If you are looking at a particular sermon and it is removed it is because it has been updated.

For example Year C 2010 is being replaced week by week with Year C 2013, and so on.

Friday, 13 June 2025

Trinity Sunday Year C, 2025

 

((Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15) 

Our first reading makes clear one most beautiful aspect of our relationship with God: the fact that the wisdom of God – in the Scriptures and Jesus’ ‘Good News’ Gospel -- is not alien to us; in fact, it is delightful for us to learn of and learn from it, and thereby to appreciate and understand ever more of God’s great beauty and goodness manifested in all His works and to be experienced in all His dealings with us: 

Thus says the wisdom of God: When the Lord established the heavens I was there … beside Him as His craftsman.  I was His delight day by day, playing on the surface of His earth, and I found delight in the human race.’ 

There, Wisdom brings about the closest union between God and man, in that God delights in His Wisdom, and His Wisdom delights in us;  and now if we turn to St. John’s Gospel in the New Testament we learn that:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  

Oh, the wonder of God!  The Book of Proverbs, written at least 600 years before Jesus is found to be in such profound harmony with the Gospel of St. John whose words open up for us the marvellous beauty of the wisdom hidden in those Proverbs written to prepare God’s People for the coming of Jesus, so far in advance, so long ago! 

But that is not all, far from it!  Jesus in today’s Gospel reading assures us:

The Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth.  He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.  Everything the Father has is Mine 

It is, as I have just said, delightful for us to learn of and learn from the wisdom of God;  but it is indeed a truly sublime privilege for us to be able to even share in – according to our natural capacity and personal measure – the very life and love that flows between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for:

The Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth 

He will guide us into all the truth that is Jesus’ about His Father and all the truth that is the Father’s about His Son; the Spirit will guide us into all truth, truth that enlightens and truth that inflames, truth that guides and truth that comforts; and in all the stages of our growth and spiritual development the Father will be our Goal, Jesus our Inspiration and Companion, the Spirit our Strength, our Hope, and our Guide .

However, without our hearing and recognizing the Spirit’s call we too easily imitate our forebears and seek for happiness where it cannot be found and should not be sought: in worldly pleasures, in selfishness and pride, greed and lust, of all sorts.

Creation was indeed a joyful work of wisdom and love, and there are bonds of deep compatibility and joyous sympathy between ourselves and the rest of creation because God created the whole universe with mankind as its crown through His Wisdom and His nurturing and hovering Spirit of love:  Son and Spirit, the Father’s two creating hands!   Such bonds with creation, dear People of God, are directly willed by God for our well-being and creation’s greater good, for mankind is the channel of God’s presence to creation and also creation’s voice for the praise and glory of its creator:

Mankind is part of, and open to, the whole of creation as its custodian before God. He is, however, unique in the whole of creation, in that he is made for, and called to, God; to share in God’s own life and blessedness as His true children through faith in Jesus by the power and working of His Spirit:

God created man in His own image; male and female He created them.

Selfishness and pride, greed and lust -- in all and whatever forms -- are directly contrary to man’s well-being.  That is what Our Lord made clear to us when, asked what was the first commandment of all, He answered saying (Matthew 12:29-31): 

‘The Lord our God is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’

There we can appreciate that love of neighbour is associated with and conducive to love of God, whereas selfishness – be it self-love or self-solicitude – is alien to both. Ultimately love of neighbour becomes one with love of God when Jesus Himself is seen as our neighbour ‘par excellence’.

Dear brothers and sisters, we should indeed rejoice and delight in today’s solemn worship of the most Holy Trinity, because of the glory and beatitude of  Divine Life and Love being gradually revealed and most marvellously offered to us, as disciples and members of Jesus in Mother Church.

We thank the Father for calling us to Jesus first of all; we love and admire Him for the wondrous beauty of His truth: for Jesus spoke what He heard with and received from His Father; while the Spirit speaks not of Himself but calls to our minds all that Jesus taught us.  And we should never forget to thank God for His wondrous mercy and grace to us in and through Mother Church and in the secret gifts and sometimes quite personal blessings that keep, inspire, and rejoice each us on our way with Jesus.

We look to Jesus with boundless gratitude for revealing the Father to us; for bestowing the Father’s Promise -- His own most Holy Spirit -- upon Mother Church; and for endowing her with His own most precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist; for His total love for us in His sacrifice of absolute commitment to His Father’s will; and for the Church He founded -- His Body and our Mother -- which treasures and infallibly hands down to all succeeding generations the inspiration of His words of wisdom and love, and lovingly pours out His healing and sustaining grace through her Sacraments of His abiding Presence with us.

We look and listen for the Holy Spirit Whom others can neither see nor hear, but Who is constantly opening our eyes and ears to appreciate and embrace the living memory of Jesus Our Lord.  We humbly await and even tremulously expect Him Whose presence we can never experience with present awareness but Whose condescension and favour we can most gratefully and joyously recall in the secret depths of our hearts, new-born with the life of Jesus for love His and our heavenly Father.

 


Thursday, 5 June 2025

Pentecost Sunday Year C, 2025

 

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

Saint Paul writing to his very mixed congregation – from slaves to ‘nouveau riches’– at the vibrant Greek port of Corinth had to proclaim Jesus’ Good News in the face of social practices and current ideas both full and feisty, which demanded that he should always speak clearly and, when necessary, decisively.  And so, rejecting the idea that anyone could be rightly inspired to curse Jesus – part of the dregs left over from their recent pagan worship of idols -- he then declared:

Brothers and sisters:  No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

Now, those words are wonderful to me, for Jesus had said earlier (John 6:44):

          No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draw him;

and, those two complementary sayings embrace the most sublime and beautiful truth of our sanctification:  no one can come to Jesus and learn from Him unless the Father first of all draws him and the Spirit then enables him to say “Jesus is Lord”; that is, only thanks to the goodness of the Father can we encounter Jesus, and, only in power of the Spirit can we subsequently confess or proclaim Him.

Now, all that is mirrored in Jesus’ very first words to the disciples after having risen from the dead, and while they were still held chained by fear of the Jews:


Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent Me, so I send you … Receive the Holy Spirit.

 

John the Baptist, preparing the way for Jesus, proclaimed in the desert of Judea 

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  (Matthew 3:1)

Likewise Jesus, the Incarnate Lord -- one with the Father and the Spirit -- on beginning His public ministry, took up that very same call to repentance: 


(Jesus) heard that John had been arrested, from that time on (He) began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  (Mt. 4:12, 17) 

How then could He -- the Risen Lord – after having proved the physical reality of His appearance -- Personally identify Himself more convincingly to these His fearful apostles than by speaking of the Father Who had sent Him, and of the Spirit to-be-bestowed on them:


Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent Me, so I send you … Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. 

Thus the Risen Jesus showed Himself – by wounds and words -- to be indeed the Lord and Master they had erstwhile so proudly known and humbly followed.  Truly, there was no room for doubt with such testimony! 

    

I will ask the Father, and He will give you the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.  You know Him, because He abides with you, and He will be in you.  (John 14:15-17) 

In that way the gift of the Spirit was made in the first place for both their personal comforting as individuals committed to Jesus, and for their confidence and courage as a small group of Jews thanking God for His gift of the long-promised Messiah, before becoming distinct from their Jewish compatriots, as founding members of the Christian Church.  There was, above all however, a bestowal of the Spirit for their Apostolic continuation of Jesus’ ministry by their divinely-witnessed proclamation of the Truth and Holiness of His Gospel to and for the whole of mankind:


The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in My name—He will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. (14:25-26)

They had to wait and pray in Jerusalem for a short while before that further gift of the Spirit; praying with Mary the mother of Jesus and lovingly recalling all that He had said and done in their presence, while looking forward in anticipation to where and how the Spirit would lead them in their service of Jesus.  And then, most unexpectedly,


When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.  Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.   And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.  (Acts 2:1-4)

 

Whom, what, did they proclaim?  The mighty acts of God manifested in Jesus’ proclamation of His Good News!  You knew that of course; but notice how they proclaimed Jesus: IN THE SPIRIT!!

Mother Church has never proclaimed Jesus as a mere record from history, her past memory of Him is also her abiding experience of Him as the living Lord and loving Saviour still alive in the minds and hearts of His disciples through His Eucharistic Sacrifice and Presence, thereby enabling them to recognize and co-operate with the formation of His Body on earth -- His Church -- by the Father’s Gift of His own Most Holy Spirit.  What exaltation must have thrilled the hearts and minds of the Apostles when the Spirit came upon them before the gathered Church for the very first time!

 

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.  At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? What does this mean?”   (Acts 2:5-12)

 

Today, heart-felt thanks should fill our hearts and minds as we try to appreciate that the Gift of the Holy Spirit is ours in a truly special way on this a most holy day in Mother Church, for the Spirit is given that each and all of us might come to personally know and intimately love Jesus and thus give authentic witness to Him as living Catholics. 

In our fulfilment of that most glorious privilege, calling, and duty, however, we must ever be on our guard lest we confuse our desire to share or witness to the Gift given us of God’s most Holy Spirit of Wisdom, Truth and Love, with any insidious temptation to self-exaltation; by avoiding personal emotions and imaginations that would witness not so much to deep Gospel peace as to a surrender to the modern clamour for and delight in surface (and too often sexual) excitement and exultation.

There is -- as the Apostles were to find -- comfort in the Spirit, for He it is Who alone can conform us to the likeness of Jesus; and what deeper comfort and joy can there be,  than that of becoming more and more one with Jesus the Perfect God and Perfect Man?  There is also power, purpose and commitment for us in the Spirit; for we are beings with potentialities able to respond to and conspire with such power.  Our hopes and aspirations likewise find supremely fulfilling purpose and commitment as the Spirit opens up before us all that God has prepared for those who love and serve Him in Jesus, on earth as well as in heaven still to come:

 

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.  To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. 

 

There is so much on offer for all who want to walk with Jesus and become true adopted disciples of His and children of our heavenly Father! This day of Pentecost is indeed like the freshly appearing beauty and joy of springtime-renewal of the world around us, after winter’s icy grasp is loosened by an invisible breathing offering life and promising hope.

Dear People of God, the Holy Spirit, today’s great and glorious Gift, is the Spirit of Wisdom, Love, and Truth; so in us, individually; so with us as a group; and so totally for us, individually and all together!!  Oh, He is beautiful and holy beyond any words I can conceive.  Happy and holy Feast!!

Friday, 30 May 2025

7th Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 7:55-60; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20; John 17:20-26) 

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we were given a picture of the fanaticism which can so easily surface in fallen humankind, for the murder of Stephen was the work of religious fanaticism of which we see some atrocious examples today, in supposedly civilized Pakistan for example.    There are, of course, all sorts of fanaticism: other prominent types today being football fanaticism, pop and rock fanaticism, and the animal rights brand.  Fanaticism is close to hand for fallen mankind, because human nature was made for God, not for itself; man was made to love and serve, know and obey, that is, identify himself with, God, and ultimately to share in His eternal beatitude; and so, fallen men and women are inclined to give themselves in varying degrees, not indeed to God, but to their own prejudices, or to someone, something,  such as a super-star, a football team, or to a violent crusade for dumb animals etc.; Giving themselves to what is not God  the God-given impulse to religious devotion is thereby progressively changed, twisted, poisoned and corrupted, into various types of fanaticism, each of which tries to offer pseudo-fulfilment through the excitement of belonging to a group of similarly motivated enthusiasts, or to the far more dangerous self-exaltation which finds satisfaction in rejection or hatred of what is not self-originated or self-promoting.

Let us now look a little closer at the religious fanaticism shown in the first reading and compare it with the teaching of both the second reading and the Gospel:

All who sat in the council, cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

The present attention of those in the council was fixed on their enemy, Stephen, and at the back of their minds was the insistent problem of their own status with regard to the Roman overlords; they were most certainly not responding to the God they professed to represent.  The words of Stephen should have been answered, if indeed they were defenders of the Law; but, in order to answer they would have had, first of all, to listen to Stephen’s words, and that was something they were not prepared to envisage let alone do:

They cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord.

In so doing, they were in fact giving vent to, satisfying, their own feelings of anger, apprehension and even fear, not defending the Law of the Lord their God.

Human passions are no guide to God’s will: human anger does not serve divine justice nor can human sentimentality transmit God’s goodness; and yet, emotions are part and parcel of our human nature, they are necessary for human actions, above all for human love and divine charity:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. (Mark 12:30)

However, such emotions need to follow the lead of, keep in tune with, a mind guided by faith in Jesus, and able, by the grace of His Spirit, to look at the situation as a whole, not to indulge a mind that is exclusive in its focus because of the weakness of its grasp.  Human emotions should neither be stoked up by prejudice nor smothered by fearful self-interest.

If we now turn to the second reading, we can see how the Christian is called not only to look to Christ, but also urged to long for, pray for, His coming:

I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."  And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Christian, therefore, can only be a truly living member of the Church (the bride) to the extent that, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, he or she is steadfastly looking and longing for Jesus.   Our Blessed Lord became ‘man’ in order that He might love His Father in human flesh, to give back to mankind’s supremely loving Creator the love mankind itself, and even the Chosen People, had so long refused to give Him.  Jesus’ whole purpose was and is to love His Father in our human flesh to the very utmost of His human being which includes  -- thanks to the indwelling power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit --  His own rejection by the Chosen People and His Roman crucifixion.

And  there, dear  People of God,  lies the true beauty and glory of our vocation as disciples of Jesus, when we long and pray for the Holy Spirit to draw us ever more with Jesus into loving the Father: for there we are becoming children again, but now children of God. following the Way of Jesus under the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit, the Bond of Infinite Love uniting and issuing from both Father and Son in ‘love beyond all telling’.

Thursday, 15 May 2025

5th Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 14:21-27; Rev. 21:1-5; John 13:31-35) 

Jesus the Christ was, as you well know and firmly believe, Son of God and Son of Man. As the Son, the Word of God, He shared with His Father and the Holy Spirit in the original creation when God made all things; and that is why -- now that all things are in the process of being made new – the Son become Incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, having been crucified in His flesh and, by the power of the Spirit, raised from the dead, now appeared to His Apostles locked in the Upper Room for fear of the Jews and breathed His Spirit upon them.   His breathing upon them was precisely the sign of a new creation being made. Just as God had breathed on the original creation (Genesis 2:7):


The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 

Likewise Jesus, appearing in the midst of His disciples and having shown them the wounds in His hands and His side, said to them (John 20:19-22):


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, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”

 

God is making all things new, and Jesus, the Risen Lord, divinely glorious in His risen humanity, shares in His Father’s work by breathing the Holy Spirit upon His Apostles, thereby making them into the nucleus of that new creation where sin is to be overthrown by the cleansing and empowering presence of God's Holy Spirit.  A new creation indeed: the Family of God, MOTHER CHURCH, work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, where God bestows new life-in-Jesus, and where Jesus calls upon His disciples to love one another by the Spirit He bestows on them, just as He, Jesus, loved those to whom His Father had sent Him.

LIFE and LOVE!  That is what fellowship with Jesus is all about! LIFE and LOVE, sustained in and inspired by  the Eucharist, that is what Christianity is all about here on earth.

Our closest bond is, humanly speaking, flesh and blood, and God’s new creation is not alien to, or at variance with, deep-rooted natural human awareness.  That bond, however, is made supernatural and becomes capable of sustaining eternal life and love’s ultimate commitment, by our partaking of and sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ!  In Jesus our Lord, Who gave Himself for us and offers Himself to us as food for eternal life, we are made uniquely and supremely one as adopted Children of God: family in Jesus of Him Who is pleased to be our Father.  It is not human family, not shared sufferings, most certainly not racial superiority or hatreds, that can unite us, but only and exclusively our being one with and in Jesus -- the supreme, divine, reality in the whole of God's creation -- by the Spirit, for the Father, and for His plan and purpose to make ‘all things new’.

Dear People of God, the liturgical Sacrifice of the Eucharist and our personal, sacramental, reception of and commitment to the fruit of that sacrifice, is the supreme sign of our saving oneness with Jesus, the supreme seal of our filial embracing of the Father’s good-will for  His adopted children, and the bonding of our human togetherness in mutual reverence and rejoicing.    Treasure your Mass and pray with confidence for Mother Church and our new Pope Leo.

Friday, 9 May 2025

4th Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 13:14, 43b-52; Revelation 7:9, 13a, 14b-17; John 10:27-30) 

From the book of Revelation we heard:

I John had a vision of a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches.

That puzzled John the seer, and he was told:

These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

That was in accordance with Jesus' own words to Nicodemus:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)

Multiform cleansing is one of the main purposes to which we dedicate our use of water.  Those, however, who come out of the great tribulation of which the seer speaks, have washed their robes with the only cleansing agent able to wash away the stains of human sin, that is, the Blood of the Lamb; for it is that Precious Blood, poured out for us, which alone gives the power for supernatural cleansing to the baptismal waters of the Church.  As Jesus said:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

People of God: it is a fact of Catholic spiritual awareness that the sacraments of Mother Church are to be regarded as the fruit of the outpouring of Jesus' Blood. 

Far too many parents through succeeding generations have had only tenuous catholic connections; they had their children baptized merely to satisfy their own parents, or, at best, to gratify their own pseudo-conscience ("I would like to have my kids done … then I will feel I have done my best for them"), without having any real intention of bringing up their child in the ways of Jesus according to Mother Church's teaching.  They understand baptism only as ceremonial, where mere water is poured over the child's head, whilst a few words are said, and then all is over and done with.  There was no reverence for the sacrament; no awareness that the water poured out is water empowered by the shedding of Jesus' blood, water which -- as the seer tells us -- enables those dedicated to Jesus to: 

Wash their (souls) and make them spotless in the blood of the Lamb. 

And today we see the full circle turned and renegade Catholics not only disregard the Sacraments but they disregard even Mother Church herself. 

We, however, who have celebrated the love, compassion, power and beauty of the Passion and Resurrection of our Blessed Lord Jesus, must use all bonds of kith and kin, and prayer, to help those missing from our community out of their death lapse of worldly peace – at one with everybody else in worldly pleasures, appearing to enjoy a conscience-less life, forgetful of any and all consequences. … for we have hope for beautiful, good, and holy things to come when the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be Shepherd of those He has brought into the Father’s presence and He will lead them to springs of living water. Yes, Jesus, Our Lord, will be there -- with us and for us -- as Our Shepherd, our Leader, our Glory; and He will lead us along the heavenly paths of eternal life, so that, with Him, all that is truly human in us, far from being smothered or denied, will be glorified as He, our Lord and our Brother, is most fully and beautifully glorified in His sacred humanity.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Who can fittingly speak of the intimacy and tenderness of God the Father's relationship with each and every one of His children redeemed by the blood of His Only Begotten and most Beloved Son?

Now, that life -- Mother Church teaches -- begins here on earth for Jesus' true disciples, but its heavenly fulfilment can only be attained by those who have passed through tribulations of varying degrees chosen by God in His Fatherly goodness to cement their union with Jesus in sincerity, depth, and trust.

These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Friday, 2 May 2025

3rd Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19) 

There are scholars who see in Jesus’ three-fold questioning of Peter a then recognized Oriental social procedure -- used before witnesses -- when conferring and confirming a ‘legal’ right -- that is, one socially approved and fully binding, on someone other:

            Feed My lambs; tend My sheep; feed My sheep

Therefore, we most probably have here a remarkable instance of Jesus’ great and most compassionate wisdom: He wipes out the memory – in Peter’s own mind and in the minds of the other apostles – of Peter’s moment of weakness and shame and -- and at the same time -- quite dramatically and most emphatically establishes him as head of His nascent Church in accordance with His Father’s manifest will.

There are also revealing words of Jesus relating to Peter’s future crucifixion:

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

At this juncture, we should recognize that there is no question of Jesus implying that Peter would refuse to face up to his future crucifixion, only that Peter would not want to go; and, in that regard, we should recall that John tells us that:

Jesus said this signifying by what kind of death he (Peter) WOULD GLORIFY GOD.

Peter was a most wonderful disciple of Jesus and he had come to find no difficulty in acknowledging, admitting, his own nothingness: of himself, he would not want to go on that journey to his crucifixion because he did not love as Jesus – his Lord and Saviour alone could love.  However, he most fully trusted in Jesus that He could, and would, draw Peter after Himself, and that He would help him, Peter, to humbly follow where Jesus his Lord alone could lead.  

Dear People of God, let us most seriously pray for the simplicity of heart to admire Peter’s example; but, above all, at this juncture in time, let us pray for the Gift of a new Peter to guide Mother Church in witnessing and clinging fast to the divine Truth and heavenly Beauty of Jesus’ teaching, by walking ever more closely in the way of His commandments and following ever more joyfully the inspiration of His own most precious example in giving praise,  honour, gratitude and thanksgiving, to God the Father of us all.

Friday, 25 April 2025

2nd Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35; 1st. John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31) 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Faith invites us to become CHILDREN OF GOD.   That is the essence of Faith: a childlike trust in, love for, GOD-OUR-FATHER.  There are distinctive overtones with the Persons of the Word, and of the Holy Spirit, but these are always consonant with and expressive of that basic childlike awareness and response to God-our-Father. Catholic and Christian Faith can never be understood, interpreted, correctly if that foundational childlike awareness, and response to, the Father is disturbed, disorientated or threatened.

Peter wrote in his first letter (1:8):

Though you have not seen (Jesus), you love Him.  Though you do not now see Him now, you believe in Him;

And with such faith and love we do well, for Jesus came among us, was sent to us, for one, supreme purpose: to free the Israel of God, not just from servitude to their Egyptian overlords as brought about through Moses, or from their servitude to sin as initiated by Moses and the prophets, but in order that God’s saving plan to free the whole of mankind from its universal servitude to SIN, might be brought about through God’s still-Chosen People under its intended leader: Jesus the Christ of God and son of Mary of Nazareth, sent to proclaim:

Repent and believe the Good News I bring.

That is why, dear People of God, after Israel rejected Him as their leader, Jesus, our Risen Lord and Saviour, now equips His Church to serve His Holy Spirit, and bring to fulfilment the Father’s purpose of salvation from sin and death for all men and women of good will.

Our readings today show us who, as Christians and Catholics, we should love,

The community of believers was of one heart and mind.

Everyone one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God; and every one who loves the Father, loves also the one begotten by Him;

And in that oneness of mind and heart -- learning from Jesus to love the Father -- they hated the ‘sin of the world’:

Whoever is begotten by God conquers the world; and the victory that conquers the world is our faith.

Sin’, that only God can truly heal, is now, in our deliriously proud and self-centred world, rejected in favour of ‘sickness’ which can be cured by human means.  Mankind today seeks, in that way, to take on God’s work: people do so want both self-approbation and the admiration of others, that they are willing to reject as icy-cold God’s long-term commands, and loll about on the sunlit beach of immediate self-satisfaction and general approbation, anticipating the presumed success of popular treatment for what is totally beyond their spiritually ken.  And of course, all that takes place with the inevitable result that sickness and death continue to reign in ever more degrading disguises, causing ever more unimaginable pain.

However, the words of St. Peter do not speak only of faith which does not yet see, because he continues:    

Even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious

God’s faithful are already being enriched with blessings still to come; we who believe, can experience -- that is, here and now -- what Peter calls “an inexpressible and glorious joy” in the practice of our faith.  In other words, in faith, we can already experience here on earth  some measure of the joy of divinely P/personal love.  In the words of St. John of the Cross: try to put love -- your personal heart and mind’s intention -- into your practice of the faith, and you will find love: you  will experience a personal relationship with God of “inexpressible and glorious joy”.  Let me give you an example.

At the Easter Vigil we heard the story of our father Abraham journeying with his son Isaac to a place the Lord would show them where Abraham was to sacrifice his beloved son to the Lord as he had been told to do.  You can imagine the deep grief and deadening sorrow in Abraham’s heart as he walked along with his son by his side who was asking him; “Father, I am carrying the wood for the sacrifice, but where is the victim to be sacrificed on the wood?”  Now Isaac, the son to be offered in sacrifice, was a figure of Jesus whom the heavenly Father would send to offer Himself for us in sacrifice on Calvary.  Abraham,  was he, somehow, a figure of the Father in heaven?  Indeed, he was!

Think of the joy, then, dear People of God, of our heavenly Father this Easter on receiving back His beloved Son, glorious in His Easter rising.  And then realize what joy YOU can give to the Father by offering your participation in today’s Mass -- most especially when receiving Holy Communion -- by offering Jesus back, glorified, to His Father; to be at His Father’s right hand for ever in heaven.  Try to delight in giving such joy to your heavenly Father, by doing what only you can do: personally offering Jesus back to His Father here in this Mass -- in your Holy Communion above all -- and you will begin to experience something of that “inexpressible and glorious joy” of which Peter spoke.

People of God, there are two aspects to our faith: obedience and joy, the one protects us and the other delights us.  God wants to receive the one and give us the other because obedience is meant by Him to lead to a personal relationship of total fulfilment for us.  Indeed, ultimately it will lead to a Personal relationship in Jesus with the Father that will be overflowing with fulfilment for us in the Holy Spirit.  That is already beginning to take place if we live our faith with personal commitment and love, and that is why Peter says today:

Even though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Easter Sunday, 2025

 

(Acts 10:34, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; Saint John’s Gospel 20:1-9) 

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, on this glorious day let us look at one verse in our Gospel passage which speaks volumes about our Risen Lord.

You heard how John and Peter ran to the tomb and how John glanced inside and saw that there was no corpse there:

Stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths there but he did not go in.

Next Peter came up and, characteristically, went straight into the empty tomb and, we are told:

He saw the linen cloths there, and the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

Now Peter, an older, and much more experienced and emotionally-developed man than John, was the disciple who loved Jesus most, which explains his immediate entrance into the tomb.  What he saw caused him thoughts so intensely personal that he did not open his mouth to chat with, indeed not even to comment to, his younger companion, fellow-disciple though he was; no, Peter just slowly left the tomb and walked away quietly, lost in deep, absorbing, thought: not about where Jesus might be at that moment, not about how, in what manner, had He risen to life again and left the tomb, those facts were ‘un-knowables.  But, what was much more immediately intriguing for Peter (earthly head of the new-born Church) was why had his Lord so deliberately folded the face-cloth which had been placed around His head to preserve His dignity – even though that of a corpse -- by preventing His jaw from sagging in death?  Why had Jesus so lovingly rolled up what He had just so decisively removed from His head? This commanded Peter’s attention, because it determined Peter’s future role in Jesus’ Church.

Jesus had, by that simple, as it were 'personal toilet' act, deliberately intended to show that His mouth was free in order that His disciples could be absolutely certain about the fact that He was now able to continue, and bring to fulfilment, His mission of proclaiming the truth for which His Father had sent Him as Man on earth to save mankind.

Jesus had, at His trial, told Pilate (John 18:37):

For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.

Never again would He be silenced; and His so lovingly detaching and deliberately folding the face-cloth from His head and mouth was His first symbolic-statement on rising from the dead, that His faithful disciples, throughout the ages, would continue to proclaim HIS truth, under the guidance and protection of HIS Spirit, to all mankind, in and through His Church! 

Be sure of this, dear People of God, there can be bad popes, infamous clerical figure-heads – bishops, priests, religious, scholars, able to write best-selling books or address crowds of followers – yet, despite all such possible dangers to Jesus’ Church, JESUS’ RISING, and  His deliberately final gesture -- taking-off and carefully folding the head cloth -- signified ‘to all who are of the truth’ that His mouth is now perennially free to proclaim both His saving truth for all sinners, and His beatific truth about His heavenly Father, in Mother  Church; a glorious work that He does by His most Holy Spirit of Truth and Love, sacramentally one with all who love, and live for, Him Who was sent, by His Father for their salvation.

Wednesday, 9 April 2025

Palm Sunday Year C, 2025

 

(Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14 – 23:56) 

We are gathered together here in solemn preparation for the Easter Passover of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ and, on hearing St. Luke’s account of our Lord’s Passion and Death we have been struck by the horror of His sufferings and by His wondrously patient endurance.  Embracing the Cross, on the left hand by His total commitment to us and, on the right hand by His absolute trust in and love for His Father, He was, ultimately Himself, resting in the peace and joy of total fulfilment as our Redeemer, and as the lovingly obedient, only-begotten, Son of the heavenly Father.

We need to be clear in our minds about the difference between emotion and devotion, for they are not the same, nor are they necessarily found together.  Emotions express and affect our natural feelings, whereas devotion is the sign and measure of our supernatural commitment; moreover, our emotions are largely instinctive and self-centred whereas devotion is subject to our will and centred on God.  Devotion benefits greatly when backed-up by the appropriate ‘power’ of emotions; however, devotion is not necessarily diminished by the absence of emotions; indeed, devotion can be at its greatest when deprived of them.  Emotion, alone, is of no worth, its function is to assist what is more worthy than itself; devotion, on the other hand, is always solely and supremely commendable before God

Dear People of God, we are sinners and God alone is holy.  All the good we have, or can have, is His gift to us.  Therefore, we must never be surprised at our own possible weariness, dryness, or lack of emotional feelings, even on occasions like today, for that is a true  picture of us, for we are, of ourselves, barren and fruitless.

As Catholic Christians, however, our attention and expectations are centred on God.  He is good, and He has given His own Son to save us from our sinfulness.  What we have to try to do is what the Suffering Servant, in the first reading, shows us:

Morning by morning He, the lord God, awakens; He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, I turned not backwards.

Jesus, that is, woke up prepared to accept whatever His Father–of–Infinite-Wisdom–and-Love has planned for Him.   That seems simple enough for even us to understand, and beautiful enough for even us to imagine we would love to be able to accomplish it.  But oh! It is a course  that could and can only be lived out by One who was -- for love of His Father and for us -- totally self-less, patient beyond all measure, utterly committed to His calling as one sent by His Father, ONE  WHO NEVER EVER GRUMBLED against what His Father, in His infinite wisdom, knowledge, and love would or might ever, ever, ask of Him.

And that, indeed, is what we are, in fact, doing here today: we have put ourselves in Jesus’ way, waiting and listening in case He might possibly turn His gaze to see us and speak to us as He did to blind Bartimaeus, or even come to dwell a little with us as He did in the case of Zacchaeus.

However, we do most directly and earnestly beseech Him that whatever He does, He might lead us,  by His indwelling (thanks to Mother Church and Holy Mass) most Holy  Spirit, to greater and more sincere, more self-sacrificing, love for the heavenly Father, and thereby make us more worthy disciples of such a sublime Son Who put on human flesh that He might -- in our flesh and for us -- love the Father Who originally created our flesh as an expression of the divine goodness, bounty and beauty, of its Creator.