent and heartfelt Confessions, and serious purpose of amendment.

Humble ourselves before the Crib now and before God all the time.

Wonderfully simple that we can solve all our problems just by acknowledging we can’t solve them!

When we pray like this we are getting in touch with a great power, without obstructing it with needless complication. Not being naïve but very smart. Not neglecting responsibilities but approaching them in right way. Doing what God asks of us, after all.

Abba Father! Call on Him, and the more fervently we do that, the more trustingly, the more He will hear.

Go back to the start, halt at the crossroads, look well what path it was that served you long ago. That path follow…(Jer 6,16)

Sermon for Christmas 2006 (Day Mass)

Christmas 2006 Morning Mass. Total salvation

Jesus said to the messengers from John the Baptist: go and tell John what you see and hear – the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the blind have their sight restored etc

Signs of salvation. Are you the one to come? Jesus answers indirectly. Well, what does it look like?

Are these the signs of some ordinary person or does it look to you like salvation has been unleashed?

This was just the beginning. Restoring sight to a blind person is certainly a great thing, but that is just good for one person in one place. Jesus’ full plan was much grander than that.

He came to heal the whole person, going right to the root cause of the problem. And that is not that you can’t see or can’t walk, troublesome as that might be.

The root problem is sin, alienation from God. He came to heal that problem by reconciling us with God.

So that in our wounded humanity we would now be once more filled with the life of grace, would once more share in divine life.

This is a much more valuable healing than having sight restored. After all, if I was blind and then I could see – I would be happy for a while but then would be the same as everyone else – looking for meaning. I can see, but so what?

No, we need to be set right at the very deepest level of our being, and this means to be right with God, to receive His forgiveness and have His life in us.

Knowing who we are, where we are from, and where we are going.

This is a challenging level of healing because it might be further than we want to go.

We might be happy just to have our aches and pains removed and then left to live as before.

The Jews did not want to be saved beyond certain political changes – get rid of the Romans. Otherwise leave things be. Those who crucified Our Lord thought He was asking too much (or offering too much).

Thus it has been in every generation since. Help me, Lord, and then back off, please.

If we recognize Him for what He is, and what He wants, we will then both value His coming AND cooperate with it.

The Last Gospel is the main Gospel in this Mass – brought to a more prominent position.

He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.

They were so busy worrying about their aches and pains they did not see what was being offered to them.

To understand the scope of the salvation which is offered is a necessary part of receiving it. Many sell Christ short in all sorts of ways – just free bread, physical comfort, ticket to heaven, nice non-threatening religion, ethical teacher, another religion to go with all the others… but He is so much more and will never be understood unless given centre stage.

We must see further. We read that Gospel so often to remind ourselves that His own should have received Him.

And just in case we haven’t been receiving Him we can always start now.

If we do receive Him His salvation will take deeper hold in us and gradually extend to the whole world – which was always His plan. (also alluded to in the Last Gospel).

He came for the whole world but still it has not happened.

He needs people like us to receive Him so that progress can be made.

Enjoy your Christmas but don’t reduce it to just a nice day with family and friends. It is the key to the renewal of the whole world. Christmas is about Christ!

Christmas Mass times at Holy Name

Christmas Mass times:

Sunday 24th Dec 9.30am
Midnight Mass 12.00am Monday 25th
Mass of the Day 9.30am Monday 25th.
Happy Christmas to all!

Sermon for 3rd Sunday of Advent 17.12.06

3rd Sunday of Advent 17.12.06 Getting out of prison

In the Hail Holy Queen we describe ourselves as ‘mourning and weeping in this vale of tears’.
In Psalm 23 we mention that we are walking in a ‘valley of darkness (or death)’.

St Paul describes this earthly life as an exile… we are exiled from our true home at present and we long to throw off this earthly tent. (2 Co 5)

There are other references to the same import. (Hebrews 11,15 hoping to reach our true home) Our true home is in heaven (Ph 3,20)

These are strong images and when we take them together we seem to be getting a message. We notice already that this earthly life is not always a bowl of roses. Now from the above references we can conclude that it is not meant to be a bowl of roses.

In a valley of tears, a valley of death, a land of exile… one can expect to be unhappy, at least to a certain extent.

Today we traditionally express reasons for our joy. We have just established why we are not joyful! In what way can we be joyful in a valley of darkness?

a) because there is a better place
b) and we are coming out of the valley and going towards this better place

Our present condition is temporary; we will not always be suffering like we are now, and we are looking forward to a future of unalloyed bliss.

This perfect happiness will arrive when we leave this state of exile; when we arrive in the place where there is no sadness or darkness, where every tear will be wiped away, our true home.

We are like prisoners chalking off each day on the wall and longing to be set free.

Many people allow themselves to despair in this life. They see the misery around them and their own misery, and they conclude that this is all there is. Some even go as far as killing themselves because they see no other way to escape the misery.

We who have faith, also have hope. We see the misery too but we are not overwhelmed by it. Because we also see the place where misery is no more, and we see there is a way to get there.

Reflecting on the limitations of this life actually will help us to find true joy.

The important thing is not to try to find all our happiness here. It cannot be done, so we should not try.

Many do try to build up an earthly paradise and they do it through money and power and status – and they end up in the grave. The psalms tell us this and they were written 3000 years ago! We can be slow learners.

We pass through this life like flowers, like grass on the roof. We bloom for a day and we are gone.

This could be depressing, but it really is the key to great joy, because we don’t want to stay here, remember. This is a prison. We want to get out of here and get to the place where there is real and permanent happiness.

Naturally, in a prison we try to make things as comfortable as possible. We decorate the cell, we take some recreation. So we live in nice houses and we play sport etc. But this is only peripheral to the main desire to get to freedom.

Our joy is that we are getting out of here soon. We make the best of it while we are here but we do not cling to it, nor to each other, as we wish each other speedy and safe passage to this better place – our true home.

Sermon for 2nd Sunday of Advent 10.12.06

2nd Sunday of Advent 10.12.06 Repentance

What did you go out to see? Our Lord asks the people. This is not just any old prophet. This is someone bringing in a new era, a new state of things.

How much difference is there to being a Christian? What amount of change is required. When John preached repentance how much change was he asking for?
Is repentance a minimal adjustment or a major transformation?

You might think from the way some people talk that the only difference between being a Christian and being anything else is that the Christian goes to church for one hour a week.

The Christian has one hour less golf, or shopping, or dog obedience class but otherwise the two lives are exactly the same.

This is not how it is meant to work.

The Christian is one who is like Christ. Filled with His Spirit, overflowing with good works and transformed in his whole attitude.

It is inconceivable that the Christian could be the same as everyone else when we have received a whole new kind of life.

When it comes to repentance, we cannot just mean mentioning a couple of sins in confession, but otherwise everything is ok.

We are not comparing ourselves with our neighbours but with Christ.

If we are to compare ourselves with others we will come off well and will be able to say truly that we are not so bad.

But we belong to Christ and we draw our light from Him.

When we compare ourselves to Him we have to say we have not been so good at being ‘other Christs’.

So Repentance has to be a clean out of the whole system, and being drawn into the life of Christ.

We can say the same thing in two ways:

Repent, behave yourselves, keep the rules (and all true, too)

Or, Come to the water, receive the abundant love that is being offered to you.

We all would like to receive more love, but may not all want to change our lives.

In fact, though, the receiving of love will move us to change our lives. By that stage we will want to change and it will not be a burden.

Take Scrooge at Christmas. He was so transformed by his dreams that he wanted to be generous.

It was not just that he knew he had to change, but he wanted to. So the change was delightful to him.

Zacchaeus another example. He spontaneously wanted to give back four times as much as he had stolen, so great was his joy at discovering the new life.

Repentance is not a burden but a path to new joy.

but we need help to keep the vision of what is expected and what is possible.

We stop both too soon.

We have little faith and we do not expect God to work miracles.

We have low expectations of our own behaviour so we do not ask for or exercise the grace which enables higher things.

We settle for ‘one hour a week’ or ‘two hours a year’ for those who go only at Easter and Christmas, and call ourselves religious.

The invitation is there for us to break into a new layer of life, to discover the better air the other side of the fog. So we seek a deep and complete repentance. We will not try to minimise our response.

Let the grace of Christ carry us beyond minimalism or technical Christianity. Let Him change us on the inside so that we each become a new person in Christ.

Sermon for First Sunday of Advent 3.12.06

1st Sunday of Advent 3.12.06 Being ready

While praying in front of the tabernacle once, it occurred to me that I felt at peace to be in the Lord’s presence, but that if I were to die suddenly I would be afraid to meet Him face to face.

How could this be: that I would be at the same time at ease and not at ease in His presence?

It must be that I am in some degree of union with God but not yet complete union. There is love but there is also fear. As St John says: Perfect love casts out fear. I do not yet have perfect love for God. So I ask Him to bring me to that state of perfect love for Him.

Supposing I am on an aeroplane and suddenly the plane starts plunging towards the sea below. What would I do? Make an act of contrition; ask the Lord to have mercy on my soul.

If I tell the Lord I am sorry when my plane is plunging into the sea, why not tell Him I am sorry now?

It is fear of punishment that makes me sorry in that case. We want to reach a state of perfect contrition whereby we are sorry anyway, and do not need an emergency to bring on an expression of that sorrow.

So we come to one of the main themes of Advent: that in this season we should seek such a degree of union with God that we are ready to meet Him at any time, whether He comes in the third watch or the second… later or sooner.

That we will be so much at ease in His presence we will not care if we are alive or dead – it is all the same to us, so long as we have Him.

There is always the temptation for us to put off complete repentance till ‘the last minute’.

There is the (false) assumption that we will get more enjoyment out of life if we break a few rules, that sin is ‘the only way to enjoy oneself’.

But the truth, waiting to be discovered, is that the greatest source of enjoyment in this life is to live as closely as possible to God Himself.

To live a life of grace is to experience the full joy of being like a bird in flight, every part of our being working as it should; for the first time a round peg in a round hole.

This explains why the saints were such happy people, when to the world, they appeared to suffer so much, and miss out on so much of earth’s pleasures – but they had the one thing that matters, the pearl of great price.

The epistle refers to living in the daylight and not being dissipated with strong drink.

People sometimes seek refuge in drink as a way of numbing their sense of reality.

But when we discover what Reality is we seek it. We should be wearing T-shirts with ‘I love Reality’ written on them, because the true reality is Union with God and all the joy that comes with that.

The solution is not drugging ourselves against reality but entering it more fully.

Thus we seek a fuller union with God
– a union that will mean both more perfect contrition, and a greater desire to do His will.
-A union that will mean we are ready to be with Him, either in this life or the next;
that will enable us to discern His presence in time of plenty or poverty, full stomach or empty.

To be with Him is everything; to be without Him is unbearable.

This is what we seek in Advent – we seek God and He will not be slow in making Himself known to us.

Sermon for Last Sunday after Pentecost 26.11.06

Last Sunday of the year 26.11.06 (with First Communion)

Today we have the last and the first. The last Sunday of the year, and the first Holy Communion for seven children.

Understanding where we are supposed to finish is always a good place to start.

The last Sunday plus the season of Advent, with its emphasis on repentance and judgment, is a time of reminder for us to keep the last things in view. We are reminded that life is short, that the world is passing away, that we should be ready like wakeful bridesmaids or watchful servants to meet the Lord when He returns.

This is how we are supposed to be when we finish our lives. So how can we reach and maintain such a state?

By taking advantage of every source of grace we can receive in this earthly pilgrimage.

And the greatest source of grace we have available to us in this life is Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

This Sacrament is so important because it is no less than Jesus Christ Himself.

To receive Holy Communion is to receive all-of-God. We receive Him and everything good about Him.

If we receive Him worthily and as fully as we are able then we will be ready to die, and to live, ready to end our lives or continue them, ready for anything and everything.

To receive Him as fully as we are able. At the physical level it is easy to receive Our Lord in this Sacrament.

It is easy to digest one small host, and it may seem like no big deal. To those with little or no faith that is how it will appear.

But with the eyes of faith this small host is bigger than the whole universe. Because it contains what cannot be contained – the Mystery of God Himself, the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

Infinite reality packed into a very small space. How precious is one of these hosts.

To some it means nothing, to us everything.

But if what we receive is so great, how can we take it in? How can we grasp so much goodness in a way that we can translate into our everyday lives?

This is food that we enter, rather than food that enters us.

We enter the Mystery of God. We cannot contain Him, but He can easily contain us.

So we enter the goodness of God, like going into a large room, or an ocean and being immersed in that goodness.

It expresses itself in different ways at different times.

So Holy Communion might one time bring you comfort in a time of fear, or consolation in a time of grief, or wisdom in a time of searching, or love for your neighbour in a time of need.

Anything that is good might flow from this Sacrament when it is received worthily and with at least some amount of faith in the recipient.

Children, who are receiving Him for the first time today, you will enter the Mystery again and again. Like a room full of good things, you cannot take them all out with you at any one time, but you can go back for more each time.

So we need to receive the Lord repeatedly, because He is bigger than we are.

And for the adults, who have received Him many times – realize the momentousness of each Holy Communion – treat it like it is your First and your Last.

And doing this as often as we can through our lives, we are far more likely to be awake and watching when the Lord returns, or when our life ends.

We will have nourished ourselves on His goodness, having learned to live in communion with Him. Death and the end of the world will be no more than a change of address for us because we are already close to Him, and will rejoice to see Him face to face.

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.

Tradelaide in Rex Magazine

Tradelaide blog has been featured in the new issue of Rex Magazine. If you would like to have a look, visit: www.crex.org

Sermon for 23rd Sunday after Pentecost 12.11.06

23rd Sunday after Pentecost 12.11.06 Total trust

The Gospel presents us with two different ways of asking Our Lord for help. One man insists on His personal attendance at the scene of the trouble; one woman is content to pray just by touching, without saying a word.

Both receive what they want. We sense that the woman’s faith is stronger than the man’s, but from both we learn again that Our Lord is willing to hear our prayers, and we should keep them coming.

Our Lord is pleased whenever He encounters above average faith. He commends this woman who touched His garment. He commends the centurion who trusted that Our Lord could heal from a distance. He commends the Canaanite woman who persisted in her prayers despite apparent rejection.

He tells us to be like the importunate widow who would not give up until the unjust judge gave her what she needed.

O we of little faith are more likely to give up too soon, or expect too little of Our Lord.

We can be too tentative in our prayer, not really expecting anything good to happen.

Why do we give up so easily? There are a couple of major barriers we need to get across.

1) Lack of trust. We are not convinced enough of God’s love for us, His closeness to us, or even (sometimes) His existence.

We allow our experience of suffering and disappointment to dent our trust in God. If He would allow me to go through suffering then is He really my friend?

So we either stop praying altogether or pray only half-heartedly and sporadically.

This does not express or engender faith. If we do not ask we do not receive, or not as much anyway.

2) Lack of knowledge of God’s will. Supposing we do still trust Him to a fairly high degree. The problem can then be that we do not know what He is planning; what is His will for the particular problem we confront.

We believe He has the power to do anything; we are just not sure what He wants to do in this case. For example, a prayer for the healing of someone with a terminal illness.

So we tend to be less forthright in asking than we would like – out of a kind of deference to God’s will. Yet He does want us to ask for things. Ask and you shall receive.

He wants us to discern His will and approach Him with confidence.

It is all a matter of trust. He wants us to get so close to Him that when we pray we are not shouting across a great canyon in the hope that He might hear us, but rather whispering in intimate confidence, knowing that He does hear us.

Look at Our Lady at Cana, and how she made that prayer. She approached Jesus quietly and confidently. She did not have to shout the prayer. She did not have to explain what she meant. She just put it before Him knowing that He would be in sympathy with her feelings on the matter.

So the miracle was worked. If we need a miracle this is how to ask for it. We don’t have to make a lot of noise, but just develop an enduring sense of trust.

Come close to Him every day, and every day closer than the one before.

We do not always know what He is going to do, but we do know that it will be something good.

In many ways the state of perfect trust in God is itself the answer to the prayer. When we love Him that much we are filled with His grace and that is really better than any earthly advantage we might otherwise be seeking.

Also when we do trust Him that much our prayer is going to work much better because it will be prayed in strong faith (like the woman, the centurion, Our Lady etc).

So to advance in trust, until we reach total trust. Any lack of trust can be part of our prayer: Lord, help my unbelief.

Any previous disappointment or disenchantment with Him: ask Him to heal it, to reassure us that He has never been absent from our sides.

Then, together, we draw close, and miracles will happen.

Sermon for wedding Steven and Louise 4.11.06

Steven Zollo and Louise Donohue 4.11.06

It is good to marry in the Church because here we are able to get to the source and meaning of what marriage really is.

In this place we are acknowledging that it is God Himself who has invented, established marriage.

Only if we go back to Him can we get the full picture, can we understand exactly what marriage is and what it requires.

Why did God invent marriage? To make His own love visible and tangible.

Being creatures of flesh we need physical reassurance. To be told that ‘God loves us’ is good, but it may seem a bit abstract or remote.

He knows that so He gives us love in forms we can understand and appreciate.

He uses human love to mediate His divine love.

There are many forms of human love but of them all marriage is the most intimate and the most intense.

So especially in marriage does Almighty God mediate His divine love to the couple, through each other.

The couple’s love for each other becomes a sign and a sharing in God’s love for each of them.

Their love and fidelity would demonstrate God’s much greater love and fidelity.

As well God has instituted marriage for new life. In this way new children will be born for His kingdom. He claims the children as His own.

Steven and Louise can do all this – with His help.

They know their need for His help and have committed themselves to seeking Him in preparation for this marriage.

They know also that it is not only today they must pray but every day. And we, as we pray for them, must not end the prayer with this wedding, but keep them in continuous prayer.

We pray for good fruit to come from this marriage.

The most obvious fruit of marriage is children, and we pray that they come.

Other fruits are things like stability for society, hospitality, service to the Church and community.

Steven and Louise, if you succeed you will be doing us all a favour. You will be establishing one place in this world where there is love and peace.

In a world where there is so much trouble and alienation, we will be able to point to your house and say, There is one place where love can be found, where God is enthroned.

So we pray that it be so, and God will bless you in every way.

We take the chance to pray for all marriages, for all who are married or who will marry, that they will grasp the plan of God in establishing marriage and will live by His will.

Marriage will make sense only when we include God in the picture.

May He continue to show His divine love through human love.

Sermon for 22nd Sunday after Pentecost 5.11.06

22nd Sunday after Pentecost 5.11.06 Purgatory

If a disaster struck and we were surrounded on all sides by sick and dying people, we would try to look after them, would we not?

The motivation in such a case would be the highly visible and audible suffering which we could not escape even if we wanted to.

We just could not ignore people lying all about us and moaning in pain.

What we are doing on All Souls Day, and whenever we pray for the dead, is precisely the same thing.

We are helping people who are helpless; people who are moaning in pain and in dire need of whatever help we can give.

It is not so easy to maintain the motivation in this case because we cannot see or hear their distress.

It is so easy to forget the dead – forget at least their distress . We remember those we love, but even then do we think to pray for them?

We might be more conscious of our own pain in missing them, but what of their pain as they experience the purifying fire of purgatory?

Part of the problem today is the assumption that many make of instant entry to heaven.

Read the funeral notices or go to a funeral and there will always be a very clear statement that the deceased person has gone to heaven and is already enjoying eternal bliss.

It may be so, but it is likely that most people would spend some time in Purgatory before they move on to Heaven.

And Purgatory, by all the teachings of the Church and the witness of the saints and mystics – is a painful place.

Yes there is the joy of knowing that salvation is assured, but there is also the intense pain of being purified from every sin and every kind of sin we have committed in life.

We see in all its clarity our own grubbiness in the light of God’s glory. It is, we can imagine, like being embarrassed or humiliated, only a hundred times worse than we have experienced on earth.

So there is pain in purgatory. We might think the dead do not need to worry because they will be released. But think if you were trapped in a ditch and people were passing by. You know eventually you will be released, but you are still suffering while you are in that position.

What if everyone said to you: Don’t worry, pal, someone will get you out one day – but noone actually did get you out and you were still there a hundred years later.

Some of the suffering souls must feel like that.

In the Church there has been a marked decrease in prayer for the dead – due in part to the assumption of an easy heaven, and in part due to a decline in any sort of prayer.

We must do our bit. We are surrounded on all sides by people in distress. It’s bad enough on earth but we have this other world where there may be millions of people trapped in the state of sin in which they died and they need us to pull them out of the ‘ditch’.

We don’t know who is in purgatory, and we are not sure whom we are helping with our prayers, but we do know we are helping someone, and that is enough motivation.

It is a work of mercy to pray for the dead and we may need someone to do the same for us.

(Though in our case we will take the lesson that we will try to be purified before we die, not after).

To keep the motivation just see in your mind that people are being relieved and released from pain when you pray for them, and the more you pray the more this is happening.

We can forget them because we cannot hear their cries, so we make a special effort to keep them always in mind.

20th Sunday after Pentecost 22.10.06 Praying for rain (and other things)

Australia is in the grip of a drought. As people of faith we know what we have to do when we come across a crisis. Whatever practical steps we might take we must also and always pray. Pray to Almighty God to rain down His blessings on us.

Rain in particular is a natural thing to pray for because it symbolises so perfectly God’s bountiful mercy. The sacred scriptures often use rain as an image as well as a practical expression of God’s goodness.

Australia is a barren country anyway. From a Christian viewpoint we would say barren in two senses – not much rain and not much faith.

Drought is therefore not surprising if we understand the symbolism that God can withhold His blessings when a people does not pay Him proper attention.

The prophet Elijah had the power to close and open the heavens according to his judgment of the faith status of Israel. What would Elijah say about Australia in 2006?

Is God punishing Australia? Very likely.

What about the innocent people who are doing the right thing (in which number we hope to be considered)? It often happens that the innocent have to carry some of the burden of the guilty (look at world wars for example).

If we are innocent then drought (or any adversity) can be offered by us as atonement for the sins of the nation. We accept the suffering and pray that it will end as soon as possible and that all of us will learn the lesson as we turn to the living God.

So we pray for rain. Can I make it rain single-handed by the power of my faith? Can you? We are not Elijahs, but we can at least make things head in the right direction.

The more of us asking for the same thing in faith, and persistently, will make the thing more likely to happen.

Having been in rural parishes the amount of rainfall was always a major topic. It commonly happened that having come out of Mass where we prayed for rain someone would say, Oh well, we can’t do anything about it can we, Father? A kind of fatalism. What will be will be.

Can’t do anything about it? What do they think prayer is for? Yes we can do something about it. Faith not fatalism.

When we pray in faith for rain (or anything else) we are activating the grace and mercy of God to fall on us like rain (and in this case actual rain).

We don’t always know God’s will. If, for example, He is punishing Australia with this drought He may not wish to break it immediately. But we pray in that case that the need for punishment cease – that is, that Australians repent. And that in the meantime we bear well with the suffering, with the consolation of His grace.

In any case, whether we know what is going to happen or not, we just keep praying because praying will always improve the overall situation. It will bring us closer to God for one thing, and that is always of paramount importance.

The closer we are to Him the better everything else will work.

This is what Our Lord was conveying in today’s Gospel. It was not so much whether He would heal this person or that person. He had enough power to heal everyone.

What concerned Him more was that people did not have faith; did not love God; did not trust Him; would not draw close to Him in confidence.

With a living faith we come to Jesus with every need, large or small, and we entrust the outcome to Him. We trust in Him rather than the desired outcome.

Whether it rains or not God is still God, and the more we acknowledge that, the more likely it is to rain (or any other blessing to happen).

Sermon for 19th Sunday after Pentecost 15.10.06

19th Sunday after Pentecost 15.10.06 Reward and Punishment

The Gospel gives the double message of invitation to the banquet and then conformity once inside the banquet.

It shows forth a tension which is always present in Catholic life and preaching.

On the one hand we present the Good News of God’s mercy and the possibility of eternal life to all who want it, a free and abundant gift, lavished on all who receive it.

When we hear that we feel good but just when we start to have some vision of eternal bliss we hear the other message that we have to behave ourselves or the whole thing will be taken from us and we will be cast into the darkness!

So are we happy because of the promise or miserable because of the warning, or some mixture of the two?

Catholic preaching and teaching has always had to give due weight to both of these perspectives.

The carrot of eternal reward, and the stick of eternal punishment.

Many have strayed, either from assuming the reward is so easy to attain that it does not require any response; or from being so depressed at the thought of punishment that they accept it as inevitable. (The twin perils of Presumption and Despair)

We must sail in between these two extremes, and have a healthy hope of salvation (overcoming despair) but realizing we are not saved automatically having to ‘work out our salvation in fear and trembling’ (overcoming presumption).

This means, in terms of today’s parable, that we must first accept the invitation – instantly and gladly. Then we must do all that is required to stay in close union with God, working in the vineyard, persevering in holiness the rest of our lives.

Accept the invitation: It means to believe there is something better than this life and this world the way it is.

It means to look beyond earthly pleasures and ambitions for our ultimate fulfilment. We are looking to a banquet that will satisfy without making us feel bloated and weary, a banquet of eternal delights. Our appetite will always be active and at the same time will always be satisfied.

It means recognizing the Good News as the one piece of news that really does lift us above the normal dreary daily round. It takes us into a higher dimension, and so calls forth a radical response from us.

To accept the invitation to the banquet means we do not just turn up but actively and fully engage with all that it means.

And this leads to the second part; that having arrived here we must put on the wedding garment. We must conform to all that is expected of us as members of this new kingdom, discovering this new way of life.

This could sound like something tedious (you have to work for your keep), but in reality it is a delight to do the will of God, to discover in fulfilling our obligations that God is sweet to the taste and a delight to serve.

My yoke is easy and My burden light.

In practice we are probably a bit of both. We can move away from the fear of punishment and the emphasis thereon, as we take up the positive motivation of serving God out of love, and the reward that flows from that.

We can fear the devil like we fear a shark. I know I will not be eaten by a shark if I swim between the flags etc. So, I am aware of the devil but I will not let him get me.

While never forgetting the awful possibility of punishment, the knowledge of God and the blessed hope of reward will flood our souls and keep us on the right path. We shall, with St Paul, finish the race and claim an eternal wreath.

Sermon for 18th Sunday after Pentecost 8.10.06

18th Sunday after Pentecost 8.10.06 Forgiveness

Our Lord heals both body and soul as He raises the paralytic and forgives his sins.

It takes more authority and power to forgive sins than it does to heal the body. Any doctor can attempt healing and often succeed, but who can forgive sins?

Only God. Because all sin is an offence against Him He has the right to determine how to deal with that sin.

So Our Lord, demonstrating His divinity and His infinite authority tells this man he is forgiven, and so he is.

He demonstrates the power at work by raising the man’s body physically. He is made well again, all deformity removed.

So sin deforms the soul and needs to be removed.

We are ‘raised up’ from our sickbeds every time we experience the mercy of God.

Raised up in two senses: 1) that we are in better spiritual health and 2) that we are raised beyond the power of that sin to hurt us again – we will not (need not) commit that sin again.

It is one thing to receive mercy (not difficult). Quite another to ‘retain’ that mercy, so that we do not lose it and fall back into sin. This is much harder.

Easy to say we are sorry. Easy to be sorry. But so hard not to do it again.

How can we get stronger at retaining mercy, so that it works in our soul for healing and we become immune to that sin or tempation to which we have succumbed.

We say in the act of Contrition that we will not sin again. Yet when we go to Confession we are probably confessing the same sins over and over.

What went wrong? How can we fix the leak in the spiritual system that lets the grace escape and leaves us back where we were before?

The main thing is to believe that change is possible. We might think we are so weak that we will certainly commit the same sin again.

Yes we are weak, but someone else is strong. It is by the grace of God that we hope not to sin again. It is His strength we draw upon.

And it is something of an insult to Him to say that we cannot change when He Himself is changing us!

We are weak but we become less weak as we are exposed to His grace. What seemed impossible now becomes achievable.

We might have thought of Confession as a carwash where we clean the car but fully expect the car to get dirty again, and we come back next week, or month etc. There is no change to our behaviour; we just come back every week and get washed.

But Confession is not a carwash. It is more like going back to the factory where we are remodelled and made into a brand new car. I don’t wash the car; I get a new one each week!

The Sacrament of Confession is an encounter with the Son of God, the One who has power over both body and soul; the One who has authority and power to forgive, to raise up so there is no falling back.

Is it cruel of God to expect us to be perfect? No more than the doctor is cruel in trying to heal us. God can see that our sin is a deformity. He simply removes that deformity. How can it be cruel to make us into something better than before?

His mercy is curative as well as liberating. It is a complete cure. You will never even want to sin again once you open your heart to this mercy. And you will not sin again.

It may need more than one confession to get this right, but each confession is part of the process of total cure. Rise up, take up your mat and walk! Go, and sin no more!

Sermon for 17th Sunday after Pentecost 1.10.06

17th Sunday after Pentecost 1.10.06 Love God and neighbour

We have to love both God and neighbour. Hard to love either, because in God’s case He is invisible and in the neighbour’s case, he is visible!

With God we find Him abstract and difficult to connect with.

Yet we can work our way towards Him and find by various paths that He is loveable (literally adorable) and we love Him spontaneously.

Of course it is a strange thing to be commanded to love something, since love seems such a personal matter.

Imagine being commanded to love spinach! Love as just a feeling does not obey commands; it either goes that way or it doesn’t.

But love as an action can respond to command, and this is what is being referred to:

Love God means to do what He says, to act according to His will, to try to please Him.

To obey the command applicable to the present moment is one way to love Him and to discover how to love Him.

When we do the right thing we receive an insight into the mind/nature of God and we come to love what we discover. There is something intrinsically good about what we discover.

The only reason the whole world does not love God is that He is difficult to locate amidst all the noise and confusion.

So people give up the search and they say: He does not exist, or He does not matter, or He is ‘out there somewhere’, cold and remote.

No, we must do better than that. We must search like the lady in the Song of Songs, go through the streets till we find Him.

When we do we will experience great rapture as everything will then fall into place.

We will find, in the famous words of St.Augustine, that our hearts are made for Him and cannot rest until they come to rest in Him.

How do we find Him? By obedience and also by prayer and reflection.

Come to where He is. Ask Him to make Himself known, and He will.

We can find Him in the help He provides in everyday matters where we see the fruits of His love. He is the mysterious benefactor that sets up the world we live in, opens doors in advance of when we reach them.

It is He who provides the sunlight, the air you breathe, the clothes you wear, the ground you walk on, the family you were born into, the brains by which you can think, the many fascinating things which attract and interest you.

It is He who has been there from the beginning of your life and will still be there at the end. It is He who fills the whole universe with His being, knowing every particle of creation and what is happening with it.

Logically of course we can reason that if God made all the people and things we love, He must be greater than they are and must therefore be even more loveable.

So if you would rather go to the football or the beach than to Church, then just consider who invented football or who created the beach.

If we can find such a Being then we have everything else as well.

So, coming logically, practically, mystically, every possible way, we arrive at this Supreme Being who is Love.

We love Love because we cannot resist.

We are being commanded to do something we cannot help doing. It is like being commanded to breathe or eat.

Only in this case we have to search a little bit before it becomes so obvious.

Every person, no matter how unlikely it might seem at first, is called to love God, and is made for that purpose more than any other.

There is a magnetic pull drawing everyone to find this perfect Love. We must not resist that pull. It is our destiny, and if we do this we will also help others to find where they belong.