Homilies

Here you can read and revisit the latest sermons from our Deacon Richard :

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER [B]

Acts 4: 8 – 12          1 John 3: 1 – 2               John 10: 11 – 18
It seems to me that those in our country who try to influence how we think and live try, by subtle, and not so subtle means, to convince us that religion is irrelevant.
Although, having said that, it seems that it’s OK to believe in esoteric Eastern religions or philosophies, or the latest ‘spiritual’ technique.
But, if a Christian dares to say of Jesus, as Peter does in Acts: “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” Acts 4: 12 there’s shock, horror, and outrage.
However, it was ever thus…. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1: 9
Just so with Peter and John in Acts who are hauled before the authorities for proclaiming: “That through Jesus there is the resurrection from the dead.” Acts 4: 2
The people in authority were running scared because, in this short time since Pentecost, over 5000 people had put their faith in Jesus: “The good shepherd [who] sacrifices his life for [His] sheep.” Jn. 10: 11
If we had that number of people flocking to this church every Sunday, we’d have to knock it down, and build something huge to accommodate them!
I think there’s the assumption among lots of Christians that those things happened in New Testament times, but not now.
But I can tell you from my association with Missio, the Church’s official missionary organisation, that the life experienced in the New Testament Church is alive, and flourishing in the Catholic Church today in many other parts of the world.
It’s a happening because people are hungering and thirsting to hear that: “There is salvation in no one else [but Jesus.] Acts. 4: 12
You may well disagree with that, and be uncomfortable with the idea of salvation in no one else, other than Jesus.
Yet this is what Jesus wants; for everyone to find salvation in Him, not just the chosen few.
But how can people who don’t know Jesus; who’ve never really heard the truth about Him, be blamed if they don’t know about salvation in His name?
They can’t: but we, His Church, can if we don’t tell them about Jesus, and what He’s done for me – for us.
How He’s liberated us from sin and death’s destructive power by dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead to give us eternal life.
But do we know that in our heart of hearts? Do we feel called to know Jesus more deeply?
If we don’t, perhaps today is the day to ask the Lord to change our hearts so that we can be drawn ever more closely to Him.
A changed heart – mine and yours – can convince people of the gentle power of Jesus.
If He can take me, with all my faults, my weaknesses, my failings, and still use me to attract others to Him, then He is indeed alive, and is the Lord.
“Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke to them.” Acts 4: 8
That’s the key to unlocking our hearts: like Peter, to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus.
For Peter, Jesus wasn’t just an abstract idea, a fading memory, one religious teacher among many.
No. He filled Peter’s life. He was Peter’s friend. He is the one in whom: “There is salvation.” Acts 4: 12
And this salvation isn’t exclusive: the Saviour of the world was lifted up on the Cross: “So that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.” Jn. 3: 15
The important word there is believe: but who can believe in Jesus unless someone tells them about Him?
Our vocation as people who have been called, and believe in Jesus, is to tell others about salvation in Him so that they too will come to believe.
Each Christian, then, is called to know Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
“They will listen to my voice.” Jn. 10: 16 Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says in the Gospel.
Only when we’ve come to know Him will we listen attentively to Him to hear where He wants to lead us.
The Lord could call us to serve Him in any number of walks of life; and that’s the exciting thing about being a Christian.
My vocation is to the Ordained Ministry; and within that vocation, the other vocations of marriage.
“God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.” Eph. 2: 4 – 5
I have that trust in Jesus, which means I enjoy being a Christian, and a Deacon; but that doesn’t mean my life is a breeze.
To be an Ordained Minister is not an escape from the harsh realities of this world; we meet an awful lot of them in our vocation!
Yet I couldn’t carry on being a Christian, and a Deacon,
if I didn’t know that Jesus is my Good Shepherd, who laid, down His life for me; who protects me, and loves me with an unfailing love.
Whoever we are; be it Pope, Bishop, Priest or Deacon, our primary call – in company with all of you- is to follow Jesus, our Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for us.
“Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church, and in Jesus Christ, for ever and ever. Amen.” Eph. 3: 20 - 21

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER [B]

Last week, on Holy Saturday evening at the Easter Vigil, hundreds of thousands of people around the world experienced the beginning of the resurrection to eternal life.
They were Baptised into Jesus: submerged under the waters of Baptism, to rise as new people – born again of water, and the Holy Spirit.
They celebrated for the first time, what we’ve celebrated for as many years as we’ve been a Christian: the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead.
Think about it for a moment…. What an amazing thing to believe – to know to be the absolute truth.
But, maybe for us, the wonder of it all has been lost because we’ve let it become submerged in us by the cares of this world.
This Jesus, whom Mary, His Mother, and John, the ‘Beloved Disciple,’ had seen die a horrible death on the Cross.
Not only was He: “Raised to life in the spirit.” 1 Pt. 3: 18 but also raised with a real Resurrection body: and He appeared to people bodily.
To Peter who had denied Him; to Mary Magdalene as she wept by His empty tomb; to Thomas who doubted that He’d risen from the dead.
The first Easter was indeed a roller coaster ride of a day for the Disciples.
It started with disbelief; with fear, trembling, and bewilderment beside the empty tomb.
On the evening of that first Easter, the Disciples had locked themselves away because they were afraid.
Peter and John had seen the empty tomb, and believed.  Mary Magdalene had seen the risen Jesus and: “Went to the disciples with the news, ‘I have seen the Lord!’” Jn. 20: 19
And yet, the Disciples were scared: they were afraid, because they didn’t want to end up on a cross for being followers of Jesus.
They believed the Lord had risen, although they could hardly comprehend it: and, I guess, they were also afraid, and feeling guilty because they hadn’t stayed with Him to the bitter end of the Cross.
How wrong they were. How wrong we are in thinking that God wants us to be afraid of Him, because He: “Is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,  that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.” Eph. 2: 4 – 5  
At the Last Supper, Jesus had said to His Disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Jn. 14: 27
Here He is to fulfil that promise. He stands among them, and says: “‘Peace be with you!’ and showed them his hands and his side.” Jn. 20: 19 – 20
Each one of us longs for peace: peace for ourselves, and peace in the world.
But the peace the world gives is only the absence of conflict, or war.
The peace, which Jesus offers, is real, and everlasting.
Jesus, by giving His peace to the disciples; in breathing His Spirit into them, is making real, and present to them, the effects of the salvation He has bought for them with His life.
He redeemed them through His blood, shed on the Cross, and has flooded them with His mercy.
And, He shows them the depths of His mercy by showing them His hands, and His side.
And when they realise all of this, John says that they: “Were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” Jn. 20: 20 
Thomas wasn’t with them on that occasion; perhaps he was so upset, and overcome with grief he had to be by himself.
But a week later Jesus stands among them again, and Thomas is there this time.
Again, He gives them His peace, and shows Thomas His hands and His side.
But, perhaps because Thomas had been so grief-stricken, Jesus goes a step further by inviting him to touch the wounds in His hands, and His side.
Look, I did this for you. I understand you’re weak, and fearful: but you’re still my friend. Come, follow me again.
Then Thomas blurts out his belief in Jesus: “My Lord and my God.” Jn. 20: 28
The whole purpose of John’s Gospel is to call everyone to: “Come and see.” Jn. 1: 39 Jesus, just as Thomas did: “And that by believing you may have life in his name.” Jn. 20: 31
And that invitation to: “Come and see.” has echoed down the centuries, through the Lord’s Church – founded on the Apostles – to us here, today.
And yet, we haven’t seen the Lord in the same way that Thomas, John, and the other Disciples saw Him.
But Jesus speaks directly to us when He says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Jn. 20: 29
So, if the Lord is true to His word – which He always is – we’ve seen Him in the same way, yet differently, to the Disciples.
Of course, we can’t put our hands into the wounds of the Lord’s Passion as Thomas was able to.
And yet, in a sense, we’re more graced than Thomas was, because we’re able to receive Jesus interiorly into our lives through the Real Presence of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, His voice speaking to us through Scripture, and His guidance through the Holy Spirit working in His Body, the Church.
So: “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” Rm. 8: 31 – 32
The Risen Jesus wants to walk through the doors of our closed hearts, giving us the power to live as He wants us to live.
As bearers of His light: as bestowers of His grace: as givers of His love, life, and mercy.
We don’t have to be afraid anymore of saying we follow Jesus because, as John told the Christians of his day: “Every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 Jn. 5: 1 – 5

EASTER VIGIL 2012

“Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, so they laid Jesus there.” Jn. 19: 41 – 43   
Six weeks ago we began Lent in the wilderness with Jesus, where He was: “Tempted by Satan.”
Mk. 1: 13
Now, He has brought us through the bitter-sweet wilderness, which this world has become, into a garden: the Garden of the Resurrection.
However, before reaching the Garden of the Resurrection, Jesus had to enter another garden; the Garden of Gethsemane.
There, like Adam in another Garden, Jesus, the New Adam, faced the ultimate temptation by Satan; to turn away from the Cross, and not to trust His Father to be there for Him; to raise Him up in His: “Everlasting arms.” Dt. 33: 27 
For, as Paul says: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”
1 Cor. 15: 17 and we would be frozen forever in a spiritual winter-time.
Our fall from our original state of grace as God’s: “Work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as, from the beginning he meant us to live it.” Eph. 2: 10 began in a garden too: the Garden of Eden.
Using figurative, allegorical language, the account of the Creation and Fall in the Book of Genesis is not a scientific text telling us how everything was created.
The sort of language used in the Creation account we heard at the beginning of this Vigil is the only type that can reveal the true mystery of the Universe to us.
The truth, which is far, far deeper than any purely scientific explanation can take us: it’s telling us the ‘why’ of creation, and about the ‘Who,’ which created it.
At some point in the primeval history of humankind, we enjoyed a loving relationship with the God who created us.
So loving and trustful that it was like walking with the Lord God in a beautiful garden when: “The cool evening breezes were blowing.” Gen. 3: 8
But, into that garden there slithered: “That ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.” Rev. 12: 9
And, from that moment on, men and women no longer enjoyed that intimate relationship with God: Paradise had been lost.
The beautiful Creation, which God had created, and: “Found it very good.” Gen. 1: 31 developed the cancer of sin, suffering, and death.
The rest, as they say, is history
But we must not ignore the great truths the Holy Spirit teaches us, through the Genesis Creation account, about the ‘why’ of our lives in the here and now.
To say it’s all myth; to say it’s all been explained away by science; to say that Satan is a figment of the imagination – a throwback from an unenlightened past – is to fall into the very trap Satan wants us to fall into.
Let’s remember that Jesus took the existence of Satan very seriously; both in His temptation in the wilderness, and in the Garden of Gethsemane.
So we must believe in Satan, but we must never lose hold of the fact that Jesus, as I just sang in the Exsultet: “Paid Adam’s debt to the eternal Father, and, pouring out His own dear Blood, wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.”
Our Creation began in a Garden.
Our Fall happened in a Garden, and, because of that: “We were dead because of our disobedience and our many sins; obeying the Devil – the commander of the powers in the unseen world.” Eph. 2: 1 – 2   
But our recreation, and resurrection has begun in another Garden; the Garden of the Resurrection.
That was the morning that death was killed. And: “Things were never the same again after the morning that death was killed.” Steve Turner: The Morning That Death Was Killed
Because, as Paul told the Christians in Ephesus: “God who is so rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our sin, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him.” Eph. 2: 4 – 6   
That’s the eternal destiny for all who love the Lord; and it begins now in this, the Eucharist: to those: “Called to the supper of the Lamb.” The Roman Missal: Communion Rite
Yes, we’re still going to die physically, until Jesus returns to wrap up time and create a new heaven and a new earth; but we’re not going to die spiritually – to experience the death of the soul – if we follow Jesus through the open door of His Empty Tomb.
And how do we begin to experience this? The answer is there in the reading from Romans about Baptism.
Whether one is Baptised as a child or an adult, the effect is the same.
“When we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death.” Rm. 6: 3
Jesus takes us to His Cross, and, in Him, our old sinful nature is put to death: the Old Adam dies in the New Adam.
“For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.” Rm. 6: 4
The waters of Baptism engulf us, and we go, with Jesus: “Into a place that was dark.”
Steve Turner: The Morning That Death Was Killed
We go into the Tomb with Jesus.
“And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.  Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.” Rm. 6: 4 – 5
So we can, as it were, hear the stone being rolled away from the Tomb of our hearts in our Baptism: we’re: “Born anew.” Jn. 3: 7
That’s why, after being Baptised, a new white garment is put on the person who has just been made new through the waters of Baptism.
It signifies symbolically what has actually happened to that person; and it brings to life before our eyes of faith what Paul says about Baptism in Romans.
“We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”
Rm. 6: 6, 8 – 9
Now, as we move into that part of the Vigil where we reaffirm our own Baptism – and as we do at every Sunday Eucharist in the Creed – let’s do so with faith, hope, and conviction.
“For in this hope we were saved.” Rm. 8: 24
Knowing that: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Heb. 11: 1
So that, as we come to profess our faith once again, we can make these words of Paul our own: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2: 20

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT [B]

If you’ve walked to the end of Broad Street recently to its junction with Parks Road, you’ll no doubt have seen a giant crane ripping the heart out of the New Bodleian Library where I used to work.
It’s being completely reconfigured and, when it reopens in 2014, will no longer be the New Bodleian, but the Weston Library: named after Garfield Weston of Weston’s Wagon Wheels biscuits fame, who gave £25 million towards the work!
To brighten up my office at the Bodleian, which was underground, and a converted store cupboard, I used to put up funny cards, and posters.
My staff also gave them to me; and I always remember one of Gypsy Rose Lee, discreetly covering her modesty with ostrich feathers.
Now, those of you of a certain age will remember what she used to do: those who are younger, Google her.
To be serious, though, what actually drew my attention to the card was the quote below the picture attributed to Gypsy Rose Lee: “God is love, but get it in writing.”
That’s a very witty saying, and I like witty sayings; but it’s also extremely sad because it reveals someone who didn’t trust love.
A woman who’d been deeply hurt: a woman who hadn’t been given true love by anyone, so she thought God’s love wasn’t something to be trusted either. 
Today, we have signs of the Lord’s love, and we do have it in writing in the readings from Scripture.
Now that’s quite plain from Paul’s Letter, and the Gospel; but the Old Testament reading, surely not?
There, the Lord’s Chosen People: “Kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.” 2 Chron. 36: 16 Then the army of the superpower of its age, the Babylonians, invaded; destroyed the Temple, slaughtered many people, and took the remnant into enslavement in Babylon. [Iraq]
There they stayed for seventy years until Cyrus King of Persia [Iran] came to power, and crushed the Babylonians.
And Scripture says: “The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus King of Persia.” 2 Chron. 36: 22
This pagan king’s heart responded to God’s call, and he returned God’s People to their homeland to rebuild their Temple.
Our actions always have a consequence; and the God we believe in isn’t just a cuddly ‘Teddy Bear God.’
He hates sin, but not the sinner; and sometimes the actions He takes to bring us to repentance seem far removed from that of a ‘Teddy Bear God.’
I’m not saying we should return to the old-style fire and brimstone theology.
It only succeeded in frightening people, and not bringing them into a living friendship with Jesus
What we must do is to steer a safe course between the cuddly ‘Teddy Bear God,’ and the ‘Fire and Brimstone God.’
What we must do is to recognise God is holy, and anything that isn’t can’t exist alongside Him.
This is where we are in the Old Testament reading for today.
The consequences of their actions – their sin – set off a train of events that ended in disaster for them.
They wouldn’t be faithful to the Lord their God.
Our actions always have a consequence……
The Old Testament, with all its violence, corruption, and humanity at its worst, is in essence a love story between God, and His people.
The Lord wants nothing more, or less, than for us to be faithful to Him: to love Him with all our hearts and souls. See Dt. 10: 12
He’ll go to any lengths – cajoling, wooing, disciplining – to win us back.
In the end, none of that appeared to have worked; and that’s where we leave the people of the Old Testament: still waiting in hope to be saved.
Waiting for the promise the Lord gave them in the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament to come to pass: “For you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings, and you will go free.” Mal. 4: 2 
And come He did in Jesus of Nazareth.
God the Father sent His Beloved Son to stand in the breach, against the Devil because: “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Jn. 3: 16
And the great assurance of that love is the Cross, where Jesus met the full force of Satan’s power; and where his power bites the dust.
God’s words – His firm promise, as it were – to Satan in the Garden come true. That: “He [Jesus] will crush your head.” Gen. 3: 15
Because the Cross is the trap set by God to emasculate the Devil’s power over us, and defeat him.
This is the wonderful promise Jesus gives in the Gospel that He: “Must be lifted up [on the Cross,] so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” Jn. 3: 14 – 15    
And Paul reinforces that promise in the second reading: “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in sin – it is by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Christ.” Eph. 2: 5 – 6
When we give our lives to Christ; whilst we’re still sinners He raises us up on the Cross with Him, putting our sinful nature to death there.
Then, through His Resurrection, through the power of the Empty Tomb, He raises us to eternal life with Him.
All of this, as Paul keeps ramming into our brains so we’ll never forget it, Jesus does by grace, by love.
We don’t deserve His grace, but He gives it to us freely.
There He stands, offering you this gift in His nail scarred hands.
Will you accept it willingly and joyfully today?

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT [B]

In 2003, Tony Blair was being interviewed for the magazine, ‘Vanity Fair;’ during the interview the reporter asked him about his Christian faith.
His famous, or infamous (depending on your point of view) Spin-Doctor, Alistair Campbell, interrupted and said, ‘We don’t do God.’
It seems to me that the Coalition Government, which is about to launch its consultation paper on the proposed change in the legal definition of marriage so as to open it up to same-sex partnerships, is saying the same thing.
I’m not making a party-political point here, and I’ve never been a member of a political party.
In fact, the Church prohibits those of us who are Ordained from belonging to political parties
This enables us to speak freely when any political party, or Government, is proposing something that seems, to the Church, to not reflect God’s will.
I believe, if this change does go through, it flies in the face of what God intends for us.
We have set before us today the Ten Commandments.
Of course, many people in our country have never heard of them.
Many people – including some Christians – think them out of date, and quietly ignore them.
They say, all you need is love; which is true.
But true love is to be anchored into God, not our own interpretation of it.
The primary phrase, the bedrock of the Ten Commandments, is: “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no gods except me.” Ex. 20: 2
And Jesus, He who is God in the flesh, came to perfectly fulfil these commandments, not discard them.
The argument goes that by proposing this radical redefinition of marriage, the Government is merely reflecting a change in the thinking of society about sexuality.
It also says that restricting marriage to a man and a woman is discriminatory; and that, as the Equalities Minister said recently, marriage isn’t ‘owned’ by the church.
That attitude can make us as Catholics feel as if we’re living in the past, out of date, and to be pitied – subtly ridiculed even.
However, Paul was in the very same sort of environment when he wrote to the Christians in Corinth in our second reading.
Christians were a beleaguered minority, living in a hostile, pagan culture.
Nevertheless, they were a vibrant, living community because both Paul, and they, knew with absolute clarity and conviction that: “God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.” 1 Cor. 1: 20  
They knew this because they preached a crucified Christ who is: “The power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor. 1: 24
And: “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Rm. 8: 31
Yet, I think to some extent we’ve lost that firm faith that God, in Christ, is indeed for us; therefore we’re not alone in the struggle.
We must stay completely faithful to the Lord, and boldly preach: “Christ crucified” 1 Cor. 1: 23 in the face of our prevailing culture: or, at least, as those in power perceive it.
In one sense, what the Equalities Minister said about marriage not being ‘owned’ by the Church is true;  because the Church didn’t sit down one day, and decide that marriage would be a good thing for people.
The Church has always held that marriage between a man and a woman is the only union that reflects God’s plan for humanity, and is the only place to create and nurture children.
And this goes back right to the Creation of man and woman as it’s recounted in the Book of Genesis: “God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. This explains why a man leaves his father and mother is joined to his wife and the two are united into one.” Gen. 1:27 & 2: 24
You don’t have to believe, as some Christians do, that God created the world, and human beings in six literal days.
Neither do you have to not believe in the theory of evolution.
What we do have to believe is, as the Catechism says, that:
“The account of the [creation and] fall in Genesis uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of humanity.” CCC: 390
Marriage between a man and a woman goes right back to the original covenant God made with us when He brought the world, and human beings, into existence.
Nobody, not even the Church, can break that Covenant, because it is the primary Covenant the Lord made with all of humanity.
So it’s binding on everyone, whether they believe in God or not.
To use the words in the Marriage Service in this context: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
For us as Catholic Christians to hold faithfully to this teaching will, inevitably, bring us into conflict with the prevailing culture.
But Jesus never flinched from teaching the truth, whatever it cost Him – even His life.
But this doesn’t mean that we have to state our case in an arrogant or triumphalist way: neither must we do nothing; thinking that what can one person like me do?
We must, as the Prophet Zephaniah says: “Seek to do what is right and to live humbly.” Zeph. 2: 3
To live humbly by walking in the Lord’s footsteps, and seeking His way, and His will in prayer; because prayer can dramatically change people, and situations.
But if we do what is right, and walk humbly with Jesus, it will, inevitably, lead us to His Cross.
Yet, without the Cross there was no Resurrection, no Empty Tomb.
So, as we take home, read, and reflect on the letter Archbishop’s Vincent and Peter have written to us regarding the Government’s ideas on marriage, let’s ask ourselves what I can do to influence this consultation.
And when we feel dispirited, dejected, and downhearted because the world seems to be ignoring us, let’s take courage from Paul’s words that: To those called by God to salvation, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.” 1 Cor. 1: 24 – 25  

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [B]

Leviticus 13: 1 – 2, 44 – 46                  1 Corinthians 10: 31 – 11: 1                     Mark 1: 40 – 45
For a few years I lived in East Oxford in Bullingdon Road, which has Greyfriars Franciscan church at one end, and the Cowley Road at the other.
It was an ‘interesting’ area to live in, and is even more so now I’m told; especially the Cowley Road part of it.
In fact, when I was driving through Cowley Road recently, I had to stop the car for a dozen or so students dressed as Roman soldiers to cross!!
But, although it’s possible to see all sorts of exotic sights in East Oxford these days, I think I’m safe in saying that you’ll never see a person with leprosy there.
But if we could enter Dr Who’s Tardis, and go back to 1126 we certainly would have done so.
That’s the year a leper colony was founded in that area by King Henry I; and the chapel of St Bartholomew, built for the colony, is still there near Bartlemas Close.
Leper colonies were placed outside the city walls for the Church to care for those with that terrible disease.
The Church did care for them with compassion and love; but it was also to keep them isolated from the rest of the people of Oxford.
People were terrified of the disease because, if it took hold, it could decimate a population.
So, in effect, lepers were quarantined; exiled from their families and friends.
It must have been a slow, painful living death for them and, in a real sense, for their families too.
When ‘Time Team,’ the C4 TV series, undertook an archaeological dig in the remains of a medieval leper colony, they reconstructed a lepers face from a skeleton they found.
With his skin having been eaten away, and his face disfigured by the disease, it reminded me of the prophecy of Isaiah about how the Saviour would appear at His Crucifixion: “His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.” Is. 52: 14
And when I think about medieval lepers in this country, and lepers in Bible times being banished outside the city wall, it also reminds me of Jesus, and His Crucifixion.
Jesus was like a leper to those who wanted Him dead.
He was like a man with a deadly disease who could infect the whole of the people, and destroy them by His teaching, and miracles.
Yes, like a leper He was taken outside the city walls.
Not just to exile Him, but to exterminate Him on the Cross.
But God, through the power of the Lord’s meekness and majesty, overcame the real disease afflicting all of us – sin.
That terrible disease, which cuts us off from the Lord’s healing love.
Yet, so often, we resist the Lord’s healing by exiling Him outside the walls of our hearts.
But Jesus, the Holy One of God, overcame the leprosy of sin, which brought suffering and death into His good creation, by dying in our stead so that we can be reunited with Him.
As Paul writes to the Ephesians: “But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought peace to us when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.” Eph. 2: 13 – 14  
And this is what happens to the leper in the Gospel who is inexorably drawn to Jesus; seeing in Him his only chance for salvation from his leprosy.
So: “Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” Mk. 1: 41
He had mercy on the man; and the mercy of God is entwined with His grace and salvation.
His grace, which gives you something you could never have imagined; an inexplicable gift that I truly don’t deserve.
And what is that gift?
None other than the life of God indwelling me, through His Spirit, and conforming me to Jesus, the Son.
So the leper receives, not only physical salvation from his leprosy, but salvation in all its richness, and fullness.
In Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus calls Peter to follow Him, He tells him to: “Put out into deep water.” Lk. 5: 4
Ostensibly to catch fish, which Peter does in abundance; but he’s really being called to go deeper into God’s grace made flesh in Jesus.
He immediately left his successful fishing business, and followed Jesus.
He was no longer ‘exiled’ outside the wall that had separated him from the deep water of God’s love.
Now I’m not saying that we all have to leave what we’re doing in the secular world in order to be an authentic Christian.
The Lord does indeed call some to do that but, for most of us, He wants us to carry Him into the world we inhabit.
Into our families, our work, our relationships, our leisure time: the whole of our lives.
In Keble College there hangs in the chapel the painting by William Holman Hunt called: ‘The Light Of The World,’ which shows Jesus knocking on a door in an ivy-entwined wall.
He’s inviting the person inside to come out of exile into His light.
There isn’t a door handle on the outside of the door: the only handle is on the inside.
Like the leper in the Gospel, we must turn the handle in our hearts so that the Lord can draw us into: “The freedom and glory of the children of God.” Rm. 8: 21
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. [Jesus says] If you hear my voice and open the door,
I will come in.” Rev. 3: 20

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [B]

Job 7:  1 – 4, 6 – 7               1 Corinthians 9: 16 – 19, 22 – 23                              Mark 1: 29 – 39
“Truth, what is that?” Jn. 18: 38 Pontius Pilate asked as Jesus stood on trial before him.
As the Leveson Inquiry into the press is revealing, you certainly can’t rely on things written in some newspapers as the truth.
Unlike the Gospels, where every page is diffused with eternal truth.
And this is certainly so with Jesus curing Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever in Mark’s Gospel, because this healing shows us the truth about Jesus.
He who helps us up when we’re at our lowest, to calm us, and heal us.
It’s not easy being a Christian whoever and whatever you are; but it brings joy, depth and a certainty to life – and death – that nothing else comes close to.
The reason it’s not easy to follow Jesus is because, as Mark highlights in his Gospel, the world is a place where Satan, and his forces of evil are, as the Psalm writer says: “Like lions [that] open their jaws, roaring and tearing into their prey.” Ps. 22: 13
And Jesus, and the forces of Evil, are implacably opposed to each other.
Satan, being set on our eternal destruction out of hatred for us having been created in the image and likeness of the God he hates.
God, being set on our eternal salvation for the very reason that He created us in the image and likeness of His Beloved Son.
But it’s not an evenly matched contest, thanks to Jesus; who, as the Blessed John Henry Newman, wrote in his work, The Dream Of Gerontius,’ set to music by Sir Edward Elgar: “A second Adam to the fight, and to the rescue came.”
One palpable sign of this Evil at work is to be found in illness, and suffering, and death; but it isn’t inflicted on us by God.
And, although Job on his bed of pain cries: “Lying in bed,
I think, ‘When will it be morning?’ But the night drags on,  and I toss around till dawn.”
Job. 7: 3 – 4 he never doubts God’s goodness.
Jesus has no trace or shred of evil in Him: the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, the other healings, and expulsions of evil spirits from people, demonstrates that.
And Satan knows that Jesus has no evil in Him because he knows Jesus is the Holy One of God.
He also knows that Jesus has come to destroy him, but he doesn’t know how.
However, he’s going to fight Jesus every step of the way.
Evil is tenacious, and can only be dealt with in a bitter struggle; but we mustn’t engage in this war relying on our own strength.
We must be shielded by the: “The precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” 1 Peter 1: 18
Only He has the power, and authority to defeat Satan, and all his works.
That’s why, when Jesus casts out evil spirits, they come out of people fighting, and screaming for their lives.
But who could possibly think that Evil could be destroyed by Jesus being destroyed by it?
But this is what happened on the Cross, isn’t it?
 Jesus, when He died uttered a loud cry, and said: “‘It is finished,’ and gave up His spirit and died.” Jn. 19: 30
It was a battle to the bitter end against the Evil One: yet it wasn’t the end 
We know the truth about the real ending.
We’ve read the truth on the last page: we’ve read beyond the Crucifixion to the Resurrection.
Satan, when he got Jesus to the Cross, believed that he’d destroyed Him.
All that talk by Jesus of conquering evil had been just talk. There was Evil conquering Him.
But, as Scripture says: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Cor. 2: 9 (Is. 64: 4)
Satan couldn’t conceive of the notion that Jesus would plumb the depths of love to save us – even unto death
Out of that death came the destruction of the power of Satan, and the gift of eternal life prepared for us by the Lord.
At the end of today’s Gospel Jesus refuses to let the demons say who he really is: but why did he do that? Because they didn’t really know Him.
They knew He was their destroyer, but that’s all.
They didn’t know how He would eventually overpower them.
They didn’t have the capacity to understand that Jesus was God’s love in the flesh because they had no love in them – only hate.
So their testimony to Him was inadequate, incomplete, and misleading.
It wasn’t the truth: but we testify to the truth of Christ crucified.
Yet, as Paul tells us: “I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognise this message as the very power of God.” 1 Cor. 1: 18
We know that: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Cor. 15: 54 (Isa 25:8) because: “Christ lives in us. [And we] live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.” Gal. 2: 20 

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [B]

1 Samuel 3: 3 – 10, 19                       1 Corinthians 6: 13 – 15, 17 – 20                                John 1: 35 – 42
Although I drive a Subaru Forester, I guess it would be more appropriate for me to drive a Honda Jazz as that’s my kind of music.
No more so than listening to Tony Bennett singing; the greatest living exponent of the Great American Songbook.
The Good Life’ is one of his songs and, although it was written way back in 1962, I think it speaks to our world today.
‘Oh, the good life, full of fun seems to be the ideal. Mm, the good life lets you hide all the sadness you feel.’ are its opening lyrics.
So many people go into to debt for the rest of the year to indulge in the glitter and glow, and the tinsel and show of the secular Christmas to hide all the sadness they feel.
That deep, unexpressed sadness of not having something – no, ‘Someone’ – to light up their life.
If only they would turn to Jesus: “The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone.” Jn. 1: 4
Those words from John’s Gospel are read at the Mass of Christmas morning: and, although we’re now in ‘Ordinary Time’ in the Church, in a real sense, Christmas is still with us until the Feast of Candlemas on February 2.
Candlemas, also called the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord,
is all about the life and light of God illumining the darkness of this world.
As Mary and Joseph carry Jesus into the Temple 40 days after His birth to present, and consecrate Him to God, His Father, the old man, Simeon, comes forward.
He takes Jesus into his arms, and praises God saying: “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised.
I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!” Lk. 2: 29 – 32
For all his life Simeon’s been looking in eager anticipation for the Saviour to come, and now he’s actually seen Him, and touched Him!
Just as John writes about knowing Jesus: “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him.” 1 Jn. 1: 1 – 2
The One, eternal God who took frail flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, and says to us: “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” Jn. 8: 12
It’s no good being a Catholic Christian if we can only stay as one just out of habit, fear or apathy: it has to go much deeper than that.
We have to live its truth, and make Jesus come to birth in my life so that, like Simeon and John, I become a beacon of His light and love in my small corner of the world.
To be a Christian means that we have to live in such a way that there should be something about us that makes people wonder what’s at the heart of our lives, which isn’t in theirs.
In todays’ Gospel this is the reaction of Andrew and John – the writer of the Gospel – when they see Jesus.
Perhaps for a long time they’d felt the deep need to find the ultimate meaning to their lives, so they’d followed John the Baptist.
But they thirsted after more and saw, in a moment of great clarity, the mystery of God explained in Jesus.
“Jesus looked around and saw them following [and] said to them, “Come and see.” Jn. 1: 38 - 39
They wanted to know more about Him, but held back because He was different to anyone else they'd ever met.
And Jesus, in inviting them to, ‘Come and see,’ is treating them with respect and sensitivity.
He wants them to come, but not to be overwhelmed by Him.
So they went with Jesus at about 4.00 in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day with Him.
The meeting made such an impact on Andrew that afterwards: “He first found his brother, [Peter] and said to him, "We have found the Messiah.” Jn. 1: 40
Jesus, this seemingly ordinary man, whom John the Baptist had pointed out to them on the banks of the Jordan River, was in fact the Saviour of the world!
Those hours that Andrew and John spent in the company of Jesus remind me of the silence we find in the Gospel of Luke after the 12-year old Jesus is found discussing the Scriptures with the Rabbis in the Temple.
He returns to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary, and: “Grew in wisdom and stature, and he was loved by God and by all who knew him.” Lk. 2: 52
In those years in-between that encounter in the Temple, and His Baptism in the Jordan, Jesus was communing with His Father in the silence of Nazareth, recorded in Luke's Gospel.
Just as Andrew and John in the hours spent with Jesus, silently recorded in John's Gospel, grew in wisdom and understanding because of their communion with Him.
We too must grow in our wisdom and understanding of the Lord.
 We mustn't stand, metaphorically, on the banks of the Jordan, and watch Him from afar.
If, like Andrew and John, we follow Jesus and listen to, and commune with Him in prayer, then we too will grow in wisdom and understanding of Him.
Like the boy, Samuel, in the Old Testament, we have to listen out for the Lord calling us through His Spirit who indwells each of us.
Because, as Paul writes: “Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. 1 Cor. 6: 19 – 20
The price of Jesus, the Word, becoming frail flesh, being lifted high on the Cross, and dying and rising again.

MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD 2012  

                                               
Numbers 6: 22 – 27                                        Galatians 4: 4 – 7                                                Luke 2: 16 – 21
To someone who isn’t a Catholic, and maybe even to some Catholics, the belief that Mary is the ‘Mother of God’ must seem quite difficult to believe.
How, after all, can the eternal God have a human mother?
If you do find it difficult to comprehend, so did a 5th. Century Christian called Nestorius.
From the beginning, the Church taught that Jesus Christ was one person with two natures: a divine nature, and a human nature.
Just as Paul says in his Letter to the Colossians: “In Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. And you share in this fullness through your union with Christ.” Col. 2: 9 – 10   
Nestorius [c. AD381-451] was a monk from Antioch before he became the Patriarch [Bishop] of Constantinople in 428.
He, as he thought, got over his difficulties by saying that Mary only bore Christ’s human nature in her womb, so couldn’t be called ‘Mother of God.’
The Church recognised that this theological theory would fracture Christ into two separate persons; one human, and one divine, joined in a sort of loose unity, only one of whom was in Mary’s womb.
So in AD431 the Bishops of the Catholic Church met in Council at Ephesus – its ruins can still be visited today in Turkey – and said definitively that Mary can properly be referred to as the ‘Mother of God’.
Not in the sense that she’s older than God, or the source of God; but in the sense that the Person she carried in her womb was, in fact, God incarnate – God in the flesh.
And I think Paul’s words from Colossians I quoted just now are the key to understanding why Mary is the Mother of God; because in her womb the human, and divine natures were formed into the One Person - Jesus.
And this is very important because only the perfect God can save us imperfect human beings so that we can share fully in His life.
And the wonder of Christianity is that He did this when he came and: “Lived among us, full of grace and truth.” Jn. 1: 14
And the Father: “For our sake made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor. 5: 21
Paul, in our reading from his Letter to the Galatians says that: “When the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.” Gal. 4: 4 – 5
That Law of Moses, firstly consisted of 613 separate religious laws found in the first five books of the Old Testament, which governed every aspect of life.
But the Law, in its fullest sense, is the entire Old Testament.
And Jesus sums up the very heart, and soul of the Law of Moses by quoting these words from that same Law: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mk. 12: 30 (Deut. 6: 4 & 5)
The purpose of the Law of Moses was to show us frail human beings that we needed a Saviour who would fulfil the Law of love perfectly on our behalf.
Now, you and I know from our own experience how difficult it is to even begin to achieve that loving, let alone keep 613 laws!
You know when you dream? Sometimes you’re chasing something, and never quite catching it?
That’s how it is when we try to love the Lord by our own efforts.
There’s always a feeling of failure, and guilt because we’re not anywhere near being good, let alone perfect.
But the point is that Jesus, the new Adam, by His utter faithfulness to God, has undone the sin, the faithlessness of the first Adam. And, by His Life, Death, and Resurrection, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law.
He absorbed our failures, our guilt, our imperfections, and our sin, and nailed it to the Cross in His body.
He took the indictment of non-achievement that the Law accuses us of into Himself, so that we can walk free.
So, Paul says: “God sent [Jesus] to gain freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.” Gal. 4: 5 
That’s why Paul can then say that: “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3: 28
If we’re grafted into Christ Jesus then who we are, what we are, where we’ve come from, what we do or don’t own, what we have or haven’t achieved doesn’t matter.
We’re all brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus, and of one another. We belong to God’s family, who bear the name of His Son.
All of this was achieved by the woman, Mary, saying ‘Yes’ to bearing the Word made flesh in her womb.
All of this was achieved by the ‘Yes’ of Jesus to His Father, right up to death on the Cross for our sakes.
All of this should give us great joy, freedom, and the courage to walk into the New Year with faith, not fear.
Sadly, the reality is that so many of us don’t really believe, as Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, that we’ve been: “Liberated from our bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Rm. 8: 21
We live out our Christianity as if it’s a halter round our necks, dragging us down.
To cut free from that bondage this New Year let’s take Mary, the Mother of the Lord, as our teacher in the faith.
She’d given birth to the Saviour in a manger, and heard all that the shepherds had to say about her extraordinary Child.
What did Mary do? Luke says that: “She treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Lk. 2: 19
What a sense of wonder, awe, and thanksgiving are in those few words!
May we discover afresh this New Year a sense of wonder, awe, and thanksgiving because we’re Christians; and, with Mary, the Mother of God, treasure, and ponder these things in our hearts too.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT [B]

2 Samuel 7: 1 – 5, 8 – 12                                Romans 16: 25 – 27                                        Luke 1: 26 – 38
Last Friday, in Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, at a Service to commemorate the 400th. Anniversary of the publication of the King James version of the Bible, the Prime Minister, David Cameron said that this is a Christian country, and we need to regain our Christian values, and not apologise for them.
I totally agree with him.
Next weekend, Christians all over the world will be celebrating Christmas; a word, which means ‘Christ’s Mass.’.
The Mass – or Eucharist – where we celebrate the fact that the baby, Jesus, is: “The Word [who] became flesh and lived among us” Jn. 1: 14 
Of course, many people don’t believe that is a fact.
They think that the Virginal Conception and Birth of Jesus is a sort of fairy-tale thought up by the Church to con us into believing He was something more than just an ordinary man.
If I didn’t believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, I certainly wouldn’t be standing here before you saying that He is.
And, among other things, the evidence in the two accounts of the origins of Jesus in Matthew, and Luke prove that to me.
Yes, they differ, one to the other; and add, leave out, and emphasise different features of the event in their accounts.
However, what they do not deviate from is the truth that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and is the Messiah, the Saviour, who has come to redeem us from our sins, and set us free.
If the Church had thought this up, I think it would have made absolutely sure that both accounts tallied exactly.
If more than one person witnesses something, they tell of it in different ways, because they’re experiencing the reality from different perspectives.
But it doesn’t make it any less true, does it?
After all, if you look at a painting from different angles, you get a different perspective; but it’s still the same painting
It’s only when people get together to make sure their stories are watertight, so that they can get away with something, do they ensure that their versions are exactly the same.
The story in Luke, which we’ve heard today, makes it very clear that Mary conceived Jesus in her womb without having had any sexual relations.
Although people then didn’t know about the science, and biology behind conception, they certainly knew how babies came about.
They knew that people who claimed to be pregnant by other means were, at best, trying to cover up sexual infidelity; or, at worst, completely delusional.
What Luke, and Matthew are saying in their Gospels is that Jesus didn’t have a father in the ordinary way: and, that this, according to Luke, was because Mary had been given special grace to be the Mother of God Incarnate.
And Luke certainly has no thought that this might make Jesus less than human.
Angels aren’t the sweet little cherubs that artists often depict them to be.
They’re actually powerful spiritual beings, and God’s special messengers, who can manifest themselves in human form.
Meeting the Archangel Gabriel must have been an overwhelming experience for Mary, who was probably around 15 or 16 at the time.
Gabriel gives Mary a double explanation for the whole event.
The Holy Spirit will come upon her, and: “The power of the Most High will overshadow [her.] Lk. 1: 35,
The Holy Spirit will enable Mary to do, and be more, than she could ever be by herself.
And God Himself, the Creator, will overshadow – cover her completely – with His sovereign, creative power.
This may sound peculiar: that, somehow, because of this, Jesus won’t quite be human or divine because of His Virginal Conception.
But let’s remember that right at the beginning of Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, it tells us that the true God is the One in whose image people were made in the first place.
So, if as we believe, Jesus the Word of God has existed from all eternity, and it was part of His Father’s plan that He should become human at a particular time and place in history, then the Virginal Conception makes Him fully God, and fully human.
He receives His Divine Nature from God – because He is God – and His human nature from Mary.
We’re not talking here about a pagan god – like the gods of Greek mythology – Intervening capriciously in the affairs of humanity just for the fun of it.
No: we’re talking about the One God who, as Saint Augustine said, made us for Himself.
When the Lord takes the initiative, it’s always a matter of love; a love, which will care for us, and take us up into His amazing, saving grace.
Grace; which is the very life of God, implanted by Him deep within us, to indwell our souls.
Mary is, to that extent, the supreme example of what always happens when God is at work, by grace, through human beings.
God, the Holy Spirit, indwelt Mary to make her full of grace, so that she could conceive the Saviour in her womb.
It is all by God’s grace, not her own efforts or merit.
That’s why authentic devotion to Mary will always point to Jesus, and lead to Him being glorified – not His Mother.
That’s the way His mother always wants it: just as she did at the Marriage Feast at Cana.
“Do whatever he tells you.” Jn. 2: 5 she said then, and she still says it now.
Gabriel then tells Mary that her son: “Will be called the Son of the Most High.” and that “His kingdom will never end.” Lk. 1: 32 & 33
The vulnerable baby about to be conceived in this young girl’s womb is the Son of God, and also the Saviour-King of this world, who will reign forever.
It’s a claim that says Jesus is the true ruler of this world.
Not Caesar in Rome; Not those who, down the centuries, have seized, and abused power for their own ends; not the powers of the world today.
Jesus is Lord; not any of them.
The conception and birth of a baby, the power of God, and the challenge to all human empires, is what makes the Birth of Jesus so explosive.
Perhaps that’s why people can’t bring themselves to believe that Mary conceived Jesus, not through a human father, but the power of God, the Holy Spirit.
For, if God can do this, He can ask me to yield: “My soul, my life, my all.” to Him because He: “So loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” When I Survey The Wondrous Cross & Jn. 3: 16
So let us, with Mary, say her words that have rung down the years as a model of our response to God’s call to follow Him:
“Here I am, the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Lk. 1: 38      

CHRIST THE KING [A]

Ezekiel 34: 11 – 12, 15 – 17                     1 Corinthians 15: 20 – 26, 28                       Matthew 25: 31 – 46   
I’m born and bred in this City of Oxford which the poet, Matthew Arnold, called: “That sweet city with her dreaming spires.” Matthew Arnold: Thyrsis
But I’m a Yorkshireman by preference, and feel the need to make at least one ‘pilgrimage’ a year to ‘God’s Own County.’
On some of those trips I head for York, where I always find myself inexorably drawn to that great Yorkshire institution, Betty’s Café Tea Rooms on St Helen’s Square.
Having had a coffee and a ‘Yorkshire Fat Rascal,’ I then head down Stonegate to the Minster.
And, just to the right of the great South door, in the Minster Yard, is a statue of the Roman Emperor, Constantine
Now, it may surprise you to know that Constantine was a Yorkshireman!
Well, for a year at least!                                                                 
He spent the year 305 in the garrison at Eborarcum – York as we know it – campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian’s Wall.
Then, in 306 he was proclaimed Roman Emperor, and set off for Rome                                                                            
In October 312, trying to secure his Empire, Constantine had a dramatic sort of ‘conversion experience’ on the way to Rome, during the night before battle.
In a dream, he supposedly saw the 'Chi-Ro', the symbol of Christ, shining above the sun.
Seeing this as a divine sign, Constantine had his soldiers paint the symbol on their shields.
Following this, he went on to defeat the numerically stronger army of Maxentius at the Battle at the Milvian Bridge.
In 313, he issued the Edict of Milan, which gave Christians complete freedom of worship.
With this Edict, the persecution of Christians ceased; but it was costly.
The Church became very powerful, very quickly; and began to take on the characteristics of a kingdom of this world, with Jesus taking on the features of a King like the Roman Emperor.
The image of Christ the King as a remote figure sitting in glory, rather than Jesus, the Good Shepherd, became the dominant image.
The problem was, not of Jesus being depicted as a King; after all He told Pilate that He was a King, the problem came in how Christians started to forget that the Kingdom Jesus came to plant was:
“Not of this world.” Jn. 18: 36
His Kingdom cannot be imposed by military, political, or any other worldly power.
It can only be planted, and grow in the hearts of men, and women when they follow Jesus freely, and enthrone Him in their lives as their Saviour and Friend.
Because Jesus is the King of a Kingdom, in the words of the hymn, ‘I Vow To Thee My Country,’ in which: “We may not count her armies, we may not see her King; her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering.”
On this Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, [new Missal] we’re called to pledge our true allegiance not simply to an ideology, but to the person of Jesus Christ.
Because: “Our faith is not born from a myth or an idea, but from an encounter with the Risen [Jesus], in the life of [His] Church.” Pope Benedict XVI: General Audience Wednesday September 24 2008
Our way is not to be the way of the world, which values ambition, greed, status, and power.
Our vocation is to be the means whereby the Lord roots His just, and gentle rule in the hearts of men and women, so that His Kingdom will come, on earth, as it is in heaven.
And, to really make that come about, we need to get back to our roots.
To rediscover where the true source of the Kingdom springs from.
And, we don’t have to look very far; because we find it in the first reading from the Prophet Ezekiel, and also today’s Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd.” Ps. 23: 1
Jesus knows each one of us intimately by name; and He is: “The good shepherd [who] lays down his life for the sheep.” Jn. 10: 11  
Fulfilling perfectly the Lord’s word, spoken through the Prophet, Ezekiel, about the Lord’s care for His flock: “I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will show them where to rest.
I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the wounded and make the weak strong. I shall be a true shepherd to them.” Ezek. 34: 15 – 16
This is Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, whom we need to know, and love, so that we: “Might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jn. 10: 10
Let us, as the Apostle Paul says: “Put aside childish things.” 1 Cor. 13: 11 and come to love Jesus as our King.
But not as One who is aloof, distant, and sits in unrelenting judgment on us.
Rather, let’s love the Lord for the reason Peter, in his First Letter, tells us we should; because: “[Jesus] bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. [And] By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Pet. 2: 24
The last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse, is all about God conquering and judging evil, in the person of Satan, and destroying him for ever.
But, we don’t need to be afraid of that judgment, if we know Jesus as our Saviour, and our Friend – our Shepherd King.
Because, at the heart of the Book of the Apocalypse is Jesus.
Jesus, the Lamb of God, living with His people as the Lamb upon the throne in the new heaven, and the new earth His Second Coming will create.
But Jesus, the Lamb, is described in a curious way by John the Apostle in his vision of heaven in the Apocalypse.
He says: “Then I saw, standing in the midst of the throne, a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered.” Rev. 5: 6
‘Standing as if it had been slaughtered….’
Jesus – slaughtered on the Cross; but standing in the power of the Holy Spirit because He’s risen from the dead, and is our Universal King.
“For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. [And] the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1 Cor. 15: 25
Because His is: “The love that never falters, the love that pays the price, the love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.” Sir Cecil Spring-Rice: I Vow To Thee My Country “So that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.” 1 Cor. 15: 28

THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Wisdom 6: 12 – 16                                  1 Thessalonians 4: 13 – 18                                         Matthew 25: 1 – 13
An American Pastor, Harold Camping, said that on May 21 this year, Jesus would return in glory – He didn’t.
Then he said his calculations were out by five months, so Jesus would come on October 21 – He didn’t.
The season of Advent is fast approaching.
That familiar word, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary means: ‘The arrival of a notable person.’
That ‘notable person’ for Christians is, of course, Jesus.
During Advent, we prepare for Christmas, when we recall the first coming of Jesus at a particular time, in a particular place.
But, the underlying purpose of Advent is to prepare us for His Universal Second Coming at the end of time: the consummation of the salvation He came and prepared for us through His Life, Death, and Resurrection.
However, it’s not for us to be like Pastor Camping, and work out timetables from Scripture for Jesus to return.
As Jesus Himself said: “Of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”  Mt. 24: 36
“It might be today, it might be tomorrow, or in a million years or two.” Dolly Parton: In The Meantime
But, for each of us – unless Jesus returns in the meantime – we will all experience a kind of ‘Second Coming’ when we die.
And like the wise, and the foolish bridesmaids, Jesus is asking us if we’re ready to meet Him now.
He’s the Bridegroom who could come at any moment to invite us into His Wedding Feast: but are we ready?
Or have we run out of spiritual oil so that we can’t find our way to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb?
The point of this Parable is to say we need always need to be spiritually alert.
Listening with eager anticipation for the Lord calling us to a deeper friendship with Him throughout our lives.
This Parable speaks to our hearts today, as we’re surrounded by so many things luring us into listening to them, and not to Jesus.
We need to hear, as much as ever, the warning that it’s easy to stop paying attention to the Lord, and to be unprepared when the moment of His coming arrives.
And that moment isn’t just in the future when we die, or Jesus returns in glory to create: “A new heaven and a new earth.” Rev. 21: 1 whichever comes first.
That moment comes upon us every moment of our lives when Jesus clearly puts to us the question He put to His Disciples at Ceasera Philippi: “Who do you say I am?” Mt. 16: 15
We have to make a conscious decision every day to be faithful to Jesus in every aspect of our lives: me, no less than you.
It seems to me so many people – and I include many Christians among them – are: “So consumed with the fear of dying; the joy of living is lost.” Dolly Parton: In The Meantime
Perhaps it’s because we haven’t come to know Jesus as my Friend.
Perhaps the prospect of meeting Jesus is frightening because we think of Him as a harsh judge waiting to condemn us.
But Paul, in the second reading, paints the true picture of Jesus, and of our coming life with Him.
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, [he says] we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have fallen asleep so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.” 1 Th. 4: 13
“Fallen asleep.’ What an apt phrase that is Paul uses to describe the death of those who have died in the peace of Christ.
Because, for those who love Jesus, His Cross and Resurrection have removed for ever the awful fear and finality of death.
The pagans of Paul’s day, as people do today, viewed death with horror; as the end of everything.
The abyss from which no-one returned; a black hole into which everyone entered, and were consumed.
Our attitude as a Christian is – or should be – in sharp contrast, because we believe death is the way into eternal life with Jesus, which is assured for us because of His Death and Resurrection.
This is what Paul means when he says: “We believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again,” 1 Th. 4: 14
Notice he doesn’t say that Jesus had, ‘fallen asleep.’
He says, ‘died:’ to drive home the fact that Jesus bore the full horror and ignominy of death in His own body and soul so that, for us, it’s sting is lost forever.
In that way we can rest assured that, if we place our hope in Jesus, then death has lost its terror.
“Death [as Paul writes in another place] has been swallowed up in victory.” 1 Cor. 15: 54 (Is. 25: 8)
In a few minutes we’ll say in the Creed, ‘I believe….’
‘I believe [Jesus] suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.’ The Roman Missal: Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed
That small paragraph sums up what the Church believes; and why those who have who have ‘fallen asleep’ in the peace of Christ will find eternal life through Him, and with Him, and in Him.
So we can stake our life, and our death, on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, is alive today, and will come again in glory.
And, when we’re resurrected on the Day when Jesus returns, we’ll be given resurrection bodies, and raised bodily to be like the Resurrected Jesus.
Because God, the Father: “Sent us the Redeemer to live like us in all things but sin, so that He might love in us what He loved in His Son.” The Roman Missal: Preface VII Of The Sundays In Ordinary Time (italics mine)
So we’re not going to be disembodied spirits, but raised people; given new bodies in the new heaven, and the new earth, which John describes in the Apocalypse.
“God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Rev. 21: 3 – 4  
This is what we sign up to when we say, ‘I believe,’ in the resurrection of the dead in the Creed.
And the Day will come when the Lord comes again; to put all wrongs right, and when all grief will turn to joy.
That Day when: “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.” 1 Thess. 4: 16
Then, those who have already died, and those who are still alive at His coming, will both alike be given resurrected, renewed bodies to serve the Lord joyfully in His new creation.
In the meantime, we must do as Jesus tells us in the Gospel:
“Keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.” Mt. 25: 13  

TWENTY-EIGHT SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Isaiah 25: 6 – 10                                      Philippians 4: 12 – 14, 19 – 20                                Matthew 22: 1 – 14           
In the Apocalypse, the great vision of the victory of the Lamb who was slain, yet lives to reign, and eternal life in heaven, John the Apostle is told to write: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Rev. 19: 9
He uses the picture of a wedding feast to express the intimate relationship that exists between the Lord, and His people.
It has its roots deep in Old Testament prophecy; no more so than the Old Testament reading we’ve just listened to.
In that passage, Isaiah looks toward the Last Day when the Lord will call all His faithful people to the wedding feast of heaven.
And he uses the image of: “A feast of juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” Is. 25: 6  to help us see what a wonderful wedding feast it will be.
It’s symbolic of great spiritual blessings; but it also points to physical blessings as well.
After all, we’re body and spirit; and we believe that we’ll be resurrected body and spirit.
We will follow Jesus: “The firstborn from the dead.” Col. 1: 18 through: “The valley of the shadow of death.” Ps. 23: 4 into eternal life with Him, where we will: “Live in the house of the Lord forever.”
Ps. 23: 6
And fear of death is that awful nightmare, which affects us not just physically, but also spiritually.
However, Isaiah promises us that the Lord: “Will remove the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.”
Is. 25: 7 – 8
What we must hold in our hearts is that all of this isn’t something promised for the dim and distant future; because, in Jesus, it’s burst into the here, and now.
Jesus has destroyed death, through His Death, and Resurrection.
This is the Good News we have to give to the world, and is at the heart of the Parable in our Gospel, which Jesus speaks to each one of us tonight/this morning.
But Parables disturb us, because we want to hear a nice story about the Lord throwing a party, where everyone is let in, no matter what.
We shy away from talking about judgement on the wicked, or about having Christian standards of holiness, and morality.
But, doesn’t Isaiah tell us, you might ask, that the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces?
Yes, he does; but it has to be put in its context.
It doesn’t mean that God will act like an indulgent parent telling us: ‘There, there it doesn’t matter; you’re only a child, so go ahead, and do whatever you want.’
No, He wants us to be grown-up, mature Christians; not babies.
And part of being grown-up is we learn that actions have consequences, that moral choices matter eternally.  
Real life isn’t like a child’s game, where, even if we do badly, the pieces go safely back in the box at the end of the day, and we start again tomorrow.
The deep mystery of God’s forgiveness isn’t the same as saying that whatever we do isn’t really important, because He’ll always forgive us.
This isn’t a lesson we want to learn, so that’s why we find this Parable difficult to take.
As with the all of the Parables Jesus told, they had a direct relevance to the people who heard them.
But they also speak as forcefully to every person who hears them; The People of God – the Jewish people – were like guests invited to a wedding: God’s wedding Feast, the party He was throwing for His Son, and His guests.
But they refused the invitation. The longed-for Saviour was here in Jerusalem where His Father’s House, the Temple, stood; and His people didn’t want to know.
The Prophets throughout the Old Testament had foretold this moment, but they’d been abused, ridiculed, and killed.
Now the same was going to happen to God’s One and Only Son.
Except for: “A remnant chosen by grace,” Rm. 11: 5 the People of God refused to accept Jesus as the Saviour.
Then, after the Lord’s Resurrection, God sent out across the world that: “Remnant chosen by grace” – the Apostles – to tell anyone, and everyone to come to the party.
They came, and are still coming, in droves.
In Matthew’s Gospel, and he a Jew who’d accepted Jesus as his Saviour, we constantly hear of Jesus calling into His Kingdom those who never dreamt they’d be part of it.
But there’s a difference between this invitation which, at its heart, is the imperative that we have to be clothed with Christ, and the message so many people want to hear today.
We want to hear that everyone is all right exactly as they are; that the Lord loves us just as we are, and doesn’t want us to change.
Yes, He does love us just as we are, and Scripture tells us that: “Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” Rm. 5: 6 Yes, He died for sinners like us, just as we are.
But His heart’s desire is to restore His image, and likeness within us by clothing us with Himself.
By constantly reminding us that the garment we have to put on to be an honoured guest at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, is the garment of righteousness, and holiness we were given at our Baptism; which is cleansed, and renewed every time we receive Jesus in the Eucharist.   
So, His love reaches out to us where we are, but His love refuses to let us stay as we are.
He wants our lives to be transformed, healed, and changed.
I wonder if we genuinely want that to happen to us: or would we rather be like the man at the wedding feast who’d slipped in without changing into his wedding garment?
Yet, why was this man thrown out because he hadn’t put on the right clothes?
Well, Paul supplies the answer in the Letter to the Ephesians, where he tells us to: “Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.” Eph. 4: 22 – 24
Going back to the Apocalypse, with which I began.
In that book, the Lord speaks these words to the luke-warm Christians of the Church in Laodicea. 
I wonder if His words resonate with us? “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
Rev 3: 17 - 18
Then Jesus says to us: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door,
I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Rev. 3: 20
So, as we go on to celebrate the meal, and sacrifice of the Eucharist, let’s put on our wedding garment.
Our: “New nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.” Eph. 4: 24 which He gave to us a free gift at our Baptism, so that we can be honoured guests at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb; both now, and eternally.

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]     

                          Isaiah 5: 1 – 7                 Philippians 4: 6 – 9               Matthew 21: 33 – 43
_______________________________________________________
Keep on doing all the things that you learnt from me, and have been taught by me, and have heard or seen that I do. Then the God of peace will be with you. Phil. 4: 9
 
It would make my life so much simpler if everyone did what
I told them to do: and wouldn’t they be much better for it too?
I’m sure you often feel like that about people, don’t you?
When I had a ‘day job,’ I had 30 staff in three separate buildings, and in 13 locations in those buildings.
If they’d all been doing what they were supposed to be doing, my job would have been a breeze.
If they’d: “Have [done exactly what they’d] learned and received and heard and seen in me.” Phil. 4: 9 they’d have been perfect employees!!
But none of us is perfect, are we? I know I’m far from perfect.
Yet, here we have Paul, telling the Christians in Philippi to follow his example.
To do all the things they’d learnt through his teaching, and by living their lives after the manner of his life.
Now, this may entrench some people’s prejudice of Paul that he was a Christian control-freak with an enormous ego.
He’s either that: or he’s a very humble man who knows his own strengths and weaknesses, and relies on His Lord, Jesus to shine His light into every small corner of his life.
My conviction is the latter: although Paul was a man with flaws and foibles and, like all the Saints, he wasn’t an easy person to live with.
And, did you know, that Paul uses the word ‘Saint’ around 40 times in his Letters?
But when he uses it, he’s not talking about those: “Who [to quote Eucharistic Prayer I] have gone before us with the sign of faith and who sleep in Christ, [in] a place of refreshment, light, and peace.” New English Translation of the Roman Missal 3rd. ed. 2011; EP I
No; whenever he uses the word ‘Saint’ he means ordinary Christians – just like us – in those cities of the Roman Empire where they lived their ordinary lives – just like us.
All of us who profess the Christian faith, and strive to follow Jesus as our Saviour and Friend, are Saints in the making.
That might come as a surprise, a shock even, but that’s the truth.
The alternative to striving to be a Saint is to turn our back on Jesus, and turn down His invitation to be part of the family of the Church on earth, and in heaven.
There’s no middle way; no compromise: for Jesus said, did He not, that: “Anyone who puts a hand to the plough, and then looks back, is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Lk. 9: 62
So if we whole-heartedly accept the Lord’s invitation, then our final dwelling place will not be the grave, but eternal life with the Him; because we: “Are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Rev. 19: 9 
 
And we have a foretaste of that heavenly banquet every time we gather together around the altar to celebrate the Eucharist.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the letters Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, or Ephesus, or Rome, and so on, were read out to them in those cities during their celebration of the Sunday Eucharist.
Remember, too, that they had to meet in one another’s homes because they were a persecuted minority, and certainly weren’t allowed to build churches to gather in.
We have the privilege, and gift, of being able to meet in a church building; and we’re certainly not persecuted to death as those early Christians were.
Instead, we’re often looked upon as an irrelevance in this modern world: a group of strange people who cling on to a belief in God.
What Paul is doing in every one of his letters is to encourage, and strengthen Christians in their faith in the face of a hostile environment.
His words can speak down the centuries, and do the same for us.
That, also, is what Fr. Paul and I try to do every time we preach and, hopefully, by the way in which we live out our Christian faith.
In today’s passage from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, he’s doing just that.
What he asks of the Christian’s in Philippi is that they learn to trust the Lord to look after them; just as Paul has learnt to do in his life.
To ask the Lord for the grace to enable them to cast all their cares onto Him, because His shoulders are big enough to bear our burdens.
After all, they were big enough to carry the sins of the world, and our personal pain, anxiety, and suffering, to His death on the Cross at Calvary.
And anxiety was really at the heart of the pagan world in the Roman Empire.
 
They believed in so many gods and goddesses, who were potentially out to get them for some offence they mightn’t even know about, that they never knew whether something bad was waiting for them just around the corner.
Isn’t anxiety the malaise at the heart of our country too?
No, we don’t believe in capricious gods and goddesses; but anxiety about everything haunts people.
Anxiety about the economy; anxiety about terrorist attacks; anxiety about unemployment; anxiety about personal relationships: and, underneath it all, fermenting like a canker;
the fear of death.
But we have the key, which will release people from those anxieties.
We have the words of eternal life spoken by Jesus, the Word of God, to offer to people who are living without hope; boxed in by fear and anxiety.
Yet, too often, we’re afraid to speak those words, or live out those words; because we allow ourselves to be: “Squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age.” Rm. 12: 2
We, like Paul in his time, need to give people in our time: “God’s peace.” Phil. 4: 7
But how do we achieve that?
By showing them by the way we live, and act, and speak, that: “God’s peace, which is greater than we can understand, will keep guard over your hearts in Jesus.” Phil. 4: 7 because His peace is in my heart.
And the treasure that we hold, which will give us God’s peace, is prayer: a listening conversation with Jesus that covers every area of our life.
Prayer like that will mean that God’s peace – a deep peace in the midst of life’s problems, and storms – will keep guard around our hearts and minds.
 
The experience of the Apostle Paul enables us to understand that even before we seek the Lord or pray to Him, it’s He Himself who comes to meet us, who lowers Heaven to stretch out His hand to us, and raise us to His heights.
All He expects of us is that we trust totally in Him; that we really take hold of His hand.
And: “Then the God of peace will be with [us.]” Phil. 4: 9

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Ezekiel 18: 25 – 28                                          Philippians 2: 1 – 11                              Matthew 21: 28 – 32
If you’ve been in Oxford when they’re filming ‘Lewis,’ or his great forerunner, ‘Morse,’ you’d be amazed how long it takes to capture one minute of what you see on the TV.
My Wife was once an extra in ‘Morse,’ and it took 1½ hours to film no more than 2 minutes of the finished episode, ‘The Twilight Of The Gods.’
I guess we think of actors being very egotistical and vain; but good actors aren’t.
They have to be part of a team: “Working together with one mind and purpose.” Phil. 2: 2 to produce a work that’s as close to perfection as possible.
To achieve perfection, all of the production team has a part to play; from the star of the show, to the person who makes the coffee between takes.
I wonder if it’s ever occurred to you that the Eucharist is like that.
That coming to the Sunday Eucharist is not like sitting at home watching the TV, where some people – those up here in the Sanctuary – take an active role, and the others just watch.
The Eucharist is, in fact, the ‘Divine Drama’ in which everyone has a role.
But it’s not drama in the sense that a theatre or TV production is: it’s rooted in reality.
The reality that Jesus, the Word of God: “Was born as a human being, humbled himself in obedience to God, and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Phil. 2: 7 – 8
So, in the Eucharist we’re transported to the foot of the Cross; and time and eternity embrace in that piece of bread, and cup of wine.
 Then, we’re in the very presence of: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jn. 1: 29 at the Lamb’s Supper in heaven: “For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Rev. 7: 17
So, you see, we’re not alone in this world.
We’re surrounded by that: “Great cloud of witnesses.” Heb. 12: 1 the Angels, and the Saints, who are with us around the Lamb.
However, because the Eucharist is rooted in the ultimate reality of life – the Death and Resurrection of Jesus – we must also be aware that the Evil One is looking on too.
He knows that victory isn’t his because Jesus died, and rose again; but he’s going to do his best to harry the followers of Jesus, like a hound chasing a fox.
And he does that by sowing the seeds of division, wrangling, self-seeking and – worst of all – apathy, in Christian communities.
That’s why Paul urges the Christians in Philippi, and every Christian down the ages, to: “Hold on to the same love [for Jesus]; bring your lives into innermost harmony; fix your minds on the same object [Jesus]. Look after each other’s best interests, not your own.” Phil. 2: 2 & 4
The Evil One’s entrée into any Christian community is not through any spectacular display of evil-doing directed externally at the Church.
Instead, it’s through the constant drip-drip of division, selfish ambition, and apathy within the Church.
One, or all of those at work in the Church, is like a worm silently chomping its way through a juicy apple.
Pope Benedict spoke the truth when he said that: “The sufferings of the Church come from inside the Church, from the sin that is born within the Church.” Pope Benedict XVI: Apostolic Trip To Portugal
But let’s not give up the fight; because we have the Lord on our side, with His promise to Peter that: “All the powers of hell will not conquer [His Church].” Mt. 16: 18
And, to win the fight, Paul says that this is how we should think:
“Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2: 5
We’re all in the ‘Divine Drama’ together; working towards meeting the Risen Lord in the Eucharist every Sunday.
And, having been graced by the Eucharist: The source and summit of the whole Christian life.” Vatican II: Lumen Gentium 11, we’re sent out by the Deacon at the end of the Eucharist to: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” New English Translation Of The Roman Missal 2011
Philippians is a wonderful letter; full of encouragement to that small group of Christians in Philippi, living in the midst of a pagan, secular culture.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
So we can be encouraged too, as Paul encouraged the Philippians later on in his Letter to tell people about Jesus by working together in harmony: “That way [he says] nobody will be able to fault you, and you’ll be pure and spotless children of God  in the middle of a twisted and depraved generation. You are to shine among them like lights in the world, clinging on to the word of life.” Phil. 2: 15 – 16
‘Clinging on to the word of life....’
Like a child clings to its Mum or Dad when it feels the need to be safe, and loved, we need to cling to Jesus.
But people accuse us of being Christians because we can’t face the harsh realities of life; like Peter Pan, we’ve retreat into the ‘Neverland’ of believing in God.
Of course, that may be true of some of us, but I believe that by not believing in God: “If we look only at ourselves we can no longer pass through storms on the waters of life.”
Pope Benedict XVI: Angelus; August 13 2011
We lose touch with the ultimate reality that there is a God who loves us with an eternal love.
As Saint Augustine said: “With your strength alone you cannot rise. Hold tight to the hand of the One who reaches down to you.”
Then we can look the world squarely in the face without any fear.
And we mustn’t just ‘make do’ with a bland, safe Christianity that tries to mould itself into a shape the world finds agreeable.
The Church is not in the business of retreating into a ‘Neverland,’ or diluting her message so that it’s bland enough to be acceptable to our pagan, secular culture.
“By proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, [she is] to bring the light of Christ to the whole human race.” Vatican II: Lumen Gentium 1
And, to achieve that, we must do as Paul tells us in Philippians: “Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2: 5    
And His mind is that: “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Jn. 3: 16
To go back to where I started, comparing a film production to the Eucharist; the same picture-image is true of the Church as a whole.
Every Christian at our Baptism is given the mandate by Jesus to:
“Go and make disciples of [everyone], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Mt. 28: 19
And we promise to do that every Sunday Eucharist when we say at the beginning of The Creed:
“I believe...”
We take on our Baptismal promises for ourselves.
So, in a few moments, when we say the Creed together, let’s do so by holding: “On to the same love [for Jesus]; bringing our lives into innermost harmony; fixing our minds on the same object [Jesus]. [And] looking after each other’s best interests, not our own.” Phil. 2: 2 & 4
Then we can proclaim: “The one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands [in the Eucharist]. He is the Word of life.” 1 Jn. 1: 1

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Jeremiah 20: 7 – 9                                          Romans 12: 1 – 2                                           Matthew 16: 21 – 27 _______________________________________________________________________________________
“Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” Rm. 12: 2
I’m sure you know the old saying about all our chickens coming home to roost.
 It actually originates in Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales,’ written around 1390, though he expressed it rather differently in ‘The Parson's Tale,’ writing that curses are like: ‘A bird that returns again to his own nest.’
As the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament rather cynically, and world-wearily says: “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” Ecc. 1: 9
If we look back over the past few years we would probably echo his words too.
We’ve had the near collapse of our banking system, with some bankers putting greed and avarice before the common good: and the same with politicians of all parties with their expenses.
Also, news organisations, and individuals within them, stopping at nothing to get a story.
Then, on the night of August 6/7 in London, and other of our towns and cities – as the culmination of all that went before, our chickens did indeed come home to roost in the form of looting, wanton criminality, and cold-blooded murder.
We’re reaping the harvest of our post World War II culture where anything goes; where we’ve lost the sense of right and wrong and, of having care for, and responsibility toward, our fellow human beings.
If you follow the philosophy of saying: “There is no such thing as society.” Margaret Thatcher: Woman’s Own interview October 31 1987 to its logical conclusion, it means we completely lose sight of the fact that: “We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” Rm. 12: 5
 We become isolated, insular, selfish individuals who are only looking out for our own ends.
The very funny ‘Only Fools And Horses’ episode, made at the height of the ‘Yuppy’ phenomenon in the 1980’s, really makes that point, but through comedy.
Having seen, and been strongly influenced by the film Wall Street, especially its lead character, the ruthless corporate high-flyer Gordon Gekko, Del Boy has decided to adopt a new ‘Yuppy’ image, donning a striped shirt and red braces, and carrying a filofax and a silver briefcase.
Strutting around a wine bar frequented by ‘Yuppies,’ pretending that he’s the great wheeler-dealer whose only aim is – come hell or high water – to be a millionaire by next year.
Then, with pina colada in hand, he leans on the bar; but the bar top is open, so he falls flat on his back.
Beautifully timed comedy; but it’s really an allegory of our country back in the late 80’s.
Now we’re experiencing, as Del Boy did at the bar, a collapse: the inevitable end-game of collective amorality. 
The Church doesn’t live in a bubble: she inhabits the real world.
She’s to live in the world, but not be: “Squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age.” Rm. 12: 2
Way back in 1965, at the Second Vatican Council, the Church with a prophetic voice pledged herself to listen with her heart to: “The joys and the hopes, the grief’s and the anxieties of the people of this age, [for] these are the joys and hopes, the grief’s and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”
Documents of Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes; 1
Because: “Inspired by no earthly ambition, the Church seeks but a solitary goal: to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give witness to the truth, to rescue and not to sit in judgment, to serve and not to be served. (Jn.18: 37)” Gaudium et Spes; 3
We know that the Church hasn’t always lived up to that holy pledge because she’s inhabited by people like us – frail sinners.
She hasn’t always exhibited the joy and freedom that comes from knowing Jesus.
Jesus: “Who was crucified and rose again to break the strangle hold of personified evil, so that the world might be fashioned anew according to God's design and reach its fulfilment.” Gaudium et Spes; 2
We could just blame ‘The Church’ for all her sins and shortcomings; but what is the Church really?
Is it the Pope, the Vatican, the Cardinals, just its outward appearance, as it were?
Are they solely to blame if the Church falls into sin?
No. We’re all in it together if we, as Catholic Christians: Confess with [our] mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in [our] heart that God raised him from the dead.” Rm. 10: 9
This is what we did when, at our Confirmation, we took upon ourselves the promises others made for us at our Baptism: and retake again every Sunday when we say the Creed together.
There is, to use that modern word, a ‘disconnect’ between what we say, and what we do as Christians.
Paul, as I quoted earlier, says that we mustn’t be: “Squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age.” Rm. 12: 2
By that phrase, ‘the present age,’ he means all those things in the world that characterise rebellion against God, and the disintegration, and death of all that is good, beautiful, and holy in Creation because of it.
In contrast, for Paul ‘the age to come,’ in which God would give new life to the world and humankind, bringing justice, joy and peace once and for all, is here now through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
Or, to put it another way, as Jesus says in John’s Gospel: “Anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life.” Jn. 3: 36
In today’s reading from Romans, Paul deals with that ‘disconnect’ head on, and how we can become connected again.
Connected to God, connected within ourselves, and connected to one another.
He says: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” Rm. 12: 2
For Paul, the mind and the body are closely interconnected, and must work together harmoniously as a team.
And Paul uses vivid, perhaps shocking language to us, by telling us that, because of the riches of God’s mercy given to us through Jesus, we must: Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.” Rm. 12: 1
We mustn’t be immature people who only behave like Christians for one hour a week at Mass, but don’t live it out for the rest of the week.
To be a Christian in 2011 is to look ‘this present age’ squarely in the face, and see that the way of life it offers often involves the real human immaturity; as people simply look at the surrounding culture, with all its shallow, silly, destructive patterns of behaviour, and copy it unthinkingly.
To follow Jesus isn’t to involve us retreating into a Catholic ghetto of hankering for the ‘good old days,’ or trying to dilute our faith into something that’s ‘user friendly’ for this ‘present age.’
Following either of those paths will lead to a dull, empty, lifeless  faith, which culminates in us just going through the motions of following Jesus.
Jesus, who said that: “The thief’s purpose [Satan] is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give [you] a rich, abundant, satisfying life.” Jn. 10: 10
So, if we yield ourselves completely to Jesus, in the heart of His Church, then we will have that life – eternal life.
And, these words of Paul in the Letter to the Galatians will come alive in us: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2: 20

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Isaiah 22: 19 – 23       Romans 11: 33 – 36        Matthew 16: 13 – 20
Every Sunday we have three Scripture readings: the first is from the Old Testament, the second, usually from one of Paul’s Letters and, last but not least, a Gospel passage.
The idea is that the first reading and the Gospel are linked with a common theme; whilst the second reading stands alone.
Admittedly, it sometimes takes a bit of digging to find that link but, today it’s easy.
The connection between them today is all to do with God giving authority to someone to make binding decisions in His name on behalf of His people.
For us, as Catholic Christians that person is Peter, the Rock.
The Rock: not because of any gift or talent or merit of his own that he can give to the Lord as a sort of ‘payment’ for making him the Rock.
No:  it was because: “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal it to you; it was my Father in heaven.” Mt. 16: 17 Jesus says to Peter.
And, what was this revelation that Peter had?
It was that this seemingly ordinary man, Jesus of Nazareth, is: “The Son of the living God!” Mt. 16: 16
But then, after Peter’s confession of faith to Jesus that: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus: “Strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.” Mt. 16: 11 & 20
But why did Jesus say that?
Why didn’t Jesus want them to tell the whole world that the Messiah, the Saviour, had come?
Because, immediately after Jesus gives him the great gift, and privilege of being the Rock upon which His Church will be built: “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, ‘Heaven forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you!’” Mt. 16: 22
And Peter does so because Jesus: “Began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.” Mt. 16: 21  
This was not the Messiah – the Christ – Peter wanted to follow.
Like us, who’ve been given the great free gift of grace of becoming members of the Church, the Body of Christ, Peter tries to possess, and manipulate Jesus.
But we can’t possess, and manipulate Jesus, because, as Paul says:
“How rich are the depths of God – how deep his wisdom and knowledge.” Rm. 11: 33
And we can’t, and mustn’t even try to posses Jesus in order to manipulate Him toward our own ends because, through Paul’s words in Philippians, God says that: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2: 10 – 11  
But why should the actual name of Jesus be so important; and why should all of creation acknowledge Jesus as Lord?
Because names are extremely important to God.
In the context of The Bible, If you knew a person's name you became part of them, and they became part of you. You belonged to each other.
That’s why Moses, when he encountered the Lord God in the burning bush, is so anxious to know God’s name.
And God tells Moses that His name is: “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to your people: I AM has sent you.”
Ex. 3: 13 – 14
Or YAHWEH as it’s translated from the Hebrew in some editions of the Bible.
Although the Jews won’t utter God’s personal name, YAHWEH, because to them it’s so holy.
They use the word ADONAI – Lord God as we say in English – and the first Christians used the Greek word, KYRIOS, which means the same.  
But, the meaning behind the names, expresses beautifully the character of the Lord God.
That there was never a moment when He didn’t exist: there never will be a moment when He doesn’t exist: there will never be a moment when He won't exist.
And ADONAI – KYRIOS – the Lord God; He has revealed Himself to us, and invites us to call Him by His personal name – Jesus.
Because, as the Letter to the Hebrews states: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Heb. 13: 8   
Even when, as Peter writes in his Second Letter: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” 2 Peter 3: 10
The Lord God – I AM – will be here: the God who is eternally dependable, faithful, and desires our full trust and commitment.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus refers to Himself seven times – the symbolic number for the perfection of God – as: I AM.
Jesus is really saying: I am, I AM. I am ADONAI – KYRIOS – the One True God who created everything.
For one human being – Jesus – to claim to be the One True God was the most terrible form of blasphemy, pride, and arrogance…. unless it's true of course.
In John 8: 58, Jesus says to the Jews: “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!”
No wonder their immediate reaction was to want to kill Him by stoning; the penalty for blasphemy.
So names are very important to God.
And, in today’s Gospel, Simon Peter is no longer called Simon Peter.
 Jesus changes his name to simply Peter because Simon Peter has confessed with his tongue Jesus is: “The Christ, the Son of the living God.” Mt. 16: 16
And this God-breathed confession from Peter is what Jesus uses to build His Church upon.
The revelation that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, which Peter didn’t learn from any human being, but only from Jesus’ Father in heaven. See Mt. 16: 17
The revelation that Jesus is I AM.
As I said, names in the Bible are extremely important to God, and Peter’s is a case in a point.
In Greek, the language the New Testament was originally written in, and Jesus may have understood and spoke, the word Peter and stone/ rock are the same.
I think Jesus was saying to Peter: ‘You’re a small stone, but on this enormous rock of faith that I am the Son of the Living God, I'll build my Church. The gates of death and hell can't hold out against it and I'll make you the leader of my Church when I’m no longer with you in the flesh.’
But that doesn't mean the Lord's given His Church a blank cheque, as it were, for us to squander the treasure of our faith in the Lord Jesus.
We have to keep constantly anchored to the rock, the foundation, and the cornerstone – Jesus the Lord – and His Church.
Peter himself says this in his First Letter: “As you come to him, the living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” 1 Pet. 2: 4 - 5
So let’s always remember that we have to own for ourselves, as Peter did, the faith that Jesus is: “The Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Mt. 16: 16 
Then by the manner of our lives we'll be a living word, and a living letter from the Lord inviting other people to come and know Him.
Only then can we truly say we're authentic Christians: just as Paul described the Christians in Corinth in his Second Letter to them.
“You show that you are a letter from Christ, written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not carved on stone but on [your] hearts.” 2 Cor. 3: 3

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY ~ 2011

Apocalypse 11: 19; 12: 1 – 6, 10                                  1 Corinthians 15: 20 – 26                                            Luke 1: 39 – 56  __________________________________________________________________________________________
If you have a 3D TV, or go to a 3D movie, you have to wear special glasses to put into focus the picture on the screen.
If you don’t, everything is blurred, fuzzy, and pretty much incomprehensible.
It’s the same with this Feast of the Assumption of Mary.
To look at Mary, and her role in her Son’s salvation of the world just through the lens of popular piety, is like viewing a 3D movie without the glasses.
What we must do is look at the Assumption through Scripture, and the Tradition and teaching of the Church.
So where are my Scriptural and theological 3D glasses to be focussed?
Well, on that strange, scary passage from the Book of Revelation.
Or, to give it its correct title, the Apocalypse.
Because apocalypse actually means a revealing, a making clear something that’s hidden: a revelation, in other words.
Many, many people have, and still are, misusing the Book of Revelation by taking bits of it completely out of context to make a time-table for the return of Jesus at the end of the world.
Except that the Apocalypse is not a time-table for the Second Coming of Jesus.
If you don’t believe me, then believe these words from the lips of Jesus Himself: “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Mt. 24: 36
The whole point of the Apocalypse is to reveal the reality, unseen by human eye, that the Church on earth is wedded to the Church in heaven.
That despite all the evil and suffering we see around us every day in this world, this ‘vale of tears:’ “The Lamb [is] on the throne.” Rev. 7: 17
Terrible sufferings and evil will be inflicted on the Church – both from within and without – by Satan, the Evil One, the Red Dragon.
But those who remain faithful to the Lamb to the end will: “Have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Because: "Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed – the Christ.” Rev. 7: 14 & 12: 10   
Then, our eternal destination will be in: A new heaven and a new earth.” Where: “The Lamb is its light.” Rev.21: 1 & 21: 23
Of that we can be sure because: “Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.” 1 Cor. 15: 20
Where He has led, Mary, His Mother, has followed because she’s the faithful one par-excellence.
And, as Mary is an ordinary human being – albeit a unique one as she gave birth to the Saviour – her resting place in the Father’s House will be ours too if we emulate her faithfulness to her Son.
So let’s try to reveal what the Apocalypse is telling us about Jesus, and His Mother.
At the heart of the Jerusalem Temple was the sanctuary – the Holy of Holies – where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt.
In the Ark were the two tablets of stone Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, upon which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments.
It also contained some manna with which the Lord had fed His people on their 40 year journey through the desert to the Promised Land.
It also housed the rod of Israel’s first High Priest – Aaron, the brother of Moses – signifying his authority.
Only the High Priest, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement, could enter into the Holy of Holies to plead forgiveness for God’s people.
The Temple sanctuary and the Ark were made by human hands to try to contain God on our terms.
But the reality of heaven revealed in the Apocalypse turns that idea on its head.
The sanctuary in heaven is the eternal God Himself: and what do we find in the sanctuary?
Not an Ark made by human hands, but a woman; and she is in labour with a male child.
The Ark of flesh and blood is Mary; prepared by God to bear, and reveal His Son to the world.
Carrying in her womb not tablets of stone, or manna, or Aaron’s rod; but the Word of God, and the Bread of Life – Jesus, our eternal High-Priest.
And, so: “A child is born to us; a son is given to us.” Is. 9: 6
Immediately, Satan – the Dragon – tries to destroy the child by any means possible.
It’s easy to look on the Book of Revelation as a fast moving fantasy film: except, that we’re not dealing with fantasy.
We’re actually dealing in ultimate truth and reality that Jesus is He through whom: "Have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God.”Rev. 12: 10  
By her escaping into the desert to a place of safety prepared for her by God, the Mother of Jesus then becomes our Mother.
She becomes the Church in the world; crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth, as it were, that all of humanity will come to love and serve her Son as Lord and Saviour.
Mary is the true, and faithful one who, throughout her life said to the Lord:”May it be done to me according to your word.” Lk. 1: 38
And, because of her steadfastness, at the end of her life she fell asleep, and tasted the first-fruits of her Son’s Resurrection.
Her Assumption is unique to her as the Mother of the Saviour.
It’s a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection: but it’s also an anticipation of the resurrection of those who faithfully follow her Son in this life, to their eternal destiny in the Father’s House.
For as the Lord gives His word to us in Scripture: “Just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.” 1 Cor. 15: 21 – 22
Mary’s Assumption is not to elevate her to the same status as God; rather, it’s to show us our final destiny as faithful followers of her Son.
In today’s reading from the Apocalypse we see the climax of the enmity between Satan, and God that began in the Garden of Eden.
The offspring of the New Eve, Mary, is her Son, Jesus, who has defeated the: “Great dragon – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” Rev. 12: 9    
Yet, in the time between the Ascension of Jesus, and His coming again at the end of time, the Dragon, in his death throes, will try to drag down with him as many as he can.
However, the Lord has made a safe, secure place for us: it is Ark of the Church.
Where, through our Baptism, we share in the victory of Jesus as the Apocalypse tells us: “They – [all of us] – conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of [our] testimony.” Rev. 12: 11
And we’re not alone here on earth in our following of Jesus because the Church on earth is wedded to the Church in glory.
“We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” Heb. 12: 1
Mary, and the Saints; who are constantly praying for the Church on earth to be kept safe from the Evil One.
Assisted by their prayers: “Let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us  and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” Heb. 12: 1 – 2  

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]   

                                
1 Kings 19: 9, 11 – 13                                     Romans 9: 1 – 5                                       Matthew 14: 22 – 33
A few days ago I celebrated the life of a 100 year old woman on the occasion of her funeral.
Who can possibly imagine the many changes she experienced during her 100 years on this earth?
So many things that we take for granted, which people then would have said were impossible; just a myth, a fantasy
Today, people say the miraculous things Jesus did were just that.
Speaking personally, I don't have difficulty believing in the miraculous signs that Jesus did because I know in my heart that He is, who John in his Gospel says He is: “The Word [who] became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jn. 1: 14
His reason for performing miraculous signs wasn’t just to overwhelm people with His power over nature, illness, and death.
They were undertaken - again, as John tells us: “That you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Jn. 20: 31
In today’s Gospel, when Jesus walks on the water, and calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee; these were both miracles that overrode the laws of nature, which He created. 
However, there's a more astonishing miracle than those in the Gospel.
A miracle of grace.
To see someone turning from their former life where they thought: “There is no God.” Ps. 14: 1 to the moment when they say to Jesus: “My Lord and my God,” Jn. 20: 28  
That is the greatest miracle of all: a miracle of grace.
And that's the sort of miracle the Disciples experience in the boat in the midst of the raging storm: a miracle of grace.
When they fully realise who He really is, and they: “Worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”  Mt. 14: 33
But, as the lyrics of the Gershwin song tells us: “The age of miracles hadn’t passed.” George & Ira Gershwin: A Foggy Day
Miracles of grace happen among us – and in us – today, but very often we’re not tuned in to recognise them.
And, very often, they don’t come in a spectacular display of spiritual fireworks.
More often than not they come enthroned in quietness, and gentleness as the: “Gentle whisper.” 1 Ki. 19: 12 of: “The perfect law that sets you free.” Jm. 1: 25
The world believes in the survival of the fittest.
Christians believe in the survival of the weakest.
But, why?
Because Jesus weathered the storm of the Cross, shipwrecked death, and rose from the dead out of love for us.
So, when we embark upon following Jesus, we have to see our life through the ‘grace-tinted lenses’ of the Cross, and the Empty Tomb.
Those tools of amazing grace that the Lord uses to save a wretch like me, when: “He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Col. 1: 13 – 14
In today’s Gospel Jesus needs time on His own to pray to His Father, so he sends the Disciple off in a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
At three in the morning, in the dead of night, they’re far off from land, and: “A strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves.” Mt. 14: 24
At that moment of their deepest terror, and fear: “Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, ‘It’s a ghost!’”
Mt. 14: 25 – 26
But Jesus reassures them, and calms their fears by saying: "Don’t be afraid. Take courage. I am here!”
Mt. 14: 27
 Above the storms of our life, Jesus speaks to us too, often in the sound of a gentle whisper, and says: "Don’t be afraid. Take courage. I am here!” Mt. 14: 27
Once again, Jesus enacts a miraculous ‘sign’ to show that He is the Lord of Heaven and earth.
If you think back to the Creation account in Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” Gen. 1: 1 – 2   
Only God was able to subdue the waters, and make order and beauty out of the primeval chaos.
And here is Jesus – an ordinary man as far as the Disciples are concerned at this point – doing what only God can do.
No wonder they were afraid!
Jesus not only does what only God can do, but He invites Peter to do the same by walking across the waters to Him.
Because of Peter's fear, and weak faith – and, let’s face it, who wouldn’t feel the same in those circumstances - he begins to sink. Then Jesus stretches out His hand, and catches Peter.
And, by His saving Peter, Jesus reminds, not only those Disciple in that boat, but the Ark of His Church in every generation, of His constant care for us.
Through this miraculous ‘sign,’ Jesus assures us that no storm will overturn the boat in which we sail, and no water will swallow us up in darkness.
If we look back through Church history, we could very easily jump ship because the Church has, at certain times, looked like just
a very grubby human institution – nothing more.
Indeed, if we look at the abuse scandals that have hit the Church recently, everything seems to indicate shipwreck, fear, drowning, and death.
However, the Church isn’t just a human invention.
It is beloved by the Father, because it is the Body of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
And the Church only falls into a state of shipwreck, and death when she doesn’t hold on tightly to Her Lord’s hand. 
As Pope Benedict so succinctly put it in 2010: “The sufferings of the Church [he said] come from inside the Church, from the sin that exists in the Church. The greatest persecution of the Church does not come from external enemies, but is born of sin within the Church. Thus the Church has a profound need to relearn penance, [and] to accept purification". Pope Benedict XVI: Apostolic Trip to Portugal: 11 - 14 May 2010 
So let’s never lose faith that Jesus does calm the storms of life.
Let’s never forget this fact: we’re on the waters with Jesus.
He’s in the boat with us; during the darkest night, and the heaviest storms.
The Lord doesn’t abandon those who come seeking His mercy, and his forgiveness.
He walks upon the waters.
He calms the storm.
He guides the boat into safe harbour, and brings with Him the great catch, the great feast, to which we are all summoned: the feast of his Body and Blood, our food for eternal life.
This is, indeed, cause for rejoicing!
So, whatever life throws at us: whenever the Church is assailed by sin, we have to look to Jesus; even though it seems impossible at times: because, for Christians Jesus is, to quote the Bard: “An ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken.” William Shakespeare: Sonnet 116

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

1 Kings 3: 5, 7 – 12                                         Romans 8: 28 – 30                                 Matthew 13: 44 – 52
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ: “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to
become true images of his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
Rm. 8: 28 – 29
And that’s why I could begin this evening/morning by calling each of you my Brother or Sister in Jesus.
Nearly every Sunday, the second reading is from one of Paul’s Letters; and I just quoted a piece of today’s reading from Romans.
In those few words is enshrined the treasure, and the pearl Jesus speaks of in the Gospel.
The fact that, because of our Baptism into Jesus, we belong together as the Family of God: and the Father’s House, in His Kingdom, is the ultimate destination to which everyone is called.
There, to enter into an intimate communion of love, and friendship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
You know, Christianity is the only religion who believes in One God, but that God is a family.
The Family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Blessed Pope John Paul II reflected on that truth in these words: ‘God in His deepest mystery [he said] is not a solitude, but a family, since He has in Himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love.’
Incorporated into the living Body of Christ – the Church – we become ‘children in the Son.’
We become children in the eternal household of God. We share in the life of the Trinity.
So the Catholic Church is nothing less than the universal Family of God. 
However, being part of the ‘Family’ doesn’t mean we can just passively sit back, and receive the treasures and the pearls it gives to us.
We have to strive to fully play our part as members of the ‘Family’
If, in this life, we’re content to just drift along – maybe even keeping up the veneer of being a good Catholic – and not striving to live for Jesus; then we’ve risked nothing for Him, and His Kingdom.
If, in this life, we haven’t striven to: “Love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul and with all [our] strength and with all [our] mind.” Lk. 10: 27 
Instead, if we cocoon ourselves in a life of ‘making do’ in our Christian faith, and not giving of ourselves wholly to Jesus, then we won’t be anything like the two men in the Parable.
We’ll hide the treasure, never buy the field, and leave it to rot away.
We’ll throw away the pearl beyond price of knowing Jesus, for the fake pearl of ‘making do’ with just what this world has to offer.
And that’s certainly not what Jesus wants for us.
His heart’s desire is, not only for us to live eternally with Him, but to begin that love affair in the here, and now.
And it begins with the gift of Baptism.
Yes, it’s a gift; but it’s a costly gift.
Costly for God, the Father: for, to unlock the treasure and the pearl to be found in Baptism, He gave His One and Only Son so that, through His dying and rising, we could die to sin, and live for Him.
Costly, too, for us.
Costly; because through our being Baptised into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Father asks us to place our entire   life into His hands.
Not because He wants to play the Divine puppeteer, and have absolute power over us for the sake of it.
No: He asks that of us so that, in a communion of love, and friendship with Jesus, we can fulfil our life’s work of bringing His Kingdom to hold sway in every corner of Creation.
For the whole of our life – not just the Catholic ‘bit’; the Sunday Mass ‘bit’ – to become encompassed absolutely by Jesus: because only the Christian life, in this life, is an absolute.
But it isn’t an absolute that restricts our freedom, or makes us less human.
Actually, to be a Christian – to live for Jesus – makes us fully human; not less human.
And, it gives us true freedom, because it opens up our souls to eternity: to the limitless joy, and excitement of knowing Jesus in this life, and eternally.
Because, as Paul says in another of his Letters: “If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” 1 Cor. 15: 19
The Christian life is something to be enjoyed to the full, not just endured.
And, really, the only way to enjoy it is to fall in love with Jesus: to become His friend for life.
That’s been my experience since, at the age of 18, I became a Catholic after having had no faith in God at all.
Very often people say to me that you feel like that because you’re a convert.
But, you know, if you’re a ‘Cradle Catholic’ as those who’ve been one all their lives are called, it doesn’t mean that you too can’t have that same experience.
All of us – whether we’re convert or ‘Cradle Catholics’ – need to arrive at a moment in our lives when we ask the Holy Spirit to reignite our Baptism, and really come to know Jesus as our Saviour, and Friend.
And one ‘Cradle Catholic’ who insists we all need to have a personal relationship – a friendship – with Jesus, is Pope Benedict.
Speaking from his life-long experience, he said this at his Inauguration as Pope: “There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and speak to others of our friendship with Him.”
Pope Benedict XVI: Inauguration Homily April 2005
The great thing with knowing Jesus like this is that it takes away any fear or apprehension one may have of God; and of having to face Him at the judgement at the end of our lives.
For, as John, the Apostle of God’s love, puts it in his First Letter: “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” 1 Jn. 4: 18
It’s very hard for anyone, including me, to admit that I’m not the most important person in the world.
To admit that I’m not the one who’s in charge of my life.
To realise that there is something: no, not something, ‘Someone,’ to whom I must yield my pride and self-sufficiency and say: ‘You’re the Lord of my life, not me.’
And that Lord is Jesus...
The Lord who calls each Christian to advance His work of saving the world from: “Pointless futility.” Rm. 8: 20 so as to lead everyone into: “The freedom and glory of the children of God.” Rm. 8: 21
When our witness to Jesus works powerfully in someone’s life to bring them into: “The freedom and glory of the children of God.” Rm. 8: 21  
When our witness to Jesus urges them to be conformed to Jesus through Baptism, and to flood their hearts with love for God by His Spirit.
When the Gospel, made flesh in our lives, produces faith like that in someone, then they’ve found the treasure, they’ve found the pearl.
Then, they can begin the adventure of being moulded by the Lord into: “True images of his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Rm. 8: 29
The Family of God in the Body of our Brother, Jesus, which is the Church.

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]  

                                          
Isaiah 55: 10 – 11                                           Romans 8: 18 – 23                              Matthew 13: 1 – 23
Some people find Barbra Streisand an acquired taste they’d rather not acquire.
But at the age when my peers were listening to Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Lulu, and Dusty Springfield, I was listening to Barbra Streisand instead.
Although the critics panned it, my favourite musical film she made is: ‘On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.’
And that reminds me of the passage we’ve just heard from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
In it, Paul reveals God’s ultimate goal for the whole of creation so that, not just, ‘On A Clear Day You Can See Forever:’ his vision is of creation restored, with us Christians being the key to unlocking its door.
And that door leads us, not merely to a clear day; it leads us into spending eternity with Him in the new heaven, and the new earth He will create when He returns in glory at the end of time.
That prospect should make us joyful, and wanting to share this ‘secret’ with everyone.
But one of the failings Christians suffer from is the tendency to be inward looking; insular, glass half-empty, instead of glass half-full people.
By that, I don’t mean we should go around with a forced optimism, and a perma-smile on our faces.
Not like in some of the Soaps, where someone’s having a terrible, traumatic time, yet everyone says: ‘Don’t worry, it’ll all work out; you’ll be fine.’
That’s optimism based, not on reality, but on fear of facing the truth.
Then, in a league of its own is ‘Eastenders’ where nothing good ever happens, and pessimism is the air they breathe.
Having a frame of mind that excludes the possibility of goodness, or that there is a God who loves, and cares for each one of us eternally.
My intuition tells me, I think, there are lots of people today who are permanent pessimists.
It also tells me that a lot of Christians tend towards pessimism, because they don’t seem to know the joy of having Jesus in their lives as their friend.
They’re like the seed in the Parable that falls among thorns, or in the rocks; not in the rich, fertile soil of Jesus, the Word of God.
Jesus, in calling us to follow Him, has opened up great riches for us; but too often our hearts become chocked, and calloused through allowing the world to force us into its mould.
When Jesus finishes telling the Parable of the Sower, He says: “Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When people hear the message about the kingdom and do not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their hearts.” Mt. 13: 17 – 19  
We don’t live in an insulated bubble in this world.
We try to, though, because sometimes it seems too painful to venture outside its comforting cocoon.
Perhaps we’ve become like the people Jesus talks of in the Parable of the Sower: “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.” Mt. 13: 15 (Is. 6: 10)
If we have, then we’ve become fertile soil for the Evil One to snatch away that grace, which was sown in our hearts at our Baptism, and Confirmation.
I don’t mean he will necessarily make us into wicked people.
He’ll make us into lukewarm Christians, which is much worse.
Much worse; because lukewarm Christians shut themselves off from the redeeming, transforming breath of the Spirit of Jesus.
And remember what Jesus had to say to the lukewarm Christians of the Church of Laodicea in the Book of Revelation.
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” Rev. 3: 15 – 16
However, if we’re lukewarm in our faith – and who isn’t at some time or other? – Jesus has the remedy for us.
The remedy He had for those self-same Christians in Laodicea: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Rev. 3: 20
And what meal could Jesus possibly mean?
Well, the Eucharist – the Lamb’s Supper – of course: the meal where heaven, and earth embrace.
And the Book of Revelation is all about heaven being wedded to earth in the new heaven, and the new earth, with the Lamb at the centre of it all.
“I saw no temple in the city, [John says in Revelation] for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light.” Rev. 21: 22 – 23
You might be forgiven for thinking that I’ve strayed a long way from the Letter to the Romans with which I began this sermon.
But John’s vision of what the Lord’s ultimate goal is for His creation is exactly the same as Paul’s in our reading from Romans.
Yes, they’re very different styles of writing, and presentation; yet they’re, at the same time, both saying the same thing.
It’s as if the entire creation is going through the agony, and the ecstasy of a woman in the midst of childbirth.
Eagerly anticipating the birth of a beautiful, healthy child, but which hasn’t appeared yet.
That restless quest for something to give life beauty, and true meaning is epitomised in the 4th. Century Saint, Augustine.
He spent his youth trying out all sorts of different experiences that only led down blind alleyways; a relentless quest for something, or someone, to light up his life.
Finally, he found Jesus Christ, and at last was satisfied: “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Augustine would later reflect on his earlier searching when his heart was: “Like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt.” Is. 57: 20
And, you know, whether creation finds out what its ultimate destiny is depends on you, and me.
This is what Paul means when he says in today’s reading: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.” Rm. 8: 19
The people who don’t know Jesus are waiting for us – deep down in their hearts – to reveal ourselves to them as brothers and sisters of Jesus, children of our Father, and filled with His Spirit.
Paul says: “The sufferings we go through in the present time are not worth putting in the scale alongside the glory that is going to be unveiled for us.” Rm. 8: 18  
At the beginning God put Adam and Eve – Man and Woman – in charge of creation.
When human beings rebelled, and worshipped parts of creation instead of God Himself, creation fell into disrepair.
When Jesus returns at the end time, He will not repair it: He will recreate it.
Then: “Creation itself will be freed from slavery to decay, to enjoy the freedom that comes when God’s children are glorified.” Rm. 8: 21
The whole creation is in labour, longing for God’s new world to be born; and the Church is to be: “The light of the world.” Mt. 5: 14
She is called to share in the world’s pain, and hope.
The Church isn’t to separate herself from the pain of the world; she is to be in prayer precisely where the world is in pain.
That’s our calling; our high, but strange vocation within the Lord’s purposes for His creation.
It requires faith, and hope – but not a lukewarm, woolly faith.
It requires a faith that looks beyond the horizons of this world, and instead looks only to Jesus.
Faith in Jesus, which gives us: “Confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Heb. 11: 1 

CORPUS CHRISTI ~ 2011

About 100 miles north of Rome, and not far from Orvieto, is the small but beautiful Lake Bolsena where we spent our holiday last September.
Nestling on a small hill overlooking the lake is the town of Bolsena whose origins stretch back beyond Roman times; and this is the rather unlikely setting for the origins of the Feast of Corpus Christi.
In the Middle Ages, Bolsena was a very busy place as it was a stopping-off point on the pilgrimage route from northern Europe to Rome.
In 1263 one such pilgrim, Father Peter, a Priest from Prague, stopped at Bolsena to celebrate Mass at the tomb of Santa Cristina, an early Christian martyr.
He was a pious man, but had difficulties in believing that Jesus is really present – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – in the Eucharist.
It seems that at the moment of consecration in the Mass, drops of blood issued from the Host as Father Peter held it up for adoration.
The drops of liquid stained the corporal – the small cloth upon which the Host and Chalice rest during Mass – and some of the stones on the floor.
These stones are preserved in the Church, whilst the corporal is in the Cathedral at Orvieto.
At the time, Pope Urban IV was staying in Orvieto; and he used this strange occurrence as a vehicle to reinforce belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament by instituting this Feast of Corpus Christi – the Body and Blood of Christ.
Last September we saw both ‘relics’ in Bolsena, and Orvieto.
However, the Church leaves us to decide if the ‘Eucharistic Miracle’ of Bolsena was that, or not.
But to speculate on whether it was blood, or not, is to entirely lose the point of what is at the heart of the Eucharist.
So let’s stand on the solid rock of Scripture to understand what the Church believes; in theological terms, what her dogma is,  about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, veiled under the humble appearance of bread and wine.
In fact, we’re in good company because, back in 1983, the now Pope Benedict XVI said when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: “Dogma is by definition nothing other than an interpretation of Scripture...  which has sprung from the faith over the centuries.”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: Canadian Catholic Review (June 1983), p. 8
In the Gospel Jesus says to us: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.” Jn. 6: 51 & 53  
By those stark, plain-spoken words Jesus didn’t mean that the bread and wine were to be understood as a symbol of His Body and Blood because: “At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.”
Jn. 6: 66
But Jesus didn’t say to them: ‘Come back, I didn’t really mean it.’
Instead, He turned to: “The Twelve [Apostles] and asked, ‘Are you also going to leave?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.’” Jn. 6: 67 – 69
To my mind, the Easter Vigil; the Vigil of the Resurrection celebrated on the night of Holy Saturday, and Corpus Christi are intimately entwined with each other because of the Resurrection of Jesus.
And I say that because: “In Jesus, the victory over death is accomplished. [And] what makes the Christian liturgy [of the Easter Vigil] so important is this victory over death, this belief that in the body and blood of Christ we share in his victory, that those who live from him will have a life that no death can take away.”
See: Scott Hahn: Covenant and Communion; p. 169
Even the words Jesus spoke over the bread and wine at the Last Supper would have been: “An empty gesture without the reality of the cross and the resurrection.”
J. F. Thornton & S. B. Varenne, eds.: The Essential Pope Benedict XVI, p. 147
For it’s the Crucified, Risen, and Glorified Body and Blood of Jesus we worship, and receive in Communion.
The events of Easter took place within the setting of the Jewish Feast of Passover.
And the Last Supper was a Passover meal: but it was the new, eternal Passover meal that fulfilled, and superseded the old.
Passover was celebrated every year to, once again, make a living reality night in Egypt when the People of God were commanded by the Lord to take an unblemished lamb, kill it, and sprinkle its blood on their doorposts.
And the consummating, the final act of the Passover, was to eat the flesh of the sacrificial lamb, which had died as a ransom in place of the firstborn of each family.
God commanded that the flesh of the lamb had to be eaten, otherwise the sacrifice would not have been completed; consummated.
The Passover, then, was an act of redemption, a ‘buying back,’ so that the People of God could pass from bondage, and slavery in Egypt, and be: “Brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Rm. 8: 21
Through His death on the Cross, Jesus is the new, and definitive Passover as both Priest and Victim.
Jesus is the Lamb of God
As Jesus stood before Pilate at His trial; at that very moment the Priests in the Jerusalem Temple were beginning to slaughter the lambs for Passover.
This, then, is the moment of the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God.
The moment when the New Passover supplants the old.
Supplanted through Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, unblemished by sin, dying on the Cross.
As Peter, writing in his First Letter, says to us: “God paid a ransom to save you. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” 1 Pt. 1: 18 – 19
As well as being unblemished – spotless – the Passover lamb had to have none of its bones broken in the act of sacrifice.
So John, an eye-witness to the Crucifixion, is careful to tell us that when the Roman soldiers: “Came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs [to hasten His death.]” Jn. 19: 33 
The sinless, spotless, unblemished Lamb of God died without His bones being broken, and so became a worthy offering: the perfect Passover Lamb.
All of this was done, as John recounts: “In fulfilment of the Scriptures that say, ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’” Jn. 19: 37 (Ex. 12: 46)
And, of course, the last words John recalls Jesus saying on the Cross are: “It is finished.” Jn. 19: 30
It is finished: Jesus, the true Lamb, who: “Stooping so tenderly lifts our humanity to the heights of His throne.”
Graham Kendrick: Meekness And Majesty
Jesus, as the Deacon sings in the Exsultet at the Easter Vigil: “Has ransomed us with his blood, and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father! Heaven is wedded to earth and we are reconciled to God!” Exsultet – The Easter Proclamation
“But it’s not enough that Jesus bled, and died for us. Now we have to play our part.
As with the Old Passover Covenant, sealed with the blood of a lamb, so with the New Passover Covenant.
If you want to mark your covenant with God, to seal your covenant with God, to renew your covenant with God, you have to eat the Lamb – Jesus, the Lamb of God – in the New Passover; the Eucharist.
It begins to sound familiar, doesn’t it? “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.” Jn. 6: 53
As Catholic Christians, our supreme act of worship is a supreme act of sacrifice: the Lamb’s Supper, the Mass, the Eucharist.
“Now, [in the Eucharist,] heaven has been unveiled for us with the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, is the Communion God has created for us. Now, heaven touches earth and awaits you. The door opens now on the marriage feast of the Lamb.” In italics see: Scott Hahn: The Lamb’s Supper, p. 163

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD [A]

Acts 1: 1 – 11      Ephesians 1: 17 – 23             Matthew 28: 16 – 20
Osama Bin Laden had the power to bring death, and destruction into the world through his network of suicide bombers, and terrorists.
President Barack Obama had the power to send an elite unit of soldiers into Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden – and to watch it live from a camera on the helmet of one of those soldiers.
Both are exercises of worldly power, albeit very different to each other; but both of which we feel we have very little control over.
And that’s the way of the world, isn’t it: that’s the way it always seems to be.
Where, one may ask, is God in all of this; and, therefore, can we really believe what we’ve just heard from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians when he boldly asserts that God, the Father, is 
all-powerful?
That God, the Father: “Exerted [that power] when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but in the age to come. Eph. 1: 20 – 21    
No, we can’t believe it if Jesus hadn’t really risen bodily from the dead.
No, we can’t believe it if Jesus hadn’t ascended bodily to heaven: to the Father’s House, to fulfil the promise He made on the night before His crucifixion that He was going: “To prepare a place for you. [And], when everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” Jn. 14: 2 – 3
The bodily Resurrection of Jesus logically leads, I believe, to His bodily Ascension.
You can’t have one without the other.
If Jesus hadn’t really risen from the dead – it was all a con-trick by the Disciples – or the memory of Jesus so filled their hearts that it seemed to them He was still alive then, there would be no need for His bodily Ascension.
In the 1977 an English academic, Professor John Hick, edited a book: ‘The Myth Of God Incarnate.’
In the Preface to the book, quoting the poet T.S. Eliot who apparently quipped that: ‘Christianity is always adapting itself into something which can be believed,’ he went on to challenge the belief that Jesus is truly God, and truly Man.
Yes, He was a good man: 'A man approved by God for a special role within the divine purpose,’ but that the constant Christian belief in Jesus ‘as God incarnate, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity’ were ‘mythological,’ the book asserts.
See John Hick, ed.: The Myth Of God Incarnate; ix
The book, although primarily an academic work, became an overnight, popular bestseller around the world.
I believe it was the catalyst that opened the Pandora’s Box, containing what Pope Benedict speaks of so often; the secularism, and relativism that’s infected the world, and also parts of the Christian church.
For, if you throw the baby Jesus out with the bath water, as it were; if you say He wasn’t God in the flesh, then anything goes.
Jesus just becomes a man who died by crucifixion.
Yes, His spirit may have lived on in the hearts of the Disciples, and inspired them, and still inspires, Christians down the ages.
But He’s no longer, as Blessed Pope John Paul II said of Him, that:
“The Redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history.”
Pope John Paul II: Redemptor Hominis 1     
He becomes an object, a ‘myth,’ for theologians, philosophers,  atheists – anyone – to dissect, and disregard at will.
But, do you suppose for one moment that all of the eye-witnesses to the bodily Resurrection, and the Ascension of Jesus were liars on a monumental scale?
Do you suppose for one moment that they would have laid down their lives, as Peter did, for ‘The Myth Of God Incarnate?’
NO!!.... I know I wouldn’t.
As Paul testifies in 1 Corinthians 15: “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time. Last of all, I also saw him” 1 Cor. 15: 3 – 6 & 8
Paul has no doubt that God, the Father: “Raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” Eph. 1: 20
If not, Paul says: “Your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” 1 Cor. 15: 17 – 19
And, for the very fact that He has risen from the dead, Jesus can say to His Disciples as He’s about to ascend to His Father in the heavenly realms: “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth.”
Mt. 28: 18
But the Lord’s power isn’t exercised in the way Osama Bin Laden’s was, or indeed, President Obama’s is.
The power, and authority Jesus employs is through His Cross.
The last thing the Disciples would have seen of Jesus as He ascended were the nail-holes in His feet.
And He will return bodily on the clouds at the end of the ages in the same way that He left us bodily at His Ascension; still bearing within His body those wounds of love.
“My kingdom is not of this world.” Jn. 18: 36 Jesus said to Pilate.
No, it isn’t: it’s much, much more than that.
It’s not a myth. He’s not a myth.
His is a Kingdom that is not of this world – it’s diametrically different – yet it’s a Kingdom that is very much in this world.
His Kingdom lives in His Church.
The Father: “Has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Eph. 1: 22 – 23
And, as living members of His Body, the Church, all of us have to fulfil that last commandment Jesus gave to us to: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” Mt. 28: 19 – 20
So, until He comes again at the end of time, that’s our mandate; to bring others to know Him, and love Him.
The Apostle John, in his vision of the: “Wedding feast of the Lamb.” Rev. 19: 7 in heaven, writes in the Book of Revelation: “‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,’” and ‘every eye will see him, even those who pierced him;’ and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’ Rev. 1: 7 (Dn. 7: 13 & Zech. 12: 10)
Let them not mourn because we’ve failed in that ‘Great Commission’ from Jesus to go and make disciples for Him.
To invite them to the Lamb’s Supper of the Mass – the Eucharist – which we’re celebrating here and now.
Because, in the Eucharist: “Now, heaven has been unveiled for us with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, heaven touches earth and awaits you. Jesus Christ Himself says to you: “Behold. I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with [you], and [you] with Me” (Rev. 3:20) The door opens now on the marriage [feast] of the Lamb.” Scott Hahn: The Lamb’s Supper, p. 163 because of the bodily Resurrection, and bodily Ascension of the Lamb who was slain, yet lives to reign.
And the Lord always fulfils His promises: “For the Lamb on the throne will be [our] Shepherd. He will lead [us] to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from [our] eyes.”
Rev. 7: 17*

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER [A] ~ Good Shepherd Sunday

Acts 2: 14, 36 – 41            1 Peter 2: 20 – 25                 John 10: 1 – 10 
“While shepherds watched their flocks by night all seated on the ground...” Nahum Tate: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
I’ve quoted from that well known Christmas Carol because, in order to plumb the depths of what Jesus means when He says that He’s the Good Shepherd, I believe we need to look back to His birth.
We also need to understand what shepherds did, and who they were, when Jesus walked this earth.
Only then can we begin to appreciate what Jesus asks of those of us who’ve heeded His call to the Ordained Ministry in His Church.
And those who, even now, are hearing His heart speaking to their hearts, asking them to follow Him along that same path.
About 700 years before the birth of Jesus, the Prophet Micah said this about the coming Messiah, the Saviour of the world.
“But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah 5: 2
That is the answer given by the Scripture experts  when the Magi, having followed the star, enquire of King Herod where the Saviour has been born. See Mt. 2: 1 – 6
But a further interpretation had also gained credence among those same experts, that the Saviour was to be revealed from ‘Migdal Eder.’
That Hebrew name, ‘Migdal Eder,’ means: ‘The tower of the flock.’
Not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks of sheep, which pastured on the barren sheep-ground beyond Bethlehem.
This was the special ‘Migdal Eder’, which lay close to Bethlehem on the road to Jerusalem.
Special, because those shepherds who watched their flocks by night, were special shepherds watching over special sheep.
They were Temple-shepherds; who looked after the flocks  destined to be sacrificed in the Jerusalem Temple to wash away human sin by the sacrificial blood of a lamb.
“A lamb without blemish.” Ex. 12: 5  
And it wasn’t a small flock because of the vast numbers sacrificed daily in the Jerusalem Temple; the zenith of which was reached at the Feast of Passover.
At Passover: “As many as two and a half million pilgrims thronged Jerusalem, coming from the far corners of the known world.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus records that, on Passover in the year AD 70, only months before the Romans destroyed the Temple, and some forty years after Jesus’ ascension, the priest’s offered more than a quarter of a million lambs on the Temple’s altars – 256,500 to be precise.” Scott Hahn: The Lamb’s Supper, p. 22
It’s no coincidence, therefore, that Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd.
And it’s no coincidence that John, in his Gospel, records that saying of the Lord Jesus, which isn’t found in the three other Gospels.
Because John uses real events, and words of the Lord, to draw out their symbolic meaning: but not a symbolic meaning devoid of substance or reality.
Jesus, in using that title, the Good Shepherd, resonated with John because – I think – the Lord was linking Himself to those Temple-shepherds, and their special flock, on the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.
Just as the Temple-shepherds led their lambs, ‘without blemish:’ “Like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.”
Jer. 11: 19 to be sacrificed at Passover.
Jesus, the true: “Lamb of God.” Jn. 1: 29 would travel the road to Jerusalem at Passover and, on the Cross, He became the new, and definitive Passover sacrifice as both Priest and Victim.
He is our true Passover from death to eternal life: and we draw life from the Lord by eating His Body, and drinking His Blood in the Eucharist.
This is my body which is given for you.... This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood.” Lk. 22: 19 – 20   
“Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” 1 Cor. 11: 27 – 28
So Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians who had become blasé about the Eucharist.
It had become a thing of habit, rather than a life-giving encounter with: “The Lord of glory.” 1 Cor. 2: 8
It’s very easy to fall into that mind-set ourselves; and I think it can be a particular danger for those of us in the Ordained Ministry.
We can become so used to standing on holy ground when we minister Jesus to you through Word and Sacrament, that we can become victims of eating the bread of the Lord, and drinking of His cup in an unworthy manner.
We forget too easily that we’ve been called in a particular way to follow Jesus: The good shepherd [who] lays down his life for the sheep.” Jn. 10: 11
In that regard, I’m reminded of the words Bishop Crispian spoke in his Mass of the Oils homily at our Cathedral in Portsmouth on the Tuesday of Holy Week.
Particularly apposite, yet poignant words, as it will be his last such homily as Bishop before he retires later this year.
He said: “Reflecting on past years and on this occasion, I am full of thanksgiving for the wonderful grace of priesthood that I have
received and for the privilege that the Lord has given me of sharing that ministry – His ministry – with so many of you.
This doesn’t make us any better than anyone else and I am constantly brought back to earth by those famous words of St Augustine, who writes: ‘The Lord, as he saw fit and not according to my own merits, appointed me to this position…and I exhibit two clearly distinct features: firstly, that I am a Christian and secondly that I am a bishop for others.
The fact that I am a Christian is for my benefit, that I am appointed bishop is for yours. With you I am a Christian and for you I am a bishop.’
We all begin our Christian lives at the same place – at the baptismal font.
For all of us too, our journey of faith through life comes to its end when we stand on the threshold of eternity at the moment of our dying.” Bishop Crispian Hollis: Mass of the Oils Homily 2011
For the 43 years I’ve known Bishop Crispian, firstly as a Priest, and then as my Bishop, he’s lived out those words in his life
Whether one is a Deacon, as I am, a Lay-person or a Priest, Bishop, Cardinal or Pope, those words should bring us to reflect deeply on our relationship with the Good Shepherd.
The Vatican Museums houses spectacular works of art; but there is a very small, simple, and modern artefact near the end of the exhibits that’s my favourite piece.
It’s a bronze sculpture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
He’s holding a lamb close to His heart, and the lamb is gazing into His face.
Very close behind Him are four or five sheep looking intently at Him, ensuring that they’re as close to Him as they can be so that they don’t lose their way.
It’s a moving depiction of Jesus, and it illustrates how our relationship – whether we be Clergy or Laity – should be with the Lord.
If we Ordained Ministers of the Lord allowed the heart of the Good Shepherd to speak to our hearts, then our ministry to you would bear much fruit.
And it would bear much fruit, too, in enabling those who are hearing the Good Shepherd calling them by name into the Ordained Ministry, to respond with all their hearts.
To Faithfully follow Jesus all the days of their lives: Jesus, who said: “I am the [Good Shepherd]; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.” Jn. 10: 9 – 10
 Father, in your plan for our salvation you provide shepherds for your people. Fill your Church with the Holy Spirit. Raise up worthy Ministers for your Church, to be ardent but gentle servants of the Gospel. We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER [A] ~ Divine Mercy Sunday   

                                                          
Acts 2: 42 - 47                                                 1 Peter 1: 3 - 9                                                               John 20: 19 – 31
It's funny how others see us isn't it? People tell me that I always seem cool, calm, collected and laid back. How wrong can you be!
Actually, I'm like a duck: calmly gliding along on the surface, but underneath my little legs are going like mad!
You know, us Clergy aren't immune from all the anxieties, and fears that anyone else feels, any more than the Disciples were.
On Easter morning, the Disciples were huddled together: frightened, hiding and filled with doubt.
Now, a week later, they're still there: even though on Easter morning Jesus had come to them, showed them His hands and His side and calmed them by breathing His Spirit over them, saying: "Peace be with you." Jn. 20: 21
In one way or another I’m sure we know how the Disciples felt.
We're not literally hiding behind locked doors; but I'm sure we all know that sinking feeling in our stomachs when we're scared.
What locks us in is our fears, and insecurities; the past hurts we’ve experienced, our doubts, uncertainties, and our sin.
Sometimes it’s a bad experience of the Church that hurts us deeply.
I’m not a ‘Cradle Catholic,’ so my encounter with the Church may have been different to yours, so I can only speak to you from my experience; and it’s this.
To say, for me, knowing Jesus in His Church is a wonderful thing; but that doesn't mean to say though that I don't have difficulties, and doubts like anyone else.
Also to say that the Church is made up of fallible, fallen people like me; so we have to look beyond all of that to find the treasure at the heart of the Church: Jesus Himself.
Jesus was rich in Divine Mercy toward His Disciples; just as He is with us.
So He wanted them, as he wants us, to open the locked doors of their hearts to have a deep, abiding friendship with Him.
We live 2000 years on from the Resurrection of Jesus, which means we've become used to it; perhaps blasé about it.
It's maybe become a thing of habit or custom or culture, instead of becoming: “Woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.” Paul Simon: Train In The Distance
Jesus said to Thomas: “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” Jn. 20: 29
We haven't seen Jesus in the flesh yet we still believe – don't we?
Although I guess we all have a bit of the ‘Doubting Thomas’ in us, as the fact that Jesus is risen from the dead is something completely alien in our human experience of life.
But: “There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in [our] philosophy.” William Shakespeare: Hamlet  Act 1, Scene V
Left to their own devices, I'm sure the Disciples would have stayed behind the locked doors of their hearts for the rest of their lives.
But the Living Jesus isn't stopped by locked doors – He’s unstoppable – because the central thing about His Resurrection is that Jesus ignores locked doors; just as He ignored the stone that locked Him in His tomb.
Jesus didn't wait for Thomas to stop doubting, to reach a certain level of faith, before He went to Him through the locked doors.
Jesus loved Thomas just as he was; but He didn't want him to stay like that, locked up in fear and doubt.
The Lord went into the middle of that room to release Thomas so that he could go out into the world, and blossom into the image and likeness of his Lord and God.
What I find so encouraging about ‘Doubting Thomas’ is the level of intimacy Jesus was prepared to show him in order to release him from doubt.
Jesus didn’t invite any of the other Disciples – not even John the ‘Beloved Disciple’ – to put their fingers into the nail holes in His wrists, and their hands into the wound in His side.
But I don't think that this invitation was just a physical thing.
It was Jesus wanting to reach Thomas at the deepest level; showing the depth of His love for this doubting man.
And that means Jesus loves each of us in exactly the same way He loved Thomas because, like him, we're weak, fallible, and doubting.
Confronted with His Crucified and Risen Lord, Thomas could still have remained spiritually locked up.
But Jesus said to him: “Stop doubting and believe” [To which Thomas exclaimed] “My Lord and my God.” Jn. 20: 27 - 28 and walked: “Out of shadows and images into truth.” Blessed John Henry Newman’s Epitaph
I think Peter, who himself had experienced deeply the Divine Mercy, and forgiveness of Jesus, puts the experience of Thomas, and all of us who respond to Jesus in that way, so well when he wrote: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1: 3     
Just as Jesus called His friend, Lazarus, bound in graveclothes from his tomb; so too He had to call the frightened Disciples out from their self-imposed graveclothes of doubt, and fear.
In His coming to Thomas, and showing him those wounds of love, Jesus revealed to us how much He loves us.
Jesus desires to walk through the locked doors of our hearts, so that we can contemplate the wounds of His love.
Having contemplated the depths of His love for us, Jesus then commands us to go out into the world to glorify Him in our lives.
“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 end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1: 8 - 9
Those words were written by Peter – The Rock – upon whom the Lord built His Church as His Chief Apostle, and first Bishop of Rome.
We’re not just Catholic Christians, we’re Roman Catholic Christians: we’re part of the Catholic – the Universal Church.
But we’re Roman Catholics because we’re bound in a communion of love with the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
This morning, in St Peter’s, where Peter is buried, the Successor of Peter, Pope Benedict XVI, Beatified his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
Declaring that this: ‘Man from a far country,’ Pope John Paul II: First address on being elected Supreme Pontiff , 16  October 1978) Baptised Karol Wojtyla, is definitively enjoying eternal life in the presence of the Lord whom he served with steadfast love, and fidelity all the days of his life.
As the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in his homily at Pope John Paul’s Funeral Mass: “We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us.” Funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II, 8 April 2005
Let us ask Blessed Pope John Paul to guide us with his prayers: “To knowledge of Christ, to his love and to true joy.” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: Homily during the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff, 18 April 2005 both now, and in the life everlasting. Amen

MAUNDY THURSDAY 2011

Exodus 12: 1 – 8, 11 – 14                               1 Corinthians 11: 23 – 26                               John 13: 1 – 15
“Your lamb shall be without blemish.” Ex. 12: 5 Words taken from the Book of Exodus.  
Hanging in the Prado in Madrid is a picture – about 4 feet square – by the Spanish artist, Francisco de Zurbarán (1598 – 1664) of a perfect white Merino lamb lying on an altar of marble with its legs tied together, docilely waiting to be sacrificed.
It’s called Agnus Dei/Lamb of God, and I saw it a few years ago when it was on loan to the National Gallery in London.
It was in a large room on its own, and it dominated that space.
Spiritually speaking, it really knocked me off my feet, because it spoke to me of Jesus far more powerfully than any painting of the Crucifixion I’ve ever seen.
It shocked me, and forced me to really think about what Jesus did by dying on the Cross for my sake.
It was seeing that lamb, having committed no crime, waiting to have its blood spilt to wash away sin that did it.
The lamb without blemish; waiting to give its life for the guilty.
Tonight, in this church, through Word and Sacrament, we’re with Jesus – the lamb without blemish – in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.
And the words: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Lk. 22: 19 Jesus spoke over the bread and wine at the Last Supper, resonate down the centuries to speak to us at this Maundy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
‘Maundy,’ the name, by which this day is often called, is an Old English word coming from the Latin, ‘Mandatum,’ which, in modern English means, ‘Something commanded.’
And the readings for this evening are all to do with, ‘Something commanded.’
And particularly the Gospel; which is set in the context of Jesus, and the Disciples celebrating the Passover together.
The Passover meal that every year for generations the Jews had celebrated as a memorial of the first Passover they’d eaten in haste on the night that their slavery in Egypt ended.  
This night, the Lord says in the Book of Exodus: “Is the Passover of the Lord: a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord: throughout your generations you shall observe it.” Ex. 12: 11 & 14
And there’s the word ‘Remembrance’ again.
‘Do this in remembrance of me.’
At the Last Supper Jesus instituted the great Sacrament of Sacrificial Love – the Eucharist – which makes really present the Crucified, Risen, and Glorified Lord Jesus under the humble appearance of bread and wine
Remembering that, in Him, we pass over from death to eternal life: “Christ is the firstborn Son who is slain. He is also the lamb without blemish or broken bones, the Lamb who is slaughtered, whose blood is sprinkled and whose body must be eaten.
The purpose of our sharing the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist is to unite us as God’s family. Our communion is actualized by eating the Passover Lamb of the New Covenant, which we receive every [Eucharist.] Scott Hahn: A Father Who Keeps His Promises p. 188
But don’t you think it strange that in the Gospel for this Mass of the Lord's Supper there’s no mention of bread and wine?
There’s no, ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ from the lips of Jesus.
But in Chapter 6 of his Gospel John's already told us about Jesus, the Bread of Life.
Jesus, who tells us: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” Jn. 6: 35
To come, and believe in Jesus whom we really receive; Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity  in the Eucharist for our salvation.
For, Jesus says: “Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.” Jn. 6: 53 – 54     
However, in John’s account of the Last Supper Jesus does leave us with, ‘Something commanded:’ “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” Jn. 15: 12
Mandatum – Maundy – Something Commanded.
Many interpret ‘Something commanded’ by Jesus as a word of law, which restricts our freedom.
Quite the contrary: to gaze into the face of Jesus is to: “Look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom.” Jm. 1: 25
And Jesus Himself must do ‘Something commanded:’ to do whatever His Father asks of Him.
However, He sees it as something to be savoured: “My nourishment [says Jesus] comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.” Jn. 4: 34
In Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwelt in all its fullness; so to do what His Father wanted wasn’t a burdensome, empty law.
And, that same Spirit – God's greatest gift to us – blossoms in us when we come to know Jesus as our friend.
 “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command [Jesus says.]” Jn. 15: 13 - 14
Jesus laid down His life for each of us so that we can be His friends.
Reflecting on that should take us beyond a mechanical view of coming to the Eucharist as, ‘Something commanded,’ which is imposed on us as a burden.
If a non-Christian walked in here in a few minutes, and saw us washing feet they wouldn't understand what we're doing.
Even Peter at the Last Supper didn’t understand, because he said to Jesus: “’Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.’”
Jn. 13: 6 – 7
In Jesus’ time it was usual to wash the feet of visitors as a real sign of welcome, but the slave always did it.
So Jesus, in washing Peter’s feet, is assuming the position of a slave.
And Paul reminds us of that very powerfully in Philippians where he says that Jesus: “Made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave, being made in human likeness. And he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” Phil. 2: 7 – 8
We, too, have to pattern our lives after Jesus who: “Came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mt. 20: 28
And yet, Jesus didn’t just wash Peter’s feet; He went on, and washed the feet of all the Disciples – including Judas who was to betray Him to death.
“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” Jn. 13: 14 – 15
Many feet walk into our lives every day: feet of the nice, feet of the nasty, feet of those we love, feet of those who don't like us, feet of those we don't like.
Jesus, in washing of those dirty, smelly feet is a real challenge to all of us; because by being Christians we’ve promised to live out the characteristics of Jesus.
To let Him change our sinful, frail human nature into His image and likeness.
Peter, in his frail, sinful way denied knowing Jesus at the very moment when His Lord and Master needed him most.
Yet Peter, in the depths of despair, somehow knew that Jesus still loved him.
On the shores of the Sea of Galilee after the Resurrection Jesus asks Peter: “Do you truly love me?” [and Peter answers] “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jn. 21: 16 
Jesus had never stopped being Peter’s friend and now Peter knew that for himself.
Then Jesus says, ‘Something commanded’ to Peter: “Follow me.” Jn. 21: 19 
That open-ended commandment has the lightness of grace in it because Peter: “Looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom.” Jm. 1: 25 and follows His friend Jesus, who washed his feet, and laid down His life for Peter so that he could enjoy Eternal Life with Jesus.
Jesus, who laid down His life for us, and gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, so that we too can be His friends, and have Eternal Life.
“Worthy is [Jesus] the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!” Rev. 5: 12

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT [A]    

                                                                                   
Ezekiel 37: 12 - 14                                       Romans 8: 8 - 11                                     John 11: 1 – 45
Do you know what the shortest verse in the entire Bible is?
It’s in today’s Gospel, and it’s: “Jesus wept.” Jn. 11: 35
When you read, or hear read to you, this account of the Raising of Lazarus, it’s so easy to, subconsciously, reach the end of the story even before it starts.
We’ve heard it so often that, like an oft-read book, we know the ending off by heart.
It’s a bit like an Agatha Christie detective story in that the ‘Baddy’ – Satan – under the guise of death, is defeated by the ‘Goody’ – Jesus – who is: “The Resurrection and the Life.” Jn. 11: 25 
All’s well that ends well. It’s a happy ending.
But is it? Is there much more going on here than is visible on the surface?
Yes, there is; and the pivotal point in this account is that shortest verse: “Jesus wept.”
If Jesus is: “The Word [who] became flesh.” Jn. 1: 14 then, surely, He knew that the Father had given Him the power and authority to raise the dead; so why weep?
Some sceptics would say that Jesus was only a man – not God in the flesh – so, of course, He would weep at the death of His friend.
Then they go on to say that Lazarus wasn’t really dead, only in a coma; so, when Jesus shouted: “Lazarus, come out!” Jn. 11: 43 he came round.
Sounds a good argument, doesn’t it?
Except that when Jesus reaches the tomb, and tells them to move the stone from across the entrance, Martha says: “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” Jn. 11: 39
People in a coma don’t give off the stench of death; only the dead do.
In a very hot country, as the Holy Land is, a dead body in a cave tomb sealed up for four days would have given off a veritable tsunami of stench.
Remember, that when the women and Peter and John went on Easter morning to the cave-tomb in which Jesus had been laid, and the entrance sealed, on the evening of Good Friday; there was no stench of death hanging in the air – and no body....
Jesus had conquered death, and risen from the dead.
Lazarus returned to his former life and, at a later point, died definitively: the Resurrection of Jesus is utterly different. Jesus hasn’t returned to a normal human life in this world like Lazarus. He’s entered upon a different life, a new life – He’s entered the vast breadth of God Himself, from where He invites us to follow Him in this life, and into eternal life. In italics ~ See Pope Benedict XVI: Jesus of Nazareth (II) pp. 243 & 244
Just as Jesus promises Martha: “Your brother will rise again.” To which Martha replies: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jn. 11: 23 – 24
The ‘last day’ will only begin to dawn when Jesus rises from the dead, and those words he spoke to Martha before the tomb of Lazarus come to pass: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” Jn. 11: 25 - 26
On 15 May 1910, as the body of King Edward VII was lying in state at Westminster Hall, Canon Henry Scott Holland preached a sermon at St Paul’s Cathedral entitled: ‘Death, The King Of Terrors.’
In it appears that poetic piece – ‘Death Is Nothing At All’ – so often read these days at funerals as a comfort to the mourners.
However, it’s taken completely out of context because, through that piece, Scott Holland, was illustrating how so many people try to sanitise death by making it seem to be ‘Nothing At All:’ in fact, he asserts it’s the ‘King Of Terrors.’
So, we must never say that death is nothing at all; nothing is less Christian than that.
Death, which made Jesus – Life Himself – shed tears at the grave of Lazarus, is an appalling horror; a – literally – stinking indignity; and yet, somehow or other infinitely, and mysteriously  good.
Christianity doesn’t simply affirm or deny the horror of death; it tells us something completely new about it.
The truth about death, which the Church has steadfastly handed down to us from the Apostles, the eye-witnesses to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, is that of one grand miracle.
The Christian assertion that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him.
As Paul says of Jesus in Philippians: “He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2: 8 – 9
It is precisely one great miracle. If you take away the Resurrection of Jesus, there’s nothing’s specifically Christian left.
There are seven miracles in John’s Gospel – ‘signs’ as he calls them – to show us the divinity of Jesus through His healing the sick, His power over the forces of nature, and by raising Lazarus from the dead.
Why only seven ‘signs?’ Well, in the Jewish understanding of God, seven is the perfect number because it reflects the perfection, and goodness of God.
Think of the seven days of Creation in Genesis where God created everything there is, and: “Looked over all he had made, and saw that it was very good!” Gen. 1: 31
When we’re faced with death, the Devil weaves into our minds the idea that this perfect, loving Creator God, if He really cared for us, wouldn’t let this happen.
How wrong he is, as usual.
 Jesus can’t bear to sit and watch the bereaved being fooled; so we need to understand that Jesus didn’t raise Lazarus from the dead primarily for Lazarus’ sake. 
Jesus raised him as a ‘sign’ for the living that, through His own Death and Resurrection: “Death itself would start working backwards” C.S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; ch. 15  
As Jesus stood face to face with the rock hewn tomb, and shouted: “Lazarus, come out!” Jn. 11: 43 Martha, Mary, and the mourners were silent, and didn’t move a muscle.
But Lazarus did: deep within the tomb, he moved.
His stilled heart began to beat again. His eyes, wrapped by graveclothes, opened. Stiffened fingers lifted, and a mummified man in a tomb sat up at the voice of Jesus:
“And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, and a cloth around his face.” Jn. 11: 44
And the same voice, which awakened the corpse of Lazarus from the sleep of death, will speak again, and raise us from our graves to eternal life with Him.
Just as He promises He will through these words of Paul in Romans: “If Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” Rm. 8: 10 – 11
“I am the resurrection and the life. [Jesus says] The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jn. 11: 25 - 26

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT [A]

Exodus 17: 3 – 7                                                                Romans 5: 1 – 2, 5 – 8                                                           John 4: 5 – 42
We know and love Jesus, don’t we; otherwise we wouldn’t be here at this Eucharist so that, through Him, we can: “Worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” Jn. 4: 23
Jesus, who said to the Samaritan woman at the well: “Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again: it becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” Jn. 4: 14
And, although we know Jesus, who is the source of eternal life, so often we:
“Go through life parched and empty, standing knee deep in a river dying of thirst.”
McDill, Jones & Lee: Standing Knee Deep In A River (Dying Of Thirst)
And that’s just what the People of God are doing as they travel through the desert on their 40-year journey to the Promised Land.
They’re now at a place called Rephidim, and don’t have any water.
And they’d forgotten they: “Were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord [their] God brought [them] out with his strong hand and powerful arm, and with miraculous signs and wonders [and would give them] a land flowing with milk and honey.” Dt. 5: 15 & 26: 8 – 9  
Forgotten that:  “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Dt. 33: 27
Arms to hold them safe and secure, and to provide for their every need.
Yes, they were certainly thirsty; and there would have been no problem in their going to Moses, and asking him to intercede with God on their behalf as their need was real.
But they didn’t: they quarrelled with, and grumbled to, Moses, and were even ready to use violence against him.
So Moses: “Called the place Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarrelling) because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” Ex. 17: 7
By now, because they’d had so many experiences of His love, they should have known full well God was with them; but they lacked faith – they failed to trust Him – to care for them.
Paul reminds us in the second reading that: “We have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” Rm. 5: 1 – 2
Yet, in a real sense, we can, more often than not, behave like the People of God did at Rephidim.
We know how good the Lord is to us, but we take it for granted.
We even grumble at Him, and quarrel with Him, because we think we’re having a hard life – I know I do sometimes.
But: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” Rm. 5: 6 Paul says in the Letter to the Romans.
And yet, despite knowing the depths He plumbed out of His eternal love for us, we still: “Go through life parched and empty, standing knee deep in a river dying of thirst.”
But, if we really believed, and knew in our hearts, that Jesus has given us: “A fresh, bubbling spring within [us] giving [us] eternal life.” Jn. 4: 14 how different our relationship with Him would become.
And, if we cultivated that friendship with Him, from that friendship would flow a completely different attitude to the way we live our lives, because the Holy Spirit will have made His home in our hearts.
And Paul tells us just that: “We can [he says] rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that is given us.” Rm. 5: 3 – 5
In Luke’s Gospel we meet Simeon when Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem 40 days after His birth.
“The Holy Spirit was on him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Christ of the Lord.” Lk. 2: 25 – 26
In that sense, the woman at the well reminds me of Simeon because she’s: “Searching for something or someone to light up [her] life.” Antonio Carlos Jobim: Someone To Light Up My Life
Although her searching is after an unnamed, and unknown, someone she can’t comprehend – yet.
She’s a woman who’s been deeply disappointed in love, who’s had five husbands, and now she’s living with another man.
And yet she’s still longing to meet the right man; hoping that he’s going to fill up the  longing that’s deep-down inside her, and light up her life.
She doesn’t suspect for one minute that when Jesus asks her for water, she’s found that man at last.
He’s a man who knows who she is, and what she’s done, but He doesn’t leave her in her pain.
He doesn’t call her names or condemn her; instead, He looks into her soul, and tells her the truth about what her life is really like.
Then Jesus goes on to tell her the truth about who He truly is; and in telling her, He gives Himself away to her.
He gives her living water: that: “Fresh, bubbling spring within [her], giving [her] eternal life.” Jn. 4: 14
Eternal life – beginning in this life, but stretching on into eternity – with Jesus, the true man, the right man.
The ‘someone’ she’s been longing for all her life: and it changes her.
She will never be the same again.
She found the God, who wants us to become His: “Work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.” Eph. 2: 15
So, what can we take home from this Eucharist in our encounter with Jesus, and the Samaritan woman?
That God loves you just the way you are. If you think His love for you would be stronger if your faith were stronger, you’re wrong.
If you think His love would be deeper if your thoughts were deeper, you’re wrong.
The love other people have for us decreases with our mistakes; yet, the love with which Jesus loves us never decreases.
Our evil can’t diminish His love for us; our goodness can’t increase it; our faith doesn’t earn it.
Jesus doesn’t love us less if we fail, or love us more if we succeed.
His love is limitless and eternal: and, we can know that with a certainty, because of the words Jesus spoke to the woman at the well: “Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” Jn. 4: 14
When, through the Spirit of Jesus dwelling within us, we experience that deeply in our lives; then we’ll never again: “Go through life parched and empty, standing knee deep in a river dying of thirst.”
McDill, Jones & Lee: Standing Knee Deep In A River (Dying Of Thirst)

EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Isaiah 49: 14 – 15                                 1 Corinthians 4: 1 – 5                                        Matthew 6: 24 – 34
Comedians aren’t like they used to be, are they?
I’ve tried to find people like Michael McIntyre and Lee Mack funny; but nothing compares to the Morecambe and Wise sketch with Andre Previn, or The Two Ronnies and the four candles.
If I like that era of comedy I should, by rights, have found Monty Python funny, but I didn’t.
And I certainly didn’t find their film, ‘The Life Of Brian,’ funny in any way at all.
It tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish man who’s born on the same day as, and next door to, Jesus.
Brian ends up being crucified because he’s mistaken for Jesus, the Messiah: and, as he’s dying, those crucified on either side of him break into the song, ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.
You know how it goes: “Life’s a counterfeit and when you look at it, life’s a laugh and death’s the joke, it’s true. You see, it’s all a show, keep them laughing as you go. Just remember the last laugh is on you. Always look on the bright side of life.” Eric Idle: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life 
That fatalistic, cynical view of life – and indeed death – and its satirisation of anything good or holy, pervades our society to a great extent these days.
But when I read the Gospels, what strikes me about Jesus is that He was nothing like that: rather, He was a joyful person who enjoyed life to the full.
Yes, I know Isaiah prophesied that the Saviour would be: “Despised and rejected: a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.” Is. 53: 3
The scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he’s wrestling with His Father’s will: where He’s in agony, wanting the suffering and death He’s going to have to endure to go away, is one of the most harrowing stories ever told.
Yes, we know that the darkness, and sadness of the entire world descended on Him as He went to the Cross for our sake.
And yet, the Gospel this evening/morning, shows us that underlying all of that was a deep and profound joy inside Jesus like: “Living water: a fresh, bubbling spring welling up to eternal life.”
See Jn. 4: 10 & 14
Joy at being the Father’s: “One and only Son, full of grace and truth.” Jn. 1: 14
And we too have a reason to be joyful; because, through our Baptism, we’re adopted sons and daughters of our Father, and brothers and sisters of Jesus.
But, as you listened to Jesus saying: “Don’t worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink? or ‘What shall we wear?’” Mt. 6: 31 did you think He was out of touch with real life?
He didn’t have a family to look after; a job to hold down that he might be made redundant from tomorrow.
How can Jesus possibly know what my life is like in the harsh economic realities of 2011 in Great Britain? But, He does.
He does; because He’s risen from the dead, and is living now in His Body – the Church:
longing to indwell each of us by His Spirit.
When Jesus tells us not to worry about what to eat, or drink, or wear, He doesn’t mean these things don’t matter.
We hear those words of His; but then we switch off before we can hear what comes next: “These things [He says] dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Mt. 6: 32 – 33
Jesus isn’t telling us not to enjoy the good thing’s our Father has given us in this life; or to live with our head’s in heaven so that we’re no earthly good to anyone.
He knows we all have to put food and drink on the table, and need clothes to wear: but He’s asking us; where does your heart’s desire lie?
Is it with those ‘things,’ those possessions; or is it with our Father, who art in heaven?
He who will give us everything we need, in abundance.
Jesus says in Luke’s Gospel: “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full – pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” Lk. 6: 38
In other words, as Paul McCartney wrote in the last ever song recorded by The Beatles:
“And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make.”
Lennon & McCartney: Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/Ending
So, our hearts have to be open to Jesus; seeking out ways for us to give of ourselves to Him through giving generously to others.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
 Mt. 25: 40
He doesn’t want us to be inward looking; thinking only of what I can get for myself: thinking only of those: “Things [that] dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.” Mt. 6: 32
If those thoughts dominate us, then our hearts will grow a hard, callous centre;
Then, our love will be turned in on ourselves – selfish, and self-seeking.
But, as Paul says to us in the second reading: “The Lord.... will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.” 1 Cor. 4: 5
So Jesus isn’t an idealistic person who doesn’t have a grasp on life, and doesn’t understand how we live.
Quite the contrary: He’s a realist, who knows only too well what we’re like.
By the very first words he spoke to us this evening/morning, in the Gospel, He challenges us to decide where our heart’s desire truly lies.
“No one [He says] can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Mt. 6: 24
Jesus is urging us to make God our heart’s desire; but not the sort of God who’s distant from our lives, who doesn’t care about beauty and life, and food and clothes.
He’s talking about the Creator God Himself, who’s filled the world with wonderful and mysterious things, full of beauty and energy and excitement.
A Father God who wants His human children – us – to trust Him, and love Him, and revel in all that He give us.
Put the world of ‘things,’ and possessions first, and you’ll find they get moth-eaten in your hands. Put Jesus first; and you’ll get the world thrown in for good measure.
We live in a world filled with anxiety and worry, and it’s very easy to let it rub off on us.
I know that only too well because I’m a worrier – even, though on the outside, I might appear to be quite the opposite.
And some people are so hooked on worrying, that if they haven’t really got anything to worry about, they worry that they’re not worrying!!
At the very summit of the Sermon on the Mount, is an invitation from Jesus to live life in a totally different way to that.
To surrender my life – to surrender your life – into His hands, as my true, and precious friend.
This evening/morning, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to bring that to blossom in our lives so that we can rest in the: “Everlasting arms” Dt. 33: 27 of Jesus – the Faithful One.

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Ecclesiasticus 15: 15 – 20            1 Corinthians 2: 6 – 10                 Matthew 5: 17 – 37
“He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.” Ecclesiasticus 15: 16
In this life we have so many choices; and in the 60 years I’ve walked this earth, they’ve increased beyond our wildest dreams.
But with choice comes responsibility.
We’re not to be like children let loose in ‘Toys ‘R Us’ to grasp whatever takes our fancy without any thought for the consequences.
The Lord says: “If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.” Ecclesiasticus 15: 15
To choose between ‘fire and water:’ to choose between right, and wrong
Fire, that will consume us; or water that will cleanse, and heal us.
Yet how extremely difficult it is to choose, and be faithful to, the Lord’s ways!!
But, if we do; He promises us through the words of Paul in the second reading, that we’ll behold: “‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love him.”
1 Cor. 2: 9 (Is. 64: 4)
Just after Christmas I went to the New Theatre to see the stage production of ‘The Sound Of Music.’
It’s very different to the film with Julie Andrews which, to me anyhow, is a bit sugary, and doesn’t do justice to the world events, which shape the love that blossoms between Maria, and the Captain.
The story is set in Austria just before the ‘Anschluss’ when Hitler takes over Austria, and makes it part of his evil empire – the Third Reich.
The other main characters in the musical – apart from the children – are
Max Detweiler – a music impresario - and the Baroness, to whom the Captain is engaged.
The pivotal point in the story is when the Captain knows he has to choose between being true to his principles, because he loves his country; or save his neck by putting it under the Nazi jackboot.
He chooses to stay loyal to his principles, whilst Max, and the Baroness tell him not to be foolish.
It’s inevitable that the Nazis are coming, so just put your head down, go with the flow, and survive.
As Max, and the Baroness sing: “Caught in our gold plated chains are we, lost in our wealthy domains are we, trapped by our capital gains are we, how can love survive?”
Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein: ‘How Can Love Survive?’
Will the love between the Captain, and the Baroness survive their diametrically opposed views...? No.
But Max, and the Baroness are kindred spirits because, as they sing to each other after the Captain has left them, having made his choice: “So every star and every whirling planet, and every constellation in the sky, revolves around the centre of the universe, that lovely thing called, I.”
Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein: ‘No Way To Stop It.’
The Baroness goes back to Vienna to her ‘gold plated chains’ that have ensnared her into believing she’s the ‘centre of the universe, that lovely thing called I.’
But, like the edelweiss emerging from under the snow, love begins to ‘blossom and grow’ between the Captain, and Maria as they discover they are drawn to one another: “With ties of love.” Hos. 11: 4
They have seen in each other that wisdom, which Paul talks of in the second reading: “God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” 1 Cor. 2: 7
Each of them, in their different ways, has been seeking the Lord’s will for their lives.
Neither of them thinks that they are the centre of the universe. God is....
So The Sound Of Music is actually all about love, and redemption; as, indeed, all of Rodger’s & Hammerstein’s musicals are in their different ways.
The Captain, and Maria find their God-given destiny in their love for one another: and, because of the witness of their love, Max ultimately finds love, and redemption.
When the Nazis are closing in on the Von Trapp family he engineers their escape; and he’s arrested, and taken away by the Nazis.
In the end, he chose to stretch out his hand, and plunge it into the cleansing water of the Lord’s loving forgiveness.
“Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.”
Ecclesiasticus 15: 17
Maria and the Captain, and Max chose to embrace life.
The Baroness chose to embrace death – the death of her soul – by being caught in her gold-plated chains; lost in her wealthy domains.
To choose life, in the sense that God wants us to chose it, is risky.
As Jesus says to us: “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Mt. 10: 39
The life the Lord wants us to choose isn’t just a matter of living for a certain span of time, and then dying as Shakespeare reflects in his plays: “Threescore and ten I can remember well: within the volume of which time
I have seen hours dreadful and things strange.” “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil.”
William Shakespeare: Macbeth: Act 4 Scene 2 & Hamlet: Act 3 Scene 1
Now we can live beyond the ‘three score and ten’ of Shakespeare’s time; and beyond the life–span envisaged by the Psalmist in his words: “The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; [but] they are soon gone, and we fly away.” Ps. 90: 10  
We may live to be 100; but do we know: “God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” 1 Cor. 2: 7
When we listen to the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in today’s Gospel it’s quite easy to sink into a ‘slough of despond,’ and think that I’ll never live up to what He’s asking of me.
He’s not standing on that mountain setting goals He knows we can’t achieve, just to take perverse pleasure in watching us fail.
Remember the words of the Psalm?: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains;  from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Ps. 121: 1 – 2   
He knows how frail, and weak we can be so He bends down to us to lift us up to Him.
Just as the Deacon says at the preparation of the gifts at the Eucharist: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
Just as the Lord described Himself to the Prophet Hosea: “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” Hos. 11: 4
Let’s not fall into the trap of the Catholic guilt complex: thinking that I’ll always fail to follow Jesus because I’m a weak, fallen person, and so become disheartened, and shrivel up spiritually.
The Word of God assures us that Jesus is someone who: “Is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.” Heb. 5: 2 
As we stand before Jesus, the Servant King, let’s ask the Spirit to reveal to us: “‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love him. [For] these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” 1 Cor. 2: 9 (Is. 64: 4) & 10

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Zephaniah 2; 3; 3; 12 – 13             1 Corinthians 1: 26 – 31                      Matthew 5: 1 – 12
Blessed are the strong, Blessed are the wealthy. Blessed are countries that  possess nuclear weapons. Blessed are the conquering soldiers. Blessed are the suicide bombers.
Those are the world’s Beatitudes for the 21st. Century, where might; military, economic or terrorist-inspired, is right.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Those are the Beatitudes Jesus spoke 2000 years ago to a down-trodden people yearning for liberation from Roman rule.
Surely He should have spoken, in 1st. Century terms, those 21st. Century Beatitudes, to set people on fire to revolt against the Romans?
We have here the stark contrast between this world and, the Kingdom of God: the stark contrast between the Law, and the Spirit.
Living the Law of the 21st. Century Beatitudes leads to the very death of our souls.
Living in the Spirit of the 1st. Century Beatitudes leads to eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Right from the start there’s always been a tension between the Law and the Spirit in Christianity; by that I mean a strict, unyielding adherence to a written law.
Such as Christians in the early Church, who had converted from Judaism, wanting Gentile converts to take on the fullness of the Law of Moses, found  in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.
I can understand this preference for the law because grace is slippery, translucent, and hard to get our minds around.
Under law we think we always know where we are; we always know what is the minimum required of us to follow Jesus.
In truth we Christians may find it easier to follow a God who simply says, ‘Obey my commandments,’ rather than believing in God who offers us salvation by grace, and grace alone, through Jesus.
There’s always been this tension between Law, and Spirit in the Church.
For a time the Conservative wing asserts itself for a while; then the Liberal wing’s in the ascendancy, and so on.
Both extremes display a pious arrogance, which is really saying that I know better than the Church; and that’s completely out of character with following Jesus.
As Paul says to us in the second reading: “But you, God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom. As Scripture says: ‘if anyone wants to boast, let them boast about the Lord.’”
1 Cor. 1: 30 – 31 (Jer. 9: 24)
The consequence of this pious arrogance is that it deflects Christians from doing what we’re in the business to do, through the power of our Baptism.
All of us – both Clergy and Laity – are called to tell the world the Good News that Jesus is alive, and wants to set everyone free from our captivity to sin, and death.
This polarisation between Law and Spirit can also be seen in people’s attitudes to the Beatitudes.
Some say that we should just follow the Beatitudes because they sum up the Spirit of Jesus, and not worry too much about the Ten Commandments, which is all about Law that kills the Spirit.
Others, that the Ten Commandments are still binding; so the Beatitudes are a utopian ideal, and need not – indeed cannot-  be followed too closely.
Others make a real distinction between the God of the Old Testament giving  the Ten Commandments to Moses in a great show of power, and the supposedly gentle Jesus meek, and mild of the Beatitudes.
So, you can see in those examples, there’s a real tension in the Christian life between the Law, and the Spirit.
But let’s remember that Jesus says this right after giving us the Beatitudes:
“Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.” Mt. 5: 17   
Now what did Jesus mean by that? Did He mean that we have to follow the 616 religious laws found in the Pentateuch?
No, He didn’t. He meant that we have to fulfil the principle behind them.
To worship, and love our God and Father, which Jesus fulfilled perfectly.
It’s only through Him we can please God, and follow His Law of love, and service. His law of diakonia.
And, as Paul says in Romans: “Because one person [Adam] disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person [Jesus] obeyed God, many will be made righteous.” Rm. 5: 19   
God created us to know Him, and love Him.
He made us in His image, and likeness so that we could reflect His character; and the Old Testament Law was designed to bring that to life in us.
But until Jesus came we always fell short because we prefer to live our own way without too much, if any, reference to God.              
So was the Law useless? Did God make a mistake with it?
Was it God perversely setting goals for us knowing we wouldn’t achieve them?
No to all of those: and Paul in the Letter to the Galatians explains why.
“Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.” Gal. 3: 23 – 25
So, however much we try to please God under our own steam we’re going to fail every time.
We need Christ to breathe His Spirit into us so that we too can fulfil His Law.
To do this we have to keep a balance between the Law, and the Spirit; but always remembering that: “Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.” Eph. 2: 20 – 21    
Then we’ll see in our lives the fruit of this prayer Paul prays in the Letter to the Philippians:
“I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ – for this will bring much glory and praise to God.” Phil. 1: 9 - 11  
He’s praying for us to keep Jesus at the centre of all we do, of who we are, so that we can find our righteousness in Him.
Paul is praying that we’ll ‘keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.’
That we’ll have the gift to discern; to ‘understand what really matters.’ in the Christian life.
He also prays that we’ll live , ‘pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return,’ so that we’ll know Jesus, not as a condemning judge, but as a dear friend.
And, flowing from all this is the, ‘the righteous character produced in [our] life by Jesus Christ.’
And, from our friendship with Jesus will flow those fruits of the Spirit: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Gal. 5: 23
Those fruits, which are brought to birth by living the Beatitudes through the power of the Spirit of Jesus.

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]  

                                   
Isaiah 49: 3, 5 - 6                        1 Corinthians 1: 1 - 3                               John 1: 29 – 34
In a classic scene in "Dad's Army" Captain Mainwaring sends Corporal Jones to turn road-signs in the wrong direction, so that when the German paratroopers land disguised as nuns they won't know where they are!
But Jonesy gets so muddled that it ends up with him not knowing where he is, and he starts to run backwards and forwards shouting: “Don't panic! Don't panic!”
Even in these days of sat-navs in our cars, we can panic sometimes, and all lose our way.
But if we don't read the signs the Lord sets up for us in our lives, then we can lose our way eternally.  
Today's readings are about the Lord's signposts, which He provides us with so that we can follow Him.
Later on in John’s ministry, Herod put him in prison for preaching about the coming Saviour, John becomes very depressed, and despondent.
Have all his efforts come to nothing? Is Jesus really the long-promised Saviour or not?
So he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask for a sign: and the sign Jesus gives him is to quote from the Prophecy of Isaiah.
He says: “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen - the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” Mt. 11: 4 – 6    
These things that Jesus has done are signs that the Lord has broken into the wilderness that His world has become so that He can redeem it.
Just as – again – Isaiah promised: “A great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Only the redeemed will walk on it; those who have been ransomed by the Lord.” Is. 35: 8 & 10
In a moment of despondency Isaiah also feels that: “My work all seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all.
Yet I leave it all in the Lord's hand; I will trust God for my reward.” Is. 49: 4
We can, I'm sure, sometimes feel as Isaiah does because he thinks his life as a prophet, trying to guide people to God, has been a failure.
That cry of Isaiah – his feeling of failure - was also heard, but in different words, when in anguish Jesus cries out from the Cross: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Mt. 27: 46 (Ps. 22: 1)
As Jesus hangs on the Cross His life appears to have been a complete failure. And yet as the Gospel of John records, at the very moment Jesus dies He shouts out: “It is completed." [And] with that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Jn. 19: 30 
Jesus died as the victim: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jn. 1: 29
Yes, He was the victim of death: but at that moment of His death He was actually the victor over death.
He fulfilled God's promise through the Prophet Isaiah that the salvation given to us through the Death and Resurrection of the Saviour: “Will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Is. 49: 6
And in today’s Gospel, with those words: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Jn. 1: 29 John the Baptist points to Jesus as the true and everlasting sacrifice to take away the sin that’s infected God's world, which has infected each of our lives.
Day after day, century after century lambs were sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem to wash clean people's sins.
But in Jesus, John sees the perfect Lamb of God; the Saviour, who: “Came once for all, to remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us.” Heb. 9: 26  
But, John says: “I didn't know he was the one, but I have been baptising with water in order to point him out.” Jn. 1: 31
That's a strange statement as John, and Jesus were family. Mary the Mother of Jesus and Elizabeth the mother of John were cousins, so I guess John, and Jesus knew each other from childhood.
Just as John leapt in His mother’s womb when Mary, pregnant with Jesus visited Elizabeth; John saw beyond the reality of the humanity of Jesus to the hidden reality that He is the Son of God.
That He is the One and Only Lamb capable of taking away the sin of the world.
Like Isaiah before him, John trusted God and took Him at His word. The word, which God gave to John when he sent him to baptise: “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.” Jn. 1: 33
And the same Holy Spirit, which rested on Jesus when John baptised Him, revealed the reality of who Jesus is to John. So that he was moved to say:
“I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Son of God.” Jn. 1: 34
Paul, in the second reading, says that he was: “Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” 1 Cor. 1: 1
It was the purpose of the Lord Jesus that Paul should spread Christianity to the world; but of course he couldn't do that whilst he was still persecuting the followers of Christ.
Paul had to repent, and be converted.
Repentance, and conversion is to say that a person's life is turned completely round to face in God's direction.
And yet this can only happen by that person yielding to the grace of God, poured into them through the work of the Holy Spirit.
God put signposts in Paul's life: particularly when he witnessed Stephen giving his life to the Lord as it's described in these words in the Acts of the Apostles: “As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And he fell to his knees, shouting, ‘Lord, don't hold this sin against them!’ And with that, he died. And [Paul] was there, giving approval to his death.”
Acts 7: 59 - 8: 1
This was a very dramatic sign to Paul that he should change his life; yet he still carried on: “Uttering threats with every breath, eager to destroy the Lord's followers.” Acts. 9: 1
That is, until his conversion on the road to Damascus.
That repentance – that life-changing moment – when he met with Jesus, whom he was persecuting in the person of the very Christians he, up until then, had been killing.
We may not have the visual, and dramatic signs of the Lord's presence, and purpose that Paul experienced.
Yet the Lord still uses the ordinary, and extraordinary, events in our lives to point us toward Him.
The will of the Lord for each person is that we should know Him, love Him, and find peace in Him; and nobody is truly happy and fulfilled until they do.
Those of us who follow the Lord can be the human sign-posts who can point Him out to those who are lost because they don't know Him as their friend.
Be signs to them of Him who says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Jer. 31: 3
To guide them to Jesus, who promises: “In me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jn. 16: 33

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD [A]

 Isaiah 42: 1 – 4, 6 – 7                              Acts 10: 34 – 38                               Matthew 3: 13 – 17
Between the Holy Family’s return from their exile in Egypt because of Herod’s attempt to kill the child, Jesus, are the ‘hidden years’ at Nazareth; where Jesus: “Grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.” Lk. 2: 52 
Today we meet the adult Jesus standing humbly before John the Baptist asking to be baptised. But why should Jesus ask to be baptised?
Well, a number of theologians have said it’s because this is the moment when Jesus suddenly became aware of His special relationship to God, and His religious mission; and what He’d come to do, after having led a perfectly normal life in Nazareth since returning from exile in Egypt.
But I don’t believe that’s a proper understanding of what Matthew actually says, or what He’s trying to tell us about Jesus.
This is above all the moment when heaven is torn open and, God, the Trinity of love – Father, Son, and Spirit – is unveiled as Jesus rises from the waters of the Jordan.
As Charles Wesley wrote in his famous Carol: “Veiled in flesh the God-head see, hail the incarnate Deity; born as man, with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.”
Veiled at His birth, but unveiled for our sakes here, at His Baptism.
Also, if we look at Luke’s Gospel we’ll see that Jesus, at least from the age of 12 when He discussed the Scripture – the Old Testament – with the religious ‘experts’ in the Temple, knew who He was. See Lk. 2: 41 – 52
Of course, if we go back further in both Matthew and Luke, we read that Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit, so knew from the womb who He was; as did Mary, His Mother, and Joseph, His adoptive Father. See Mt. 1: 18 – 25 & Lk. 1: 26 – 38
John the Baptist, in his mother’s womb, leapt with joy as he recognised His Lord, and God in Mary’s womb. See Lk. 2: 39 – 45 
And here’s that recognition again as John the Baptist sees beyond the ordinary man standing before him, to Jesus, the Lamb of God – the Word made flesh – who, on the Cross: “Loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2: 20  
To say that Jesus suddenly woke up to who, and what He was at His Baptism, lives in the realms of modern-day psychological speculation; not the deep truth contained in the Gospel.
So the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is placed within the Christmas season for a very good reason.
If we put together the witness of John the Baptist in John’s Gospel that Jesus is the Lamb of God, along with what we’ve heard about Jesus from Christmas until today’s Gospel, then it becomes clear that there’s more to the Christmas season  than a baby in a manger.
People love the Christmas story because they think a baby threatens no one, so the whole thing is a happy event, which means nothing at all. See Tom Wright: Matthew For Everyone Vol. 1 p. 13
But if you leave Jesus safely tucked up in His baby clothes and, when He does become a man, try to psychologise away the fact that Christianity has always held that He is: “True God and true man… the one and only Son of God.” Council of Lyons II then the Baptism of the Lord is emptied of its meaning.
It just remains as the moment when the man, Jesus; not Jesus who is true God and true man, had His ‘vocational experience’ – His, ‘coming of age’ – so to speak.
And the key moment in all of this is when: “Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. But John tried to deter him, saying,
‘I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?’  Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then John consented.” Mt. 3: 13 – 15
What does Jesus actually mean by, ‘to fulfil all righteousness?’
To fulfil all righteousness He submits to the saving power of God, and His plan for the salvation of the human race.
This involves Jesus totally identifying with us sinners; although He Himself is without sin.
For, as Paul writes of Jesus: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor. 5: 21
To fully understand the Baptism of Jesus we must look at it from the perspective of the Cross and Resurrection.
Because, at His Baptism, Jesus loaded the burden of all of our sins, and guilt upon His shoulders, and bore it down into the depths of the Jordan.
He began His journey to the Cross and Resurrection – the journey through which He saved us – by stepping into the place of sinners at the Jordan.
This one act is an anticipation of the Cross and Resurrection.
And the whole significance of Jesus’ Baptism, the fact that He bears, ‘all righteousness,’ is fulfilled perfectly in those two future events.
The fact that Jesus: “Who, being in very nature God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped [but] humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” Phil. 2: 6 
The fact that Jesus submits to being Baptised is His acceptance of death on the Cross for our sins.
And the voice of the Father as Jesus comes up from the waters, declaring: "This is my Son, whom I love.” Mt. 3: 17 is the Father’s guarantee of the Son’s Resurrection because of His unfailing faithfulness.
Baptism is THE most important of the 7 Sacraments we’ll receive because, as Paul wrote about Baptism: “When we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death. For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” Rm. 6: 3 – 4  
Sadly, quite often, people seek Baptism for their children without thinking through the implications of the promises they will make on behalf of their child: because Baptism, like Marriage, is a life-long commitment. 
Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens who, at that time, was thought of as a ‘papabile;’ someone tipped to be the next Pope, came to Oxford in 1977 to conduct a mission to the University.
His opening words struck me very forcefully, and have stayed with me ever since: “We have many baptised persons [he said]. Baptised, yes, but are they Christians? The world is filled with baptised non-Christians.” Your God? The Oxford Mission 1977 p. 15
What he was saying is that when we’re Baptised we’re clothed with Christ; yet so often we leave our Baptism at the font, and go out into the rest of our lives naked, and without Christ.
Instead, because of the power of Baptism, we should be entering into communion with Jesus through an intimate, and personal encounter with Him that will last throughout our lives, and into eternity.
For, as Pope Benedict said 30 years later: “Christianity is not a new philosophy or new morality. [And] we are Christians only if we encounter Christ.” Pope Benedict XVI: Wednesday Audience 3 September 2008
Because: “Our happiness depends, in the end, on the encounter with Jesus and on friendship with Him.” Benedict XVI: Address to Students 10 April 2006
Every Sunday we say the Creed as a way of reaffirming for ourselves the promises made for us at our Baptism.
If our faith has become lukewarm, and we don’t have that intimate friendship with Jesus, let’s rekindle the grace given to us in Baptism by not merely saying – but really meaning – the words of the Creed this evening/morning.
 
 

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