Pentecost, Year A

 

(Acts 2:1-11; First Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23) 

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the reading from the Gospel of John should have seemed a little strange to you because Jesus first of all gave the Holy Spirit to the Apostles gathered in the upper room:

Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."   And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Jesus was preparing His Apostles, whom He was soon to send out in His Name to forgive sins and transmit a new and potentially eternal life, by giving them the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in their personal lives and public ministry.  You might ask, then, what was strange about that?

This is what was strange: after thus receiving the Holy Spirit from Jesus, the disciples did not, in fact, start preaching everywhere; actually, they went back to Galilee and to their fishing, where Jesus appeared to them once more.  Now that is strange; but it is also very instructive.

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we were told of another, subsequent, bestowal of the Spirit, and this time a public bestowal, where the Spirit descended upon the Church as a whole:

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Let me bring out clearly for you the difference between these two occasions:

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you."

On that first occasion, mentioned by St. John in his Gospel, there was only a small group gathered -- gathered in fear -- a group where not even all the future apostles were present, because we are expressly told:

Thomas, called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

Now let us reconsider the second occasion actually heard in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles:

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  

That was indeed a gathering of the whole Church, as is made clear by the emphatic words: all with one accord in one place; and it was after this public bestowal of the Spirit upon the whole Church gathered together as one, that the disciples spontaneously began to praise God:

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance … speaking the wonderful works of God.

And it was only after this giving of the Spirit to the whole Church that the Apostles -- in the person of Peter -- began to carry out their individual commission(s) to proclaim and to offer salvation, through faith in the Gospel, to all their hearers:

Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.  For these are not drunk -- as you suppose -- since it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh.’ Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:14-18, 36).  

The Spirit, therefore, is primarily bestowed upon the Church as the Body of Christ -- the whole Body -- not just to one part of the Body, even though that part be the college of Apostles.  Once the Spirit had been poured out upon the whole Church, the special grace and blessing the Apostles had already received became active within them, but not before.  This is what the Apostle Paul taught us in our reading from his letter to the Corinthians:

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ: by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks whether slaves or free -- and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.   For in fact the body is not one member but many. (1 Corinthians 12: 7, 12-14)

A false emphasis on unity has sought, in the past, to impose a strait jacket on Catholics: we are one Body, under one head, the Pope on earth, walking in conformity along the publicly approved road.  But that is not the whole of Paul’s teaching, because he tells us that “the Body is not one member, but many”; for diversity, as in natural so also in supernatural life, is best able to bear adequate witness to the inscrutable depths of the wisdom and beauty, goodness and power of God.

Today, however, whereas our political set-up seems to ape the old-church conformity through its promotion of political correctness; in the Church, on the other hand, the necessary unity under one head -- with the Pope as visible and temporal head of the Body whose supreme, invisible, and eternal Head is Jesus the Risen Lord -- is much enfeebled by individuals claiming the right to pick and choose what to believe and how to behave whilst still, paradoxically, asserting themselves to be true members of the one, universal, Body.

On this day of Pentecost, dear People of God, in our rejoicing, let us rejoice in the Truth: Variety and Unity are both essential in the Church.  She is not what the Corinthians wanted to imagine, that is, a gathering where each and every one could strive to display and develop themselves and their personal egos:

You are still carnal: for where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?   (1 Corinthians 3:3)

On the other hand, neither is Mother Church like some marble obelisk that abides untouched by the passage of time; it is essential for her to grow and develop because the Spirit has been given to provoke change by gradually leading her into the fullness of truth.

If there were only liberal-lefties in the Church, she would be like that herd of Gadarene swine that went off in a wild and unrestrained rush and drowned in the waters of Galilee.  Were there none but died-in-the-wool traditionalists -- more conservative than Rome and more papal than the Pope -- she would be like a lifeless bulk held fast and immovable by its own inertia, impervious to the gentle breathing of the Spirit of Life ever seeking to prepare her gradually for what will be her heavenly fulfilment.

And so, People of God, today we – both as a body and individually – are being offered God’s best Gift: the Spirit of Love, Truth, and Life.   To fruitfully receive what is being offered we must want, we must strive, to use God's Gift for God's purposes, and in God's way; therefore, we should always bear in mind the supreme purpose of God’s Gift offered to us this day: it is for the Glory of God, the good of Mother Church as a whole, that is, for the saving of souls.

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

We must also realize that each and every one of us is able to do fruitful work for Jesus, because we are members of that Body which has Christ as its head: sincere prayers though unheard by others are specially loved by the Father  (1 Corinthians 12:18-19):

God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.   And if they were all one member, where would the body be?  But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.  And the eye cannot say "I am not needed"; nor again the feet, "There is no need of us”. (1 Corinthians 12:18-21)

On that first Pentecost, as you heard,

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance, speaking of the wonderful works of God.

Today the same Holy Spirit wills to come to us for a purpose: not frequently “to speak with other tongues” in our modern times, but certainly to lead us to “speak of the wonderful works of God” in creation, in Jesus, in Mother Church, and in our own lives.  Each and every one of us should be prepared to give humble glory to God by speaking, in his or her own way according to gifts received, of the effect which the truth and the grace of Jesus has had on our lives: the beauty our minds have been enabled to recognise and appreciate, and the joy and hope which have come to abide and hold peaceful sway in our hearts. We would fail God if we were afraid to be our humble, individual, selves in thus joyfully giving sincere and truthful witness to Him and to the Faith; for our first duty, as the angels proclaimed is to give:

            Glory to God in the highest.

However, because we are all members of the one Body of Christ, besides individual sincerity and truth there must be humility and charity in our mutual relations, because, our lives, with all their gifts and talents, are meant to serve the common dignity and common good of the whole Body, as the angels went on to declare:

            Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His People on earth.

The song once sung by the Angels at the birth of Christ has now to become a sublime and eternal chorus in which heaven and earth unite, because Jesus, having finished His mission on earth and being risen from the dead, has now ascended to heaven where He is seated at the Right Hand of Power.  And, as the Psalmist (110:1) prophesied, God the Father has embraced His victorious and glorious Son with the words:

Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool.

People of God, today, Mother Church is urging and encouraging us to join ever more wholeheartedly in that paean of praise; for the Spirit is being offered us in and through her that we might work to make the enemies of Jesus a footstool for His feet as the Father wills: that is my vocation, it is also yours, indeed it is the vocation of us all together in Mother Church.  What a privilege we have: let us get on with it, with grateful praise on our lips and trustful confidence in our hearts!

                                          (Not given anywhere in this revised 2023 version.)

The Ascension of our Lord Year A 2023

The Eighth Sunday of  Eastertide A  

The ASCENSION of OUR LORD (A)  

   (Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-2)

 

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. 

All power and authority has been given to Jesus; but He is going away, He is not going to use them Personally in the sight of the world.  The glorious work of making disciples of all nations is to be accomplished by His disciples, for His Church.

That was in accordance with a consistent practice of Jesus, Who most deliberately willed to lead us to become -- in Him -- true children of God, able to love and glorify the heavenly Father had Who sent Him, and called us to faith in Him!  Yes, Jesus so consistently sought to glorify us and rejoice His heavenly Father that He, apparently was willing to let Himself disappear somewhat into the background:

On that day you will ask in My name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.  For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have come to believe that I came from God. (John 16:27)

Thus He lived-out the words He would later speak to His Father (John 17:10):

            All Mine are Yours and Yours are Mine and I am glorified in them.  

Our modern world’s rejection of Christianity is not because of Jesus Himself, His human personality and character are much admired by unbiased students of His life.  No, the world’s great trouble with Jesus is that He loves us too much!  For, having lifted from our shoulders the burden of our sins, He now wills to share His divinity with us!!  Yes, He actually wants to make us divine in Himself, so that we might thus know  and experience something of the transcendental beauty and joy of the all-embracing and totally self-giving love, which is Divine LIFE!

And the supreme question now, dear People of God, as we prepare to celebrate His Ascension, is of course: what sort of relationship do we – you and I personally – want to have with the Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus?

First of all, notice that the Risen Jesus was glorious in the Spirit; He ascended to His Father in the power of the same Spirit Whom He, Jesus, was to bestow, as He had promised, upon us for our salvation!

Secondly, notice the  fact that ‘Jesus is risen’ shows that the diabolical power of sin -- through which death had enslaved mankind -- could not hold Jesus the Perfect Man under its bonds.    Jesus, by rising from the dead, destroyed sin’s dominion over all those who – at the Father’s call -- will believe in Him and in the God Who raised Him.   Sin has no power over us who believe that Jesus our Brother is, as St. Paul proclaims:

Lord of both the living and the dead.

Finally, of course, ‘Jesus is risen’ means that, because Jesus ascended with whole-hearted longing and love to His Father in heaven, we too, who want to become His  true disciples can most delightedly embrace those Easter words of St. Paul:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.   When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1–4)

Dear People of God, are you willing to trust Jesus totally with your future?

Or are you sometimes puzzled by so many nominal Catholics and Christians who have thrown in their lot with those denizens of modern culture who apparently find such joy in communal excitement and commitment, such ‘fulfilment’ in their experience of personal power and influence, and such satisfaction in the comforts of plenty and the  pleasures of sex?   After all, they say, what greater happiness and well-being could they or any human being want or need here?

That, dear People of God, is precisely the point where such people can no longer speak meaningfully to us Catholics and Christians who are believers in God.  For God alone can give fulness of life, happiness, and well-being, because He alone is the Author of true life, the fulness of which is promised and reserved for us in heaven, in and through Jesus Christ – perfect God and perfect Man -- and which only the Most Holy Spirit can confer on us, in Jesus, for the Father.

Here, Saint Paul’s prayer in our second reading is so beautifully appropriate:

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a (S)spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him … that you may know what is the hope that belongs to His call, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe, in accordance with the exercise of His great might which He worked in Christ.

Paul is telling us that the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus is the model and power-centre for our own rising with Him to the Father Who originally called us.    How, is that holy power to be activated in our lives for us?

We cannot, like Magdalen -- clinging to the Jesus of her earthly memories -- be ever seeking and asking of Him earthly blessings and psychological satisfactions in our journey through life; we have now to learn, with her, how to love Jesus aright as our Ascended Lord, for did He not say to her:

Stop holding on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’ (John 20:17)

Yes, dear People of God, the key to activating the power of Jesus’ Ascension in our own lives is perfectly simple, as unquestioning Mary Magdalen found; namely, trustful and confident obedience to Jesus the Risen Lord, by His Spirit ever at work in Mother Church and in our Catholic and Christian conscience!!

And that requirement of obedience is the ultimate reason for the world’s hatred of Jesus: for despite the fact of Jesus’ sovereign love for us and the eternal salvation He offers mankind, it all -- of its very nature -- involves our obedience; and human, ultimately devilish, pride is at the root of all our spiritual weakness, waywardness, and wickedness.

Behold I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.   (Luke 24:49)

Satan had apparently ruined the Father’s creation of free human beings made in His own likeness, by persuading Adam and Eve (human beings of lesser dignity than angelic beings) to, as it were, manifest their weaker nature by allowing themselves to be led astray from God’s good will by Satan’s duplicity: the idea of free human beings in the likeness of God was thus over from the very beginning, they abused their freedom!

But no!!  The Son (Word) of God, for love of His Father, wanted to become a human being -- thanks to the Immaculate Virgin Mary of Nazareth – to become Perfect Man and perfect God, freely and absolutely devoted to His heavenly Father.   And then, by the Gift of their Most Holy Spirit … to enable other human beings to freely, for love of Himself, let themselves be formed as other Christ’s, and thus adopted children of the Father, for the greater glory of God, for mankind’s eternal joy and total fulfilment, and to Satan’s eternal chagrin and humiliation.

Thus God wants to enable us to deliberately and whole-heartedly embrace the eternal promise and sublime fulfilment of our being which is in Jesus, perfect Man and perfect God; Who, having most innocently shared our humanity to the full, even, indeed, to tasting the deepest dregs of its suffering-for-sin, still wants to draw us back to Himself and,  as members of His Body, able -- by the power of His Spirit -- to share in His divine glory and  become adopted and true children of the heavenly Father.

Let us subsequently trust not in ourselves, for the work of salvation is ever on-going and it calls on us who attend, try to participate in and live-out-to-the-full, Mother Church’s Liturgy, to pray most sincerely for the coming of God’s Gift of His Most Holy Spirit on Mother Church anew that she might receive, in yet greater fulness, heavenly wisdom and power for the service of Jesus’ Light and Truth against the darkness and deceit threatening the world.  Let us also invoke the Holy Spirit of Jesus into our own hearts, to help each of us learn to better say ‘no’ to ourselves and to all sin; and – in the measure of His unstinting goodness and in accordance with His own good time -- to guide us, lead us, form us for closeness, yes, even intimacy, with Jesus our own Flesh-and-Blood Lord and Saviour, and for love of the heavenly Father Who sent Jesus to us and calls us to Him in the bond of His most Holy Spirit.

 

 

6th Sunday of Easter Year A 2023

 

                                     6^th. Sunday of Easter (A) 

(Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8, 14-17; 1^st Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, notice that in today’s Gospel, Philip worked miracles as he proclaimed Christ in pagan Samaria– which means that the Lord backed up Philip’s proclamation by signs to attract men’s attention – but the Apostles, Peter and John, having come down from Jerusalem, still needed to:

Pray for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them, they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Philip was one of the seven men of repute in last week’s readings specially designated, by popular choice and the Apostles’ blessing, to serve at table and take special care of the widows; he was not one of the Apostles breathed upon by the Risen Lord that they might personally receive and be able to personally bestow God’s Gift of the Spirit.

How clearly that shows what is truly, supremely, Christian: not miracles -- great blessings though they be -- but the gift of the SPIRIT OF JESUS!!

That is why – in Mother Church’s wisdom – our second reading today began:

            Beloved, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts!

That is, use the Spirit with which you have been gifted to glorify Christ as the Holy One, our Redeemer and Saviour; but in all and above all, as our LORD and GOD!  Moreover, sanctify Him in your heart, that is, in all sincerity and with full hope, trust, and longing:

‘Oh, Lord Jesus, rule me.  In all the desires and aspirations of my mind and heart, come Lord Jesus, RULE IN ME!’

The Holy Spirit gifted us, is ours at the Personal request of Jesus, as we heard in the Gospel reading:

If you love Me, if you keep My commandments, I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you always.

He is indeed a most special Gift, and a truly sublime pledge of love -- given us by the Father at Jesus’ request!

The world, however,

Cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.

 But you, oh so privileged Catholic and Christian People of God,

            You know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you!

Originally, Eve listened to Satan and sinned.  Adam listened to Eve and sinned.  Both sinned by disobeying God’s direct command, which was, that they must not to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Now, Eve was led to sin by listening to Satan who used her concupiscence to stir up her pride.  Adam was led to sin by listening to Eve and there, Satan used Adam’s concupiscence to emphasize his weak-willed desire for an untroubled life.   Both sinned by disobedience because they had no true love for God; and because Adam and Eve both sinned as one against God, death – together with his minion -- suffering, entered human life

Now, when -- as we heard in our Gospel today -- the people of Samaria heard Philip proclaiming the Good News about Jesus, and when they saw him curing people who were suffering and driving out Satanic spirits in Jesus’ name, they were filled with joy and embraced the Good News and God’s saving grace.

What does God do today, to help us embrace the Faith proclaimed by Mother Church and love Him?

It can’t be miracles on demand.  Indeed not!  For over many past centuries and even in recent times we have been given glorious, and manifest, miracles and signs of God's great love.  But, in these our own days, the help we Catholics still have in Mother Church and can still embrace in our own hearts, has been told us anew today:

You know Him (the Holy Spirit of Jesus), because He remains with you (in Mother Church) and will be in you (if you want, through obedience)!

Therefore, dear People of God, I once again repeat St. Peter’s exhortation:

            Beloved, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts!

We know Jesus as the Christ of God, because the Holy Spirit remains, forever, with Mother Church; and will be in each of us, personally, by the Eucharistic Gift of Mother Church, provided that we continue faithful-and-true to Him Who first called us, to Him Who died and rose from the dead for us, and to the Spirit gifted us!

Peter, in today’s second reading, was so confident -- urging us to sanctify Christ in our hearts -- that he was in no way embarrassed to declare that our sufferings as Christians for what is good, are themselves a truly authentic ‘sanctifying’ of Christ, since:

Christ also suffered for sins once, the Righteous for the unrighteous, that He might lead you to God … brought to life, by the Spirit. 

But the greatest question and test for our world today is: ‘What is SIN?’   What is the sin for which Jesus’ first public words demanded that we repent??

It is the sin condemned by the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament given by God to His Chosen People through Moses; the Ten Commandments which were affirmed and exemplified by Jesus in His life and teaching, death and resurrection.

That teaching of Jesus is confirmed and appropriated for us today by His Most Holy Spirit ever at work inspiring, guiding, and protecting Mother Church in her Gospel mission; and mankind’s slavery-to-sin is the reason why Jesus came among us offering salvation. For, apart from Jesus’ saving grace, sin cannot be overcome by the political correctness and social maneuverings of our modern Western world, which is, in fact, now being re-paganized to an unprecedented degree and depth in these our times!

The ‘world’ cannot receive the Spirit of Jesus because it does not recognize the reality of that sin which rules -- even by acclaim in its pleasurable aspects! -- in human lives and society today (Matthew 7:11):

If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children… 

The ‘world’ only wants to establish its own laws of right order and criminality in order to achieve its own desired way of life in society, to win human approbation, and to provide comforting self-justification.  And in all that, it wants to be Free from God, and will not recognize-and-reject the real sin present in human hearts!!

Shortly before His Crucifixion and subsequent Resurrection Jesus said to His Apostles:

In a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me, because I live and you will live.  On that day, you will realize that I am in My Father and you are in Me and I in you.   (John 14:19–2)

People of God, looking at the world around us, at the ever more modern versions of what used to be Christian society, we can surely say that that day, foretold by our Blessed Lord, has in some measure arrived, and that we would do well, therefore, to give more special heed than we have perhaps done before to His recommendations:

Whoever has My commandments and observes them is the one who loves Me.  And whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.

Let us, dear friends in Christ, calmly set sail, as it were, under such an aegis, allowing ourselves to be guided by the breathing of God’s most Holy Spirit filling the sails of our transformed worldly expectations and our freshly inspired heavenly aspirations; and, looking to neither right nor left, trust totally in Him our Brother Who died and rose again for us; and in Him, the Father, Who originally called us to His Son and still invites us by His Spirit to find eternal joy and peace in our true home with Himself the one, most loving Father of us all. 

 

 

5th Sunday of Eastertide Year A 2023

 

5^th Sunday of Eastertide, Year (A)

(Acts 6:1-7; 1^st. Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12)

 

 

People of God, let me draw your attention to the first reading, in the course of which you heard of the Apostles speaking to the early Christians in Jerusalem:

The Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.   Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

You will, I trust, appreciate from that passage the importance the Apostles attached to their 'ministry of the word', which included what we would call today the duty of preaching.  In this they were being totally faithful to the Lord's command, for we are told (Mark 16:14-16) that, after His Resurrection:

Jesus appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He said to them, "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." 

‘Preach’, means ‘proclaim’, with a difference.  ‘Proclaim’ refers to any piece of information destined for public awareness: Augustus was proclaimed throughout the Roman world. ‘Preach’ refers to the Gospel of Jesus destined for personal appreciation.   Proclamation requires an official herald; preaching needs a priest of the Church or official disciple of Mother Church.  Proclamation requires some dignity, accurate information, a strong voice, and clear pronunciation; preaching requires personal commitment to Jesus and Mother Church, approved teaching (Church doctrine), and spiritual appreciation only gained/learnt through humble initiation and authentic guidance.

With that in mind perhaps someone might think: ‘But what about the Mass?’ 

The Apostles regarded the celebration of the Eucharistic to be of supreme importance, indeed absolutely necessary, for the Church, as St. Paul writes in his letter to his Christian community at Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:23-24):

I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is (broken) for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

For the Apostles, therefore, there could be no conflict of precedence between ministry of the Word and celebration of the Eucharist, since they are two co-related aspects of their proclamation  of Jesus as Lord and Saviour: as St. Peter said in our first reading:

We shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

The Eucharist is supreme prayer: the prayer of the Church -- the Body of Christ -- with that of her Head, Christ Himself.  Preaching the Gospel is the commission given by Jesus to His faithful Apostles, for the fulfilment of which He endowed them with the gift of His own most Holy Spirit, that by their preaching they might spread His Good News far and wide and thus continue His work of redemption for men and women of all times.

Consequently, a priest’s calling, as a sharer in the Bishops' Apostolic mission in Mother Church today, is to follow the Apostles' example by his own ministry of the Word and offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, both of which he does pre-eminently in his celebration of the Eucharist and proclamation of Christ at Holy Mass on Sunday.

Here, People of God, we should notice that the ministry of the Word is not, primarily, a matter of being able to talk well, for true preaching is the result of the Holy Spirit working in and through disciples – specially adapted as His instruments by their priestly training and ordination -- obediently opening themselves up to His grace and making themselves useful for His purposes. And the supreme purpose for such Spirit-guided preaching is not to try to make Jesus humanly popular but to proclaim His divine Person and saving Truth,   in order that God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit --  might be worshipped, loved, and served aright in the House of God which is Mother Church wherever she is assembled in His Name for Sunday worship.

'Preach' is a much-abused word; being given connotations that are generally critical,  including hypocritical, wearisome, un-necessary, self-aggrandizement. And yet, preaching  is essentially the full proclamation of Gospel truth, and it necessarily involves explanation, exhortation, and spiritual appreciation.

Obviously, the greatest dangers for the preacher are spiritual pride, self-seeking, gospel ignorance,  and lack of confidence in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and consequently, a desire to please people (making Jesus humanly popular!).

Mother Church alone has been given the fullness of the Spirit and no individual member of the Church has such fullness: all her children receive the Spirit entrusted to them, through her, for a particular purpose and function.  We were shown this clearly in the first reading where Peter, speaking on behalf of all the Apostles, said:

Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task.

Why did the Apostles need to lay their hands on these chosen men?  Their fullness of the Spirit and of wisdom at that time was such as to have enabled them to live as disciples of Jesus meriting a good reputation in their general service of the Christian community.  However, in order to fulfil in the name of the infant Church the special function of looking after those who were most needy -- the widows -- they had to be given the Spirit anew:

            They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.

No special God-willed work, in-and-for-the-Church, can be done without a special gift of the Spirit for that purpose.  The Spirit guides, preserves, strengthens and inspires for the good of the Church, and He will never allow the gates of Hell to prevail against the Church. And so, He does most especially protect the whole People of God by blessing and prospering the sincere efforts of individuals called to serve either in the ordained ministry, or as living members of what St. Peter recognized as:

A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own, so that you may announce the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

That is why Jesus said to His Apostles (John 16:13-14) and says also to His Church today:

When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

Many of the present difficulties and trials of Mother Church stem, most certainly, from an ignorance of the working of the Holy Spirit, and an overdose of human pride.  The Holy Spirit is always and only given to build up Mother Church for the glory of God, never to back up human pride or indulge human passions.

Unfortunately, there are some  Catholics who think that their learning or intelligence enables them, while others imagine that the vehemence of their personal feelings compels them, or even that their own social or ecclesiastical standing allows them, to intrude themselves into even the most sacred matters of Church’s teaching and practice, as is happening in the over-rich German Church today. These wrong attitudes have bedevilled Mother Church from the beginning, as St. John shows when speaking in the book of Revelation (3:1-3) to those with a false opinion of themselves or a false reputation with others:

I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.   Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.   

People of God, St. Peter tells us that Jesus,

            The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone;

and that we, His disciples:

As living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  

That spiritual house is Mother Church where the Holy Spirit dwells and is ever at work to form each and every one of us in the likeness of Jesus as a holy priesthood.

However, our own individual and personal spiritual sacrifices can only be acceptable to God: first of all, because of the real sacrifice of Jesus Himself which alone gives worthy praise and glory to the God the Father; and secondly, because some members of the Church have been called and ordained to become instruments of the Spirit of Jesus, in the continued offering, even today, of Jesus’ one, real, and perennial self-sacrifice-of-love to the Father.   Because of that eternally-abiding and ever-contemporary offering of Jesus' sacrifice, all our individual spiritual sacrifices can become acceptable to the God and Father Who is All in all; and here, the sacrifices Christian parents make to advance their children as sincere Christians and truly human beings, are of the utmost importance.

People of God, our hope and our future is bound up with Jesus and in Him we have a sublime vocation.  Each and every one of us should try to build up our relationship with Him more and more: for though we have a calling, we still have to work at it, and we cannot fulfil our calling without ever-greater grace and strength of the Holy Spirit.  God is All in all for us, and He wants us to give Him our all, in return.  In Mother Church we are called and are enabled to do just that, by the abiding presence of Jesus in the Church, and the constant working of His Holy Spirit in the Church and in our lives.

Let us therefore go out into the world after today’s Eucharist inspired to proclaim our Blessed Lord Jesus, Whose Truth is the only Way, and by Whose Holy Spirit of Life alone can we give fitting praise and honour to the Father of sublime Mystery and Majesty,  Whose eternal Presence, Glory, and Power, in Mother Church and in our individual and most personal lives, can only be understood as LOVE: heavenly, sacrificial, and eternal.  Amen.