Homilies

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

When my maternal Aunt died in 2008, I was her only living relative, so the job of clearing her house fell to me.

Because my Mum had gone to live with her when my Dad died, I knew there were things of hers there too, including lots of family photos that I really wanted to find.

There they were at the back of a cupboard: lots of curled and faded photos, scattered pictures of the way we were, in a few cardboard boxes.

As I sat down and looked through them, memories came flooding back of my family – all dead and gone – smiling out at me from those bits of black and white paper.

We all need to have something of the people we love to outlast them, and stay with us.

We want to remember them but, it seems to me, the further we get away in time from those we love who’ve died, they fade away from us bit by bit.

Remembrance is at the very heart of what we celebrate this evening in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

But Jesus didn’t leave us faded pictures in a cardboard box, He left us something better: He left us Himself.

“Do this in remembrance of me.” Never forget me.

But, as I grow older, I know it’s easier to forget than remember.

However old or young we may be, we find it easy to forget Jesus, don’t we?

To, as it were, like those family photos of mine, put Him away in a box at the back of my life.

Let’s remember; indeed, let’s never forget, that those words: “Do this in remembrance of me,” are the heart of our Christian faith.

For 2000 years we’ve gathered around this table of sacrifice: this altar-table which, in this church – and every Catholic Church in the world – is linked through time and eternity to the table at the Lord’s Last Supper.

The altar-table, where the bread and wine become the Lord’s Body and Blood.

His Body and Blood, offered on the Good Friday Cross out of tender-hearted mercy for us sinners.

Those pictures of my family are like misty water-colour memories of the way we were.

They remind me of: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and anxieties.” Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes; 1 they experienced down the years.

Memories that light the corners of my mind, yet memories that can never be reproduced, never brought back to life again.

If we only had those sorts of memories of the Lord’s Supper, and His Death on Good Friday, that’s what they would remain…. memories.

Yet the Lord’s words: “Do this in remembrance of me,” draw us to the Cross, and into the Empty Tomb.

For, without the Empty Tomb; without the bodily Resurrection of Jesus; without His promise of our resurrection; Jesus would just remain a fading memory.

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: 19  

But Jesus is alive, not dead!!

And, as He is alive, He gives of Himself – until He comes again in glory at the end of time – in the form of Bread and Wine as ‘viaticum,’ food for the journey.

On this night, not only do we celebrate the Real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; within this Mass of the Lord’s Supper we also make really present Jesus, the Servant Lord.

And we do that by washing your feet, which will take place in a few moments; symbolic of what Jesus did to His Disciples feet at the Last Supper.

A job that was always done by the lowest servant – but it reminds us that the entire Church is meant to follow the Lord as humble servants of His.

We belong to Jesus because He’s bent down, and washed us clean of our sins by His blood.

As we fulfil at this Eucharist the Lord’s mandate to: “Do this in remembrance of me,” and walk with Jesus to the Cross; let’s feed on Him who is the Bread of Life, with joy in our hearts.

Not as: “Men and women of sadness: [because] ours is a joy that comes from having encountered a Person, Jesus, who is among us.

It comes from knowing that with him we are never alone, even at difficult moments, even when our life’s journey comes up against problems and obstacles that seem insurmountable.

We accompany, we follow Jesus, [on His way of the Cross] but above all we know that he accompanies us and carries us on his shoulders. This is our joy, this is the hope that we must bring to this world of ours.

[And] Christ’s Cross embraced with love does not lead to sadness, but to joy! It leads to the joy of being saved and of doing a little of what He did that day of his death.”

Pope Francis: Palm Sunday Homily 2013

And, joyfully knowing Jesus has saved us, let’s fulfil His other Last Supper mandate: “Now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” Jn. 13: 34

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT [B]

Genesis 22: 1 – 2, 9 – 13, 15 – 18                                          Romans 8: 31 – 34                                                           Mark 9: 2 – 10
My Wife loves the Sound Of Music……
As you know, it begins with Julie Andrews on a mountain, one of its songs is Climb Every Mountain, and it ends with the Von Trapp family escaping over the mountains.
Today, we’re invited to climb three mountains – we have Abraham on Mount Moriah, the Redeeming Jesus on Mount Calvary, and the Transfigured Jesus on Mount Tabor.
Climbing a mountain is hard, but when we reach the top we see things in a completely different way; so let’s begin by climbing Mount Moriah.
In his old age Abraham was called by God to leave the people of the Chaldeans, to travel to the land where God wanted him to be – Abraham left everything and went.
The Chaldean people, whom God called Abraham out from, were involved in child sacrifice; so, in the light of this fact, Abraham climbing Mount Moriah to sacrifice his son loses some of its puzzlement.
The Lord called him up the mountain to teach him in a very dramatic way that human sacrifice would never be part of fidelity to the God of Life.
At the top of Mount Moriah, Abraham finally, and irrevocably, left all the false gods of the Chaldeans behind.
We too are called to leave behind our own little false gods this Lent, and discover again our fidelity to Jesus.
Only the Lord will provide His One and Only Son as: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!�� Jn. 1: 29
In the second reading, Paul speaks about that love for us, made flesh in Jesus, and sacrificed for us on Mount Calvary.
This Lent, we’re called to embrace, and to be embraced, by Jesus, and: “Him Crucified.” 1 Cor. 2: 2
We can’t save ourselves: God isn’t a piece of spiritual gym equipment to turn on and off, for us to use bring about our own self-fulfilment, self-realisation, and self-redemption.
If we do, then we’re in the realms of pseudo-spirituality.
This isn’t Christian spirituality; it’s us talking to ourselves, and trying to recreate ourselves in our own image.
To climb Mount Calvary is to leave all of this behind, and see in Jesus alone, the way, the truth, and the life that comes from His Death and Resurrection.
So, the call to us of Mount Calvary is to embrace the Death and Resurrection of Jesus as our key to life
Then there’s the third mountain, Mount Tabor, the mountain of Transfiguration that revealed something astounding to the Apostles.
We can limit our vision and our hope to this world, as the Apostles did.
After all, just before Jesus took them up Mount Tabor, He’d rebuked them for: “Seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Mk. 8: 33   by not accepting that: “He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.” Mk. 8: 31
When they reached the summit, He started to change; first His clothing, then Himself.
Elijah and Moses appeared – representing the Old Testament Prophets and God’s Law given to Moses on another mountain, Sinai.
“And [then] a cloud came covering them in shadow: and there came a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him.’” Mk. 9: 7
This is no ordinary cloud, but the visible presence of the invisible God: the pillar of cloud that led the People of God through the wilderness for 40 years; the pillar of cloud from which God spoke to Moses and His people.
No wonder the Apostles were dumbfounded to be covered by the cloud, and to hear the voice of God!
Then, everything is as it was for them, but will never be the same again; and: “They saw only Jesus with them.” Mk. 9: 8
Though they didn’t fully understand it until after Jesus had risen from the dead, this experience lifted their hearts to the realisation that this world is not all there is for us.
We too will be transfigured into the image of Jesus: “With the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Rm. 8: 18 when we pass through death to life eternal.    
Three mountains – Moriah, Calvary, and Tabor – which one do you and I need to climb this Lent?
Is it Moriah? To leave behind those little false gods we all set up in our lives in place of Jesus.
Is it Calvary? To realise that salvation comes only through Jesus, and Him alone.
Is it Tabor? To appreciate the glory of Jesus, which He wants to shower upon us, and that our faithful following of Him in this life is only the beginning of our glorious future with Him.
“But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world…. had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
 
 

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT [B]

You may have people wearing those sweet looking little angel lapel badges, and thought they represent their Guardian Angel.
They don’t: they’re actually part of Spiritualism, and the occult; nothing to do with the Angels of God we encounter in the Scripture for today.  
In the Gospel, Mark says that Jesus was tempted by Satan – the Fallen Angel – who had fallen: “From heaven like lightning!” Lk. 11: 15 because he’d rebelled against God.
But, throughout His time in the wilderness, the: “Angels [of God] took care of [Jesus].”
Mk. 1: 13 
In his First Letter, Peter says that Jesus, having entered Heaven, is: “Is seated in the place of honour next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority.” 1 Pt. 3: 22
At the beginning of that passage, there’s this strange verse, which says that after His Resurrection, Jesus: “Went and preached to the spirits in prison.” 1 Pt.3: 19  
In another place, Peter explains what this means: “God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the Day of Judgment.” 2 Pt. 2: 4
The Church, reflecting deeply on these Scripture passages, has rightly concluded that the ‘spirits in prison’ were Satan, and his followers, the fallen angels, bound in those: “Gloomy pits of darkness.”
Jesus was victorious over them – the originators of all evil – not in spite of His death, but precisely in His death.
For, at that moment, lowered into the ‘gloomy pits of darkness,’ Jesus descended to show the Evil One that He was the victorious Saviour of the world.
Love had conquered hate; life had conquered death.
That’s what we mean in the Apostles Creed when we say: ‘He descended into Hell.’
Now, I know talk of Satan, Heaven and Hell isn’t popular these days – even in the Church – but we’re dealing with spiritual realities, not the stuff of fairy-tales.
And these spiritual realities are far more real, and have a profounder effect on our lives, than material realities.
Lots of people don’t think twice about believing in lapel angels, Spiritualism, and the like; but think that those of us who believe Jesus died, and rose to new life for us, have lost our grip on reality.
From earliest times, each of the Gospel writers has had a symbolic figure to identify them; for Mark, it’s a lion.
Maybe it’s because Mark’s Gospel shows Jesus to be like a lion stalking its prey.
But Jesus is: “Not like a tame lion.” C.S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Ch. 17
Throughout His life, like a lion, Jesus stalked Satan and, on the Cross, defeated him.
In Lent we’re called to go into the wilderness with Jesus to contend against the Devil; not to retreat into a nice, cosy religious huddle where we give up chocolate or wine, and think we’ve done our bit.
With Jesus, we go into battle against the forces of Evil, which roam the world bent on our destruction.
Psalm 22 says: “Like lions they open their jaws against me, roaring and tearing into their prey.” Ps. 22: 13
Through His Death and Resurrection, Jesus is, in fact: “The Lion of the tribe of Judah [who] has won the victory [over the power of evil].” Rev. 5: 5

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [B]   

                        
I love musicals – in fact, this week my wife and I are going to Irving Berlin’s ‘Top Hat’ in Oxford.
Leslie Bricusse wrote the musical, ‘Scrooge,�� based on Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ and I’ll never forget seeing Anthony Newley on stage in the title role singing Scrooge’s song of salvation, ‘I’ll Begin Again.’
“I'll begin again I will build my life, throw away the past; and I'll live in praise of that moment when I was able to begin again.”
Both the book and the musical, are about repentance, conversion, and salvation.
That’s what Jonah is calling the people of the great city of Nineveh to; Paul is saying the same thing in the second reading; that’s what the Jesus is saying to us today in the Gospel.
He’s calling us to be converted, to change our life; and conversion isn’t the question of a moment, or the weeks of Lent, it’s an undertaking that lasts our entire lifetime.
And Jesus always forgives and forgets our sin, if we turn to His merciful love.
He knows that: “A person is more precious for what they are than for what they were.”
Vatican II: Gaudium et spes; 35
Two weeks ago, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we saw Jesus being immersed in the sin of us all by going under the waters of repentance in the River Jordan.
The sinless One: “Who had no sin [became] sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor. 5: 21
As He came up out of the water: “He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him.” Mk. 1: 10
The Spirit then compels Jesus to go out into the wilderness to contend against Satan: “The prince of this world.” Jn. 12: 31   who has turned God’s wonderful world into a wild place; a dangerous place, which only Jesus could tame.
After those 40 days and nights: “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.”
Mk. 1: 14
And the first words He speaks are these: “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” Mk. 1: 15
He then meets Simon Peter, and Andrew, and calls them to Him.
Just as they were called by the Lord to follow Him as they earned their living fishing by the by the Sea of Galilee, so, too, He calls us to do the same.
‘Come, follow me.’ He says to you, and to me this morning.
Repent; be converted; turn your face to me; let me love you.
That call is personal: just as the Lord created each one of us out of love for a purpose, so each one of us is called by Jesus for a definite purpose.
The moment of our Baptism is actually the source for that personal call from Jesus; but Jesus continues to call us every day in the ordinariness of our lives to follow Him.
He doesn’t ask us to leave the world; He asks us to stay in the world as salt and light; as His presence, His hands, His voice, His eyes.
And He wants us always to keep our eyes fixed on Him: that’s the point Paul makes in the second reading.
For if we keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, then we start to see everything in a different light; as opportunities to be Jesus to others.
But, before we can change the world around us, we need to change the world inside us.
To ask the Lord to untangle the nets of anger, resentment, greed, arrogance – and so many other things – that the Evil One tries to entangle us in.
If we humbly lay our sins at the foot of the Cross, and repent; if we can say to Jesus: ‘They’re my sins. You take them. This is the only way I�������ll be saved;’ then we'll experience deep inside us the victory of Jesus over our old ways.
Let’s abide in the love of Jesus, knowing that His love lasts forever, it has no end because it’s the very life of God.
This love conquers sin, and gives the strength to rise and begin again, for through forgiveness the heart is renewed and healed: a spiritual heart transplant no less.
We all know it: our Father never tires of loving, and His eyes never grow weary of watching the road to His home to see if we, the child who left, and was lost, is returning. 
‘Come back to me with all your hearts,’ He says: “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, and filled with unfailing love.” Joel. 2: 12 & 13 “And you will find rest for your souls.” Mt. 11: 29

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT [B]

I love Advent; in fact, in many respects, it’s my favourite season in the Church’s year.
It’s four weeks to do, as the Prophet Isaiah tells us; to clear a way through the wilderness and wasteland our lives can become; so to let the Advent liturgy and Scripture permeate our souls, that we can celebrate the Birth of the Saviour with true faith and joy.
As Peter says to us in the second reading: “So, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.” 2 Pt. 3: 14
What are those ‘things’ he speaks of?
Well, the coming of Jesus: “The Word [who] became human and made his home among us.” Jn. 1: 14 at Christmas.
And this same Jesus coming in glory at the end of time to dwell, once again, with us in the: “new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.” 2 Pt. 3: 13
We don’t know when that day will be; it might be today, it might be tomorrow, or in a million years or two – only the Father knows when His Son’s Second Coming will come about.
However, Peter gives us a clue. He says that: “The day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.” 2 Pt. 3: 10  
This thought isn’t meant to frighten us, despite Peter’s description of what that time will be like.
No, Peter says; the Lord: “Is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to repent.” 2 Pt. 3: 9
Our Christian brothers and sisters of Peter’s time weren’t afraid of the ‘Day of the Lord;’ they prayed for it with all their hearts.
We have their prayer right at the end of the New Testament in the Book of Revelation in these words: “Come, Lord Jesus!” Rev. 22: 20
Come NOW and dwell among us once again! You live in us through the indwelling presence of your Spirit, but come again and be Emmanuel – God with us.
Today, as believers in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we should live our lives in the light of the knowledge that Jesus can come at any time.
We’re to be ready when the call comes.
Every day we should expect Him to come, and every day we should long for Him to come: Come, Lord Jesus! That ancient prayer reminds us to keep our eyes on the eternal things of the Spirit.
So what’s the key to unlock this firm hope in the coming of the Lord for ourselves this Advent?
Peter gives us the answer: it’s the word: “Repent.” 2 Pt. 3: 9   
It’s the very first thing Jesus says in Mark’s Gospel: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Mk. 1: 15
For us to repent means to be converted: it doesn’t mean we centre our faith on external works or deeds that are austere, oppressive, and repressive.
To repent; to be converted means to seek and find – or find again – that hidden treasure, that pearl of great price – Jesus.
Therein lies our joy this Advent and Christmas.
To receive into our hearts the greatest present God has ever given to us – Jesus – even though we don’t deserve that gift, and could never earn it.
It’s free: that’s the Good News we’re offered if we repent.
Not a ‘thing;’ not a philosophy, but a person – Jesus – who came as a helpless baby, and entered our world, His glory veiled; not to be served but to serve, and give His life that we might live.
At Christmas 1223 in Greccio, Francis of Assisi made a living crib with a real baby, and an ox and an ass, to represent as faithfully as possible the lowly poverty of the infancy of the Saviour born at Bethlehem.
The Mass of Christmas night was celebrated at the crib; Francis, who was a Deacon, proclaimed the Gospel, and preached with wonder and love about the coming of the Saviour.
The people who were there repented – were converted – and their hearts burned within them as Francis, by his words and manner, drew them into the reality of the Word made flesh.
Let our prayer this Advent be: Come, Lord Jesus!
Come, Lord Jesus, into my heart once again this Christmas, and dwell their by your Spirit.
Come, Lord Jesus, and draw me to yourself at the end of my earthly pilgrimage.
Come again, Lord Jesus, and create: “A new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” 2 Pt. 3: 13
And, as we look forward to that day, the Lord promises He will comfort us, speak tenderly to us, and carry us close to His heart. See Is. 40: 1, 2 & 11So, this Advent let’s: “Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with [the Lord].”1 Pt. 3: 14 when He comes.

ALL SAINTS DAY

Today we honour that vast group of men and women whom the Church calls Saints – those we know by name, and that: “Great cloud of witnesses.” Heb. 12: 1 – the countless ordinary people who’ve gone before us, marked with the sign of faith, and are safely in the Father’s: “Everlasting arms.” Dt. 33: 27
Actually, in the great scheme of things, the Saints named by the Church is an infinitely small number; particularly when we reflect on the number of Saints John saw in his vision of Heaven: “I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.” Rev. 7: 9
Those Saints we know by name, and that countless number of unknown, ordinary people, like us, who’ve followed Jesus faithfully over 2000 years.
The same John, the Apostle and Gospel writer, who saw that vision of Heaven, says this in today’s second reading: “Dear friends, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: we will be like [Jesus], for we will see him as he is.” 1 Jn. 3: 2    
Called to become like Jesus: that’s the vocation the Lord is asking each one of us to undertake.
To believe, firmly and truly in Him as the Lord and Saviour.
But the Lord asks each of us individually to decide for ourselves if He is not only the Lord; the Saviour, but also my Lord; my Saviour.
Just as Jesus asked His Disciples at Caesarea Philippi: “Who do you say I am?” Mt. 16: 15 so He puts the same question to you and me today.
The Church, as we say in the Creed, is holy: but we’d be deluding ourselves if we didn’t admit that it has human failure, and sin within it.
It’s a Church of Saints and sinners.
But its heart is holy because Jesus is its heart and soul, and indwells it through His Spirit: and the very reason the Church exists is to call sinners to become Saints.
To do that the Church must always be listening to its Lord; teaching, and leading it into the deep, still waters of trusting Him, and Him alone.
Last month, we went to Dunham Massey, a National Trust house in Cheshire; and it’s a country house that became a hospital during World War One.
Young men who’d been badly injured physically, mentally, or psychologically, because of the horrors they’d been through in the trenches, came to this place of peace and sanctuary.
There, through the selfless love and devotion of doctors and nurses, they became well again.
As I walked round that house, which has been recreated as it was then; as I read of the lives of the injured men, and those who cared for them, it reminded me of how the Church must be.
Dunham Massey was a hospital of medical mercy; the Church must be a ‘hospital’ of spiritual mercy, so that men and women can reach their full stature as brothers and sisters of Jesus.
Last year, Pope Francis said this about the Church: “I can clearly see that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds and warm the hearts of the faithful, it needs to be by their side. I see the Church as a field hospital after a battle.”  
I think the Feast of All Saints is a reminder to the Church – to each and every one of us – that this is the business we’re in: attracting people to Jesus, who is: “Rich in mercy.” Eph. 2: 4 so that they can be soothed and healed by Him.
 
 
Our humanity, wounded by sin, can be made whole, so that we can: “Lead a life worthy of [our] calling, for [we] have been called by God.” And: “Since God chose [us] to be the holy people he loves, [we] must clothe [ourselves] with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
For there is one body and one Spirit, just as [we] have been called to one glorious hope for the future.” Eph. 4: 1; Col. 3: 12; Eph. 4: 4
Called to one glorious hope for the future….. To be a Saint
This means that, if we’re serious about wanting to be with the Lord when we go through the valley of the shadow of death, then only Jesus is joy to the heart in this life.
But, how can I live life to the full now, so that I can inherit eternal life?
How can I learn to become a Saint?
Well, simply to have a personal, profound experience of Jesus, and of His love and mercy.
This is true for every Christian, and was for all the Saints.
So, on this Feast of All Saints, let’s pray for: “A renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ. [Remembering that]The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.”
Pope Francis: Evangelli Gaudium; 3

TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A] World Mission Sunday 2014

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform is a saying I remember my Granny using when something out of the blue happened.
I certainly had an experience of that a few days ago in the petrol station going north on the A34 when a large, tattooed man with an ear-ring approached me, and asked if he could talk.
He was a truck driver coming up from Southampton on his way back home to Newcastle, and he’d become a Grandfather that morning.
Wonderful… except that his Grandson had been born prematurely, and only weighed one pound two ounces: there was a picture of him on his phone.
He said he didn’t know how to pray, but would I do it for him for his Grandson.
I said of course I would: so I prayed in that petrol station, with him; then off he hurried to see His Grandson.
What, you may say, has that got to do with World Mission Sunday, which this is? Well, everything, I’d say: we’re all called by Jesus, through our Baptism, to witness to Him wherever, and whenever that may be.
I don’t know the outcome to my prayer for that baby, and his family – I may never know until I pass through the valley of the shadow of death and enter the Father’s House – but the Lord sent me to that place at that time to fulfil His mission.
And, His mission is this: that He should be known and loved on earth as He is by the Saints in Heaven.
Yes, He is a mystery, and sometimes seems to work in a mysterious way; but not a mystery that nobody can fathom.
He’s revealed Himself definitively in Jesus; and He also reveals Himself to us in the day to day circumstances of our lives.
Sometimes, when I ask people to undertake some ministry or work for the Lord in His Church, they say: ‘I’m not good enough.’
None of us is good enough: “For everyone has sinned; [and] we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Rm. 3: 23
But I feel so inadequate too: particularly when I think of His call to me to be Ordained Deacon; yet I take to heart what Paul tells me the Lord has done for me – and for each of you.
He: “Has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Cor. 4: 6 – 7
If you just have the courage to take the first step – however faltering that may be – to let Jesus work through you, you’ll be surprised at what mysterious ways He’ll work in you, His wonders to perform.
He uses all sorts of people in His mission of love: and this is the firm promise He makes to us if we respond to His invitation to be sent out in His name: “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." Is. 55: 11
The culture we live in tolerates us, as long as we keep our Christianity to ourselves; it doesn’t want us to be counter-cultural by sharing our faith with our fellow-citizens.
But, we’re links in a chain of a grace that stretches back to Jesus and the Disciples.
If they, and countless Christians down the centuries, had kept quiet about Jesus, we wouldn’t be Christians today.
So, do you want Christianity to die out with you, or will you pass it on?
Too often we behave in exactly the same way as those who don't have: “The surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Phil. 3: 8 
We live as if this world's all there is; we live as though God doesn't exist in our lives; we don't have the passionate desire to make Jesus known to those who don't know Him.
We might live as model citizens of this country, but often not as citizens of the Kingdom of God.
We ARE the People of God, whom Jesus has called to make known His: “way upon earth, [and His] saving power among all the nations.” Ps. 67: 2
And today, World Mission Sunday, is a timely reminder to us that this is what we're called to do in our small corner of the world.
The motto on the red mission boxes, which are tied in to World Mission Sunday, is: To be a Christian is to be a missionary.
We can't be one without being the other.

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Ezekiel 18: 25 – 28                                                            Philippians 2: 1 – 11                                      Matthew 21: 28 – 32
Amazon emailed me during the week to tell me I can pre-order Series 8 of ‘Lewis’ for delivery in November.
I saw the film crews, and Kevin Whately in the distance, around Oxford earlier this year: and, if you’ve ever seen them filming ‘Lewis,’ or the original, ‘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 the 1 minute she was in of, ‘Twilight Of The Gods.’
Good actors 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.
The Eucharist is like that: it isn’t like sitting at home watching TV, where some people – those of us up here in the Sanctuary – take an active role, and you 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 firmly 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
In the Eucharist we���re transported to the foot of the Cross: time and eternity embrace in that piece of bread, and cup of wine.
We’re in the very presence of: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jn. 1: 29
We’re at the Lamb’s Supper in heaven, where: “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
We’re not alone in this world; we’re not lost out here in the stars; we’re surrounded by that: “Great cloud of witnesses.” Heb. 12: 1 the Angels, and the Saints, who are gathered with us around Jesus, 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 pursue the followers of Jesus, like a hound chasing a fox.
He does that by attacking the Church, the apple of the Lord���s eye; and that’s why Paul urges us 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
More often than not, the Devil attacks the Church, not from outside, but from within; like a worm silently chomping its way through a juicy apple.
Pope Francis spoke the truth when he said in April that: “The devil exists in the 21st century, and we need to learn from the Gospel how to battle against him; [because] the spirit of evil does not want us to become holy, it does not want us to bear witness to Christ, it does not want us to be disciples of Christ.” Pope Francis: Daily Meditation April 11 2014
And, to win the fight, Paul says that this is what we must do. To: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” *Phil. 2: 5
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, and holiness.
“Become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ You are to shine among them like lights in the world, clinging on to the word of life.” Paul writes. Phil. 2: 15 (Deut. 32:5)
‘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.
As Saint Augustine said: “With your strength alone you cannot rise. Hold tight to the hand of the One who reaches down to you.”
To have the humility to be able to do that, we must, as Paul says: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.*” Phil. 2: 5    
But do we? Or is there a yawning gulf between what we profess, and how we live?
We can all say along with Paul: “That Jesus Christ is Lord.” Phil. 2: 11 can’t we?
But is Jesus really the Lord of every small corner of my life?
As we continue with this Eucharist together, let’s pray that we’ll embrace what it really means to be a Christian, both in word and deed, so that we will truly: “Declare [and live] that Jesus Christ is [my] Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2: 11

THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS ~ September 14 2014

Numbers 21: 4 – 9                                          Philippians 2: 6 – 11                                       John 3: 13 – 17
Jesus: “The Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes will have eternal life.”      Jn. 3: 15
Christianity is a person, a person lifted up on the Cross. A person who emptied himself to save us.
God made man was lifted up for us, and all of our sins were there in Him on the Cross.
We can’t understand Christianity without understanding this profound humiliation of the Son of God, who humbled Himself, and made himself a servant unto death on the Cross.
On the Cross, our sins are healed; our wounds are healed; our sins are forgiven: and yet, God’s forgiveness isn’t a matter of His cancelling a debt we have with him he does if for love’s sake.
God forgives us in the wounds of his Son lifted up on the Cross. 
So, this: “Salvation – deliverance from the reality of evil, and the gift of new life and freedom in Christ – is at the heart of the Gospel.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: Meeting with American Bishops, 16 April 2008
Without the Cross of Jesus Christ, Christianity would just be one of many religions throughout history that have promised salvation, but haven’t delivered.
On the Cross, Jesus utterly defeated the Evil One; so that the Ancient Serpent, the Devil, can no longer have any power over us, even though he’s still spitting his venom into the world.
Jesus was pinioned to the Cross; but, in very real sense the Devil was too, because: “The Lord’s cross [St Augustine says] was the devil’s mousetrap: the bait which caught him was the death of the Lord.” St Augustine: Sermon 261
The Cross, which Satan set as a trap to destroy God in Christ, in fact ensnared him instead.
And the lifting up of Jesus on the wood of the Cross was His supreme triumph, because it fulfilled His word of promise in Scripture: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” Jn. 12: 32
For that reason, on this Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, we should glory in the Cross; glory in the person of Jesus hanging on the wood of the Cross who saved us – He who is our Saviour.
And, thanks to the mercy of God, we can glory in Christ Crucified.
That’s why there’s no Christianity without the Cross, and there’s no Cross without Jesus.
Because the heart of God’s salvation is His Son, who took upon Himself our sins, our pride, our self-reliance, our vanity, our desire to be like God – to take His place.
Those wounds, which sin leaves in us, are healed only through the Lord’s wounds; through the wounds of God made man who humbled Himself, who emptied Himself.
So a Christian who isn’t able to glory in Christ Crucified, hasn’t understood what it means to be Christian.
The reading today from Philippians is Paul’s hymn of glory to the Crucified Jesus.
God, in Christ, came down to the earth He’d created: not in splendour and glory, but by making Himself nothing; by plumbing the depths of what it means to be human, and becoming a slave for us.
But He went even further. He took all of our individual suffering and sin, and the weight of the world’s suffering and sin, into His body on the Cross.
Crucifixion, being hung on the tree of the cross, was reserved for the very dregs of humanity, and Paul knew this only too well, for he writes in Galatians: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Gal. 3: 13 (Dt. 21: 23)
But then he goes on to say that by hanging on the tree, the wood of the Cross, Jesus redeemed us: “So that we might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.” Gal. 3: 14
Today, let���s reflect deeply and personally upon what the Triumph of Jesus on the Cross means for me.
The Cross of Christ bears the suffering and the sin of mankind, including our own.                                                                                                       Jesus accepts all this with open arms, bearing on His shoulders our crosses and saying to us: 'Have courage! You don’t carry your cross alone! I carry it with you. I’ve overcome death, and I’ve come to give you hope; to give you life.’                                                                                                                                                              The Cross gives us a treasure that no one else can give: the certainty of the faithful love which God for us.
A love so great that it enters into our sin, and forgives it; enters into our suffering, and gives us the strength to bear it; it’s a love that enters into death to conquer it, and to save us.                                                                                      The Cross of Christ invites us also to allow ourselves to be smitten by His love.                                                                                                                                                                                    Today, let’s open our hearts to His love, and so glorify the Lord in our lives.                                                                         

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]   

                       
Ezekiel 33: 7 – 9                                                      Romans 13: 8 – 10                                                 Matthew 18: 15 – 20
St Clare of Assisi said: “We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of [Jesus], an image disclosed through transformation. This means… we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others”
This is what Jesus calls us to be and do: however, most of us,
I guess, prefer a quiet life; to keep our heads down, and just get on with it.
Perhaps we feel the same about our faith. We come to Mass for an hour a week, and go home again to quietly get on with our lives.
But that isn't how Jesus wants it to be. He tells us in the Gospel that: “Where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” Mt. 18: 20
He doesn’t want us to live as isolated Christians; coming to Mass then going home again without noticing, or enjoying friendship with, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
To be a Christian in this place, or indeed any other Christian community, means all of us – you, me, Fr. Paul – have to have love, and care for each other.
That’s just what Paul says in the second reading: “If you love [one another] you will fulfil the requirements of God’s law. So love fulfils the requirements of God’s law.”  Rm. 13: 8 & 10
Basically, Paul says, God’s law is very simple; it’s to do with how we love each other.
We can be ‘Good Catholics,’ and follow God's law to the letter, yet at the same time be grace-less people.
But if we fulfil God’s commandment to: “Love your neighbour as yourself,” Rm. 13: 9 & Lev. 19: 18   we become grace-filled people.
That’s the Lord’s way for us: and yet we more often than not put those two things in the wrong order. The letter of the law first, and love a long way behind.
That doesn’t mean we don’t need order and discipline in the Church; and I know they’re not popular subjects in the Church, any more than they are in the secular world.
But Christians do need order, discipline, and direction in our lives so that we can be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Jesus that St Clare talks about.
Our lives as individual Christians, and as Church, aren't meant to be a directionless shambles; because God is a God of order, not chaos.
Just as the Spirit of God hovered over the waters at Creation to create an ordered universe out of that primeval chaos.
In the Church, and our own lives, the rigid letter of the law shouldn't be put before that law, which fulfils all others – love.   
But love is an abused, and misused, word and emotion these days.
When people speak of love now, they can mean anything from really liking cream cakes through to lust.
When a Christian talks of love, we should mean God’s love for us, made flesh in Jesus.
And the way God loves us is expressed beautifully in the Prophet Hosea: “It was I who healed [you]. I led [you] with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To [you] I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed [you].” Hos. 11: 3 - 4
Like a parent caring for their beloved child, so God loves us.
Maybe that’s not your experience of God: maybe you’re afraid of Him, and see Him as a God of anger and vengeance.
If you're afraid of God, then you lose all confidence in yourself to be able to love, and you actually grow to hate yourself.
But Jesus doesn’t want us to be like that, or to be afraid of Him. He wants us to: “Love each other as [He has] loved [us].” Jn. 15: 12
And, to: “Love your neighbour as yourself. [Because] Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfils the requirements of God’s law.”  Rm. 13: 9 – 10  
God is love – we have His word for it: and He tells us to love ourselves as He loves us, and then go and love others in the same way.
Maybe some people have fallen into a pit, in which the light of God’s true face is invisible to them, because of us.
Perhaps we’ve hidden the light of the face of Jesus from our neighbours, whom Jesus commands us to love, because we don’t love ourselves.
If that’s true, then let’s not despair: we can repent, ask the Lord to change our lives, and He will…. if we place ourselves in His loving hands.
Let’s listen attentively to the Lord speaking to our hearts through Scripture, and St Clare, so that we are Christians who have been transformed into: “Vessels of God´s compassionate love for others.”
So that we can: “Bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.” Heb. 9: 28

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Isaiah 22: 19 – 23     Romans 11: 33 – 36      Matthew 16: 13 – 20
Tibetan Buddhists believe that at the moment of death, one’s soul migrates into another living being, and so one lives on.
That might sound attractive: you know; those things we’ve failed to do in this life can be done in the next reincarnation… and the next, and the next, and the next….
But, if you think about it, it means none of us is unique; loved from all eternity by the Lord, and brought to life, and upheld, by His: “Compassion and unfailing love.” Ps. 25: 6
This belief in reincarnation is vitally important when the spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dali Lama, dies.
At the very moment the Dali Lama dies, a search is begun for the boy his soul’s migrated into and, when he’s found, the boy’s taken off to be brought up as Dali Lama.
He has no choice in the matter; this is his destiny; he’s the Dali Lama until death.
That sounds very alien to the Western mind – even more so to us Catholics now – who assumed our spiritual leader went on until death: that is, until Pope Benedict retired.
Of course, the Pope; the Bishop of Rome; the successor of St Peter, isn’t a god as Buddhists believe the Dali Lama is.
There is only One God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: and God, the Son, took our frail flesh.
Some may, in the not too distant past, have looked upon the Pope as ‘god-like;’ and yet, he too, is frail and fallen in nature as we all are.
Along with him, we all stand in need of the Lord’s forgiveness, and His mercy.
And we know, as he does, that: “God is so rich in mercy, and saved [us] by his grace when [we] believed.” Eph. 2: 4 & 8
Pope Emeritus Benedict, Pope Francis, each and every Saint, each one of us, equally, have been saved by His grace and mercy.
So, we’re all: “God’s masterpiece.” Eph. 2: 10 Called by the Lord to serve Him in His Church in whatever way He thinks is best for us, using the gifts and talents He’s gifted to us.
You know, faith isn’t a family heirloom that’s just passed down to us, which we put away in a cupboard and, occasionally, get it out to dust it off.
Even if you’re a ‘Cradle Catholic,’ I believe that Jesus, at some moment in each of our lives, will ask us, as He asked the Disciples: “Who do YOU say I am?” Mt. 16: 15
So that, like Peter, we will say for ourselves: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
Mt. 16: 16
Because, as Paul wrote to the Romans: “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Rm. 10: 9
The world is experiencing ‘Paradise Lost,’ because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden: but, there, the Lord made a promise that we would know ‘Paradise Regained.’
The promise of salvation, that, through: “The sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through the one man, Jesus Christ.” Rm. 5: 15
We can’t save ourselves; this salvation can’t be bought and sold; it’s given as a gift, it’s free: “For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.” Rm. 11: 36
For His salvation to enter into us, the Lord desires to soften our hearts; for us to have a more human heart, closer to God; not so proud, not so self- sufficient.
And who is our model on this journey of salvation?
God Himself; His Son: “Who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” Phil. 2: 6 – 8  
To hear Jesus asking me if I believe in Him as my Saviour, then I must be prepared to gentle and humble of heart, as He is.
When Peter put his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lord told Peter that He was blessed because: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” Mt. 16: 17
But, as we know, Peter was a weak, fallible person as, indeed, all of us are: and he denied he knew Jesus, when His Lord needed him most.
Don’t we all, in big or small ways, deny Jesus too?
But Jesus is always rich in mercy: He forgave Peter; He will forgive us if we turn back to Him with all our hearts. 
‘Let us remember this: God judges us by loving us. If I embrace His love, then I am saved; if I refuse it, then I am condemned, not by Him, but by my own self, because God never condemns; He only loves and saves.” Pope Francis: World Youth Day July 26 2013
So let’s fix; “Our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who endured the cross, scorning its shame.” Heb. 12: 2
Then, like Peter after the Resurrection of Jesus, take to heart these words of the Lord: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” Mt. 16: 24  

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]   

                    
1 Kings 19: 9, 11 – 13                                     Romans 9: 1 – 5                                   Matthew 14: 22 – 33
Elijah in the first reading; Paul, who wrote our second reading; Matthew, the writer of the Gospel; these names are so familiar to us from the Bible.
But do we think of them as real flesh and blood people like us, or just names we hear at Mass?
I can certainly think of Elijah as a person like me, but not so much from the encounter He has with the Lord God in today’s reading, as earlier in the chapter it comes from.
There, Elijah has come to the end of his tether because of what life has thrown at him.
So, he flees into the wilderness, sits under a solitary tree and prays to the Lord: “I have had enough Lord. Take my life. Then he lay down and slept” 1 Ki. 19: 4 – 5   
Having, a few years ago now, suffered from depression myself,
I’m sure this is what afflicted Elijah.
After some sleep, the Angel of the Lord – the Old Testament’s way of saying God Himself – touched Elijah, and told him to get up and eat.
Not some huge display of power by the Lord, but the simplicity of offering Elijah just what he needed for body and soul at that moment – food and drink to sustain him.
Elijah eats and drinks, and then lay down again; but the Lord has greater things in store for him, and invites him to eat some more so that he can enough strength for his journey to meet the Lord at Mount Sinai.
In fact, that food and drink is enough to sustain Elijah for a journey of forty days and nights to his final destination.
In today’s first reading, that’s where we meet Elijah, just after the Lord greets him on that holy mountain.
The same mountain where Moses met the Lord God, having brought God’s People out of slavery in Egypt; then leading them for forty years in the wilderness on their journey to the Promised Land.
Elijah, in a real sense has relived that journey in his own life, and the Lord has been with him every step of the way.
However, Elijah is still feeling as if all the good things he’s done to try to bring His people back to the Lord, has been futile.
So Elijah says to the Lord: “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." 1 Ki. 19: 10
He’s, humanly speaking, had enough; he can’t see a way out of the mess, but He’s faithfully followed the Lord.
And so the Lord comes to him – not in a windstorm, earthquake or fire, but in the sound: “Of a gentle whisper.” 1 Ki. 19: 12
Elijah knows he’s in the presence of the Eternal God, so he covers his face with his cloak out of humility and reverence; just as Moses had done before him on that self-same mountain.
God has strengthened him by His gentle whisper, and sends Elijah back to his everyday life – but that’s not the end of the story.
The Lord gives Elisha to Elijah to assist, help, and support him in his work for the Lord.
When Elijah was at his lowest, the Lord came to him as a gentle whisper, and gave him practical help too.
Elijah was a great prophet of God, but wasn’t able to look the Eternal God directly in the face – but we can, because God has taken our frail flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.
Paul says to us: “Whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” 2 Cor. 3: 17 – 18
Paul, himself, had seen the Lord face to face at his dramatic conversion on the Damascus Road.
Peter and the Disciples, in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, see God in Jesus face to face as He walks across the stormy water to save them.
At that moment of their deepest terror and fear, Jesus came to them to calm their fear and terror.
Above the storms of our life, Jesus speaks to us in those same words He spoke to the Disciples: "Don’t be afraid. Take courage. I am here!” Mt. 14: 27
And, more than that, Jesus says that to Peter too, and asks him to have the faith to walk across the waters to Him.
But Peter, having a doubting sort of faith – just like us – can’t quite believe Jesus; so he begins to sink.
At that very moment, Jesus stretches out His hand, and saves him.
Through this miraculous ‘sign,’ Jesus assures us that the storms swirling around us will never overturn the boat of our life, and swallow us up in darkness.
So let’s never lose faith that Jesus does calm the storms of our life.
He’s in the boat with us; during the darkest night, and the heaviest storms.
He never abandons those who come seeking His mercy, and His forgiveness.
He walks upon the waters; He calms the storm. He guides us into safe harbour.
Whatever life throws at us, we have to look to Jesus; even though it seems impossible at times: because, for us, Jesus is: “An ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken.”
William Shakespeare: Sonnet 116

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]   

                                         
Isaiah 55: 10 - 11                                  Romans 8: 18 - 23                                        Matthew 13: 1 - 23
‘Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin' Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin' They just use your mind and they never give you credit It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it!’
Dolly Parton 9 to 5
A couple of weeks ago, after the 11.15 Mass at Holy Rood, I donned my blonde wig, pink Stetson, and rhinestone dog-collar, and went to see Dolly Parton in concert in Birmingham.
I tell a lie: I didn’t put on the wig, Stetson and rhinestone dog-collar!
When she started singing those lyrics of her song 9 to 5, it made me think of my experience of having left school at 16 and, until I was 57, working 9 to 5.
Now my hours and ‘job’ are very different: that’s a different sort of challenge; far more satisfying, but just as tiring.
However, now, as then, when I get home and ‘chillax,’ as my Niece’s say, in front of some relaxing TV, I watch the ‘Soaps.’
If you watch them, have you noticed some of the characters are persistent optimists?
Like Bob in Emmerdale who, however dire the circumstances, always says: ‘Don’t worry; it’ll be fine.’
That's fatalistic optimism: based not on the truth, but on fear of facing the truth that life is both sunshine and rain.
Then there’s Shirley in Eastenders who never thinks that anything good’s ever going to happen.
That’s fatalistic pessimism: having a frame of mind that excludes the possibility of goodness, or that there’s a God who loves and cares deeply for each one of us.
I think a lot of people today are like Shirley.
Jesus says to us today: “For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they closed their eyes, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me to let me heal them.” Mt. 13: 15 (Is. 6: 10)
Some Christians, too, often incline toward pessimism because they haven’t caught the joy to be found in knowing Jesus personally.
They see the world as a very gloomy place, where people have given up on God.
Others do see the real goodness that exists in the world, but they see the Church as an obstacle because, to them, it tries to suppress this natural goodness.
I’m sure we’ve all come across those views, but they’re not the truth at the heart of the Gospel.
If we truly love Jesus, then we mustn’t let pessimism and gloom about the state of the world, and Christianity, become our usual mind-set.
If we just listen to the words of Scripture, and ‘read’ the hand of God at work in the world, only by using our physical senses, then we won’t see, and won't hear what they truly mean.
We have to understand them by using the gift freely given to us by the Lord: faith in Him.
Through listening, understanding, and letting the Word of God take root in us, faith becomes what it should be; not a vague hope, but: "Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb. 11: 1
So, if we listen to Jesus without the sixth-sense of faith, we certainly won't hear Him or see Him properly.
We'll be incapable of seeing beyond the evil in the world; incapable of seeing beyond the externals of the Church to its inner reality – Jesus.
We’re all fallen, fallible people; and that means, sometimes, our hearts become calloused and proud.
Then they need to be watered and softened by the Holy Spirit:
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven to water the earth, [the Lord says] it is the same with my word. I send it out and it always produces fruit." Is. 55: 10 - 11
Once we let our defences down, that process will begin, and the fruits of the Holy Spirit will start to blossom and flourish in our lives.
Then, little by little, we'll hear, see, and understand Jesus and let Him heal us; to hear Him saying to us: "Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Mt. 13: 16   
That sounds lovely, idyllic, perhaps even an unattainable goal; but it isn’t if we trust in Jesus.
In the Gospel Jesus looks the world squarely in the face, and tells it like it is.
He knows there are many things in this world that conspire to prevent people from accepting Him and, through knowing Him, finding peace, and healing for their lives.
But Jesus – through ordinary Christians like us – goes on spreading the seed, so that everyone can be: "Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ." Phil. 1: 11
And Paul, writing in Romans, knew what he was talking about when he says: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For in this hope we were saved.” Rm. 8: 18 & 24
Paul suffered for his faith in Jesus, yet he didn't fall into a fatalistic optimism, or pessimism: he lived by faith in the Lord.
So, in Christian hope, and being sure of our salvation, let’s: “Turn [to the Lord] for healing.” Is. 6: 10
Then our hearts will become like the good soil into which the seed fell, so that we can: “Truly hear and understand God's word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted.” Mt. 13: 23
 

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD [A]

Acts 1: 1 – 11                                                             Ephesians 1: 17 – 23                                                Matthew 28: 16 – 20
The Ascension of the Lord is a Christian belief, which isn’t understood very well at all – even among Christians.
What does Jesus going up in a cloud mean?
Does it mean He’s so out of our reach, beyond our comprehension, that it’s too much of a mystery for us to get our head round?
Let’s go back a few weeks to the evening of Maundy Thursday: in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we commemorated Jesus giving us the Sacrament of His Body and Blood as His ‘Real Presence’ among us on our journey through this world.
That’s His ‘Shekinah,’ to use a Hebrew word, which means the very presence of God dwelling amongst us.
And Paul, in Colossians, leaves us in doubt that Jesus is the true ‘Shekinah’ of God: “For in Christ [he says] dwells all the fullness of God in a human body.” Col. 2: 9
At the Last Supper, Jesus recalled that night in the history of His People when they were brought out of slavery in Egypt to journey toward freedom in the Promised Land.
Their freedom on that night was purchased by the blood of lambs: our freedom from sin and death has been purchased by the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus, who takes away the sin of the world.
On their journey out of slavery, the ‘Shekinah’ of God travelled with His People to protect them: “The Lord guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.” Ex. 13: 21 – 22
Cloud and fire: does that remind you of anything? It does me, and it’s this.
In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke says that Jesus tells His Disciples that they: “Will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1: 8
And weren’t those Disciples faithful in carrying out the Lord’s command? If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here at Mass.
I wonder if we are as faithful today as they were then?
Then: “After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.” Acts 1: 9 
That, I believe, is what makes us think that Jesus is somehow absent from us; rather like a distant relative with whom we just exchange the odd phone call or Christmas card.
Quite the opposite is true; for that cloud is the ‘Shekinah Glory’ of God, showing us that God has not left us.
The promise given by the Angel of the Lord to the Disciples as Jesus ascends is: “He will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” Acts 1: 11  
Yes, He’ll return on the clouds at the end of time to create a new Heaven and a new Earth; and then this promise from the Lord, given in Revelation, will come to pass: “God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.”
Rev. 21: 3
We don’t know when that will be – it might be today, tomorrow, a hundred years from now – however: “No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” Mt. 24: 36
But come it will; so we need to be awake – alert – for Jesus to return: and yet, in a real, and very intimate way, He has already come again.
Ten days after Jesus was taken up in a cloud, He returned again as fire.
Then, the ‘Shekinah Glory’ of God came down, and: “What looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on [the Apostles, and the Mother of the Lord].” Acts 2: 3
Not just to settle upon them, but to enter into them – to enter into their hearts and their souls.
The ‘Shekinah Glory’ of God dwelt within them as a foretaste of God dwelling with us in a new Heaven and a new Earth at the end of time.
And that indwelling of the ‘Shekinah Glory’ isn’t something which happened to just that small number of people at Pentecost; it happens to each one of us when Jesus comes to dwell within us.
As Paul says: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” 1 Cor. 6:19
And, although: “We are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure; this makes it clear that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Cor. 4: 7
So, the Ascension of Jesus isn’t about absence, but about the new, spiritual – ‘Shekinah’ – presence of Jesus to all of us, wherever we are, through the Holy Spirit.
Now, the Risen Jesus is as close to us as the beating of my heart.
He’s gone from our sight, but not from our life.
Remember, Jesus said: “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” Jn. 20: 29
Let us pray that we so live as Christians that people see us, and know that Jesus is not absent, but alive today.

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER [A] 

                                              
Acts 8: 5 – 8, 14 – 17                                     1 Peter 3: 15 – 18                                        John 14: 15 – 21
Up until about 20 years ago, any new item of electrical goods came without a factory-fitted plug.
There you were with your new freezer to replace the one that had conked out; the food was quietly defrosting, and you were faced with fitting a plug.
Finding a plug in the toolbox was the first challenge; trying to remember which coloured wire went into which prong; dropping the minute screws several times; remembering to put in the correct fuse….
Frustration, or what!?
Now, a plug comes fitted a standard, so you just plug into the mains and off you go immediately.
Trying to be a Christian without the power of the Spirit of Jesus coursing through our lives; without firmly believing in the promises of Jesus, we’re like an electrical appliance without a plug.
It looks lovely, and new and shiny on the outside, but the power isn’t getting to it, so it doesn’t work.
And there are three wonderful promises Jesus makes to us in the Gospel today, which speak to us if we’re feeling just like that.
He promises not to leave us alone, and abandoned: “I will not abandon you as orphans – I will come to you.” Jn. 14: 18
He will come to: “Those who accept my commandments and obey them [because they] are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.” Jn. 14: 21  
He will ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us: “Who will never leave you.” Jn. 14: 16
To put this Gospel in its context, we have to remember that Jesus is speaking to the Disciples at the Last Supper
For three years during His earthly ministry, Jesus had guided, guarded, and taught His Disciples; but that very night He would be taken prisoner, cruelly beaten, abused and, the next day, Crucified.
They will feel deserted; they will feel abandoned; who will shelter them: “As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings?” Lk. 13: 34 
“Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.”
1 Pt. 3: 18 Peter tells us in the second reading.
He came to bring us safely home to God: we who’ve been wandering like strangers in an alien land, far from home, because our sin has cut off from the love, and mercy of the Lord.
Jesus is: “Is rich in mercy.” Eph. 2: 4
And yet I know there are many, many people who don’t know of, and haven’t experienced for themselves, the richness of His mercy.
They don't know their eternal home is in heaven; they don't know Jesus as their friend; they don't know the God of Love.
They feel like refugees and orphans; because they don't know that they're true home lies with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
I wonder if you feel like that? Do you feel like an orphan with no-one to love, and care for you? Do you feel as if Jesus has abandoned you, and left you on your own?
Well, He hasn't. Remember His promise: “No, I will not abandon you as orphans – I will come to you.” Jn. 14: 18
Jesus is always true to His promises: and the fruit of His promise is that His Spirit would come to the Disciples, and dwell in them, taking the place of their Master's literal presence.
“He departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.” St. Augustine: Confessions Book IV; 19
And remember, after the Resurrection, Jesus said to Thomas: “Blessed are those who have not seen [me] and yet believe.”
Jn. 20: 29   
We haven't physically seen Jesus, and yet we believe because He dwells within us by His Spirit.
But Blessed John Henry Newman explains it far better than I.
“Let us not for a moment suppose [he said] that God the Holy Spirit comes in such sense that God the Son remains away. The Holy Spirit causes the indwelling of Christ in the heart. The Holy Spirit, then, vouchsafes to us, that by his coming Christ may come to us, not visibly, but may enter into us.” J. H. Newman: Parochial & Plain Sermons VI; 10   
The Holy Spirit, who brings Jesus to indwell my life so that Jesus isn't out there somewhere: He's in here, and will never leave me.
An indwelling: “Faith, [which] is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Heb.11: 1
Built on the promise that: “Christ died for our sins once for all. [The sinless one who became sin] to bring us to God. He [who] was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.”
1 Pt. 3: 18
Safe in the knowledge that He won’t: “Leave you as orphans [but] come to you. To live with you and be in you.” Jn. 14: 18 & 17

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER [A] ~ The Road To Emmaus

Acts 2: 14, 22 – 33                                          1 Peter 1: 17 – 21                                         Luke 24: 13 – 35
Whilst on a tour of Mediterranean countries, Blessed John Henry Newman wrote home to His Mother in January 1833.
He was in a dark place personally; and his words to her about the state of Christianity reflect his feelings of sadness, and disillusionment: “The Christian world [he wrote] is gradually becoming barren and effete, as land which has been worked out and is become sand.”
We too might feel the same about the Church now: but we mustn’t yield to disillusionment, and discouragement because we know that: “The Lord has really risen!” Lk. 24: 34
And we mustn’t lose heart when we think of those who’ve left the Church; who no longer consider us credible or relevant.
For a few moments, let’s reflect together on this in the light of the story of Emmaus.
The two disciples have left Jerusalem – they’re leaving home. They’re leaving behind the ‘nakedness’ of the God who allowed Himself to be nailed to the wood of the Cross.
They’re disillusioned by the failure of the Messiah in whom they’d hoped, and who now appeared utterly vanquished, and humiliated.
Here we have to face the difficult mystery of those people who leave the Church, who, under the illusion of alternative ideas, now think that the Church – their Jerusalem; their home – can no longer offer them anything meaningful, and important.
So, they set off on the road alone – with their disappointment. Perhaps the Church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas, perhaps the world seems to have made the Church a relic of the past, unfit for new questions; perhaps the Church could speak to people in their childhood, but not in adulthood.
Faced with this situation, what are we to do; what can I do?
We need a Church capable of walking at people’s side, of doing more than simply listening to them; a Church that walks with them on their journey.
A Church able to make sense of the ‘night’ contained in the flight of so many of our brothers and sisters from ‘Jerusalem;’ a Church which realises that the reasons why people leave also contain reasons why they can eventually return.
But we need to know how to interpret, with courage, the larger picture.
When I say we need a Church to do these things, I mean each of us; because we are the Church.
Jesus made the hearts of the disciples of Emmaus burn within them.
I would like all of us to ask ourselves today: are we still a Church capable of warming hearts? A Church capable of leading people back to Jerusalem? Of bringing them home?
‘Jerusalem’ – the Church – where our roots are: Scripture, Sacraments, community, Mary, the Apostles and the Saints, friendship with the Lord….
Are we still able to speak of these roots in a way that will revive a sense of wonder at their beauty, and a desire in people to come home to the Lord?
But, do we – do I – still love them? For, if I don’t, how can I hope to attract people to come back to the Lord so that He can make their hearts burn within them?
Sadly, there are many Catholics whose hearts don’t burn within them; who live their faith without enthusiasm; who don’t want to give out – and to live out - the proclamation of the Gospel!
And this is really sad as it causes Christians to have a negative outlook on life, and on their faith.
Let’s not close the door of our hearts to the grace of the Lord so that we become like an icy-cold tomb.
Instead, let’s ask Jesus to give us a living heart that burns within us when we hear Him call us by name.
We have a wonderful message to give, but it came at a cost: the Cross….
But it’s only through the Cross that we plumb the depth, and scale the height of God’s love for us.
There, I see my name written in the Lord’s wounds.
There, death is crushed to death, and life is mine to live, won through the Lord’s selfless love.
This, the power of the cross: Son of God, slain for us. What a love! What a cost! We stand forgiven at the cross.
And all of this is only possible because: “The Lord has really risen!” Lk. 24: 34 for a dead Jesus would be incapable of raising us to new life.
If only we knew that with our hearts, and not just our heads then, like the Emmaus Disciples we’ll be able to say: “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with [me on the journey of my life.”] Lk. 24: 32     
                                                                                                                        

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER [A] ~ Divine Mercy Sunday  

Acts 2: 42 - 47             1 Peter 1: 3 - 9                                 John 20: 19 – 31
“He took up our pain and bore our suffering. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Is. 53: 4 – 5
We heard those words from the Prophet Isaiah, describing the One whom the Lord would send to save His people, on Good Friday afternoon at the beginning of our reliving of the Lord’s Passion.
They tell us, directly from the Lord’s mouth, the depths of His mercy toward us: His ‘Passion’ to save us from sin and death.
They show us, as The Bard said, that: “The quality of mercy is not strain'd, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven. It is an attribute to God himself.” The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I
It shows us mercy is at the heart of God: that the Lord’s mercy is not ‘strain’d’ – it isn’t constrained, it’s freely given.
That’s what Peter tells us in the second reading: “It is by [the Father’s] great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Pt. 1: 3
And Peter knew that only too well from the Lord pouring His mercy over him when, in that Upper Room, Jesus showed Peter the wounds of His Passion, breathed His Spirit over him, and said: “Peace be with you.” Jn. 20: 21
Then, Peter knew for certain that God’s mercy and forgiveness is greater than any sin.
Thomas, too, knew that God’s mercy and forgiveness is greater than any sin when the Lord came especially to him, and let him touch His wounds.
Thomas had doubted: we all doubt at times, don’t we?
But the Lord waits for us, and He always has mercy on us, and forgives us.
And that’s because He’s the God of mercy: He doesn’t tire of forgiving us. It’s we who are tired of asking for forgiveness, but the Lord never gets tired.
You know, if the Lord were the CEO of a global, multi-national company dealing in mercy, from a business standpoint, He’d never make a profit because He’s always giving mercy for free.
He’d be bankrupt!
But He gives His mercy freely for this very reason; 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
Too often we forget that, and live in fear; just like the Disciples on that first Easter morning.
Now, a week later, they're still there: even though on that Easter morning Jesus had come to them, showed them His hands and His side, and calmed them with His indwelling Spirit.
We may not literally be hiding behind locked doors, but what locks us in is our fears, and insecurities; the past hurts we’ve experienced, our doubts, uncertainties, and our sin.
I feel like that too – I have difficulties and doubts like anyone else – but underneath all of that is the knowledge that Jesus loves me just as I am.
He is the treasure in my heart; and, just as Jesus was rich in mercy toward His Disciples, that’s how He is with us.
He wants us to unlock the door of our heart to let Him in so that we can enjoy a deep, abiding friendship with Him.
We live 2000 or so years on from the Resurrection of Jesus, which means we've maybe become blasé about it.
Maybe we’ve closed the door of our heart and mind to the reality of the Resurrection, instead of allowing it to become: “Woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.”
Paul Simon: Train In The Distance
But the Living Jesus isn't stopped by locked doors – He’s unstoppable – Jesus ignores locked doors; just as He ignored the stone that locked Him in His tomb.
The Lord walked into the middle of that locked room to release Thomas so that he could blossom into the image and likeness of his Lord and God – and He’ll do the same for us if we just ask Him to.
At the end of the Gospel today, John says that those things he’s recorded about Jesus in ‘this book’ – his Gospel – are there so that we: “May come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” Jn. 20:31 
Today, may we hear the voice of Jesus saying to us: “Stop doubting and believe” [and, with Thomas, confess Jesus to be] “My Lord and my God.” Jn. 20: 27 - 28
Then we can unlock the door, and walk: “Out of shadows and images into truth.” To receive: “The outcome of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls.” Blessed John Henry Newman’s Epitaph and 1Pt. 1: 9

EASTER DAY [A] 2014

Acts 10: 34, 37 – 43                                        Colossians 3: 1 – 4                                            John 20: 1 – 9
“Do this in memory of me.” – A phrase used wherever the Eucharist is celebrated every day in all the different languages of the earth.
A simple phrase; and yet, the depths of God’s love is enfolded in those six words.
When we hear it at Mass, does it stir our hearts, or go in one ear and out the other, and is then quickly forgotten?
I know as well as anyone how easy it is to take everything for granted; to forget all that the Lord has done, and is still doing, out of love for me.
Let’s call to mind the Lord’s promise to us: “I will not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.” Is. 49: 16
Hands, which bear eternally the Good Friday wounds of His love for us.
So, today, let us: “Call back into our memory the gifts we have received – creation, redemption, and other gifts [of grace] – so as to ponder with deep affection how much God has done for us.” Pope Francis: Open Mind, Faithful Heart; p. 101
Then, memory isn’t something from the past that accompanies us like a dead weight; memory is the grace of the Lord’s presence in our present reality, reminding us of His: “Unfailing love and faithfulness.” Ex. 34: 6
In this present reality of this Eucharist, Fr Paul will say: “Do this in memory of me.”
With those words, the present reality of bread and wine will become the eternal reality of the Body and Blood of Jesus.
But, all of that is rooted in the memory of the Church; the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday.
The Eucharist is the recalling – the memory – of the Lord’s Passion: there in the Passion is the victory.
Today, the Day of the Resurrection – as is every Sunday – can’t be understood without the Cross.
In the Cross is the history of the world: grace and sin, mercy and repentance, good and evil, time and eternity.
‘Do this in memory of me’ reminds the Church of the word God speaks; the memory of His promise: “Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.” Is. 43: 1 
However, when the Church tries to live her life by side-stepping the Cross, we find ourselves shut in a dark tomb with the stone firmly rolled shut so that we can’t get out.
By trying to live the resurrection life without the cross; then we, like Satan, think we can do it alone; do away with Jesus.
We must never forget that: God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.” Col. 1: 19
Jesus, Christ and Lord, really suffered and died on the Cross.
Jesus, Christ and Lord, really rose bodily from the dead.
Jesus, Christ and Lord, is really alive among us – today, here and now.
A single detail in the Gospel for today tells us that, and goes to the very heart of Easter.
“Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.” Jn. 20: 1
The stone was rolled away!
But not just a stone across the entrance to a tomb: the Resurrection of Jesus means that the huge stone that separates us from God was rolled away and, in Jesus, the way is wide-open for us to receive our Father’s embrace.
It’s as though a room was shrouded in thick darkness, and Jesus rises to pull aside the blackout-curtain to flood the room with His light, to show us that eternal life is possible for all of us.
But, there is a doubt that darkens my Easter: can I really be changed, and filled with the Holy Spirit?
I might feel the stone in my life is too massive, too big for the Lord to roll away.
Last night, the Easter Vigil began in darkness, and that darkness represents all that’s devoid of light: evil thoughts; whatever is hidden and secret, deceitful and dishonest, immoral and sinful.
It’s the darkness of the world, and the darkness in my heart.
The Easter Candle – symbol of Jesus rising from the dead – is lit, and carried into the darkness of the church.
Bit by bit, other candles take their light from it, and the light spreads out and overcomes the darkness.
The light we were given in Baptism – the light of Faith – will dispel the darkness, and roll the stone away.
We all come to Easter with our personal memories of failings and sins.
The unfailing mercy and faithfulness of God, in Jesus, gives us the grace to heal those memories.
The grace to let the light of Easter light up my life.
The grace to hear Jesus calling me by name, inviting me to discover a living, personal relationship with Him.
No better day than Easter Sunday to respond to that grace, so that Jesus can roll the stone in my life away

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT [A]  

                                                    
Ezekiel 37: 12 – 14                                          Romans 8: 8 – 11                                            John 11: 1 – 45
A piece that people often want read at funerals I minister at is called: ‘Death Is Nothing At All.’ I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with it.
A great deal of my ministry is spent with bereaved families who have little or no Christian faith at all but, when it comes to the death of someone they love, they want their death to be marked before God.
They feel they need God, even if that desire isn’t expressed in so many words: in their time of grief, they feel the need for God.
They know that death is certainly not nothing at all; but by having that piece read at the funeral, it helps them to cope with their loss.
Although it is such a caricature of what death is really like, it’s not my place to tell them they can’t have it, but to lead them to glimpse instead the promise of eternal life found in Jesus.
For a few minutes, let’s reflect on that life-giving truth as we look at the Lord’s reactions in the Gospel to the reality of death.
When faced with the death of His dear friend Lazarus: “A deep anger welled up within [Jesus].” Jn. 11: 33
Anger: anger that, through the actions of the Devil and all his works, death has entered this wonderful world.
The Devil, who tempted Adam to sin, and: “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” Rm. 5: 12
Then, going to the place where Lazarus had laid stone-cold dead for four days: “Jesus wept.” Jn. 11: 35
John, an eye-witness to these events, then tells us: “Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. ‘Roll the stone aside,’ Jesus told them.”
Jn. 11: 38 – 39
Jesus, in raising Lazarus from the dead, ignites the train of events that led to His being laid in a cave-tomb with a stone rolled across its entrance on Good Friday.
For, as John says, after the news of the miracle reached Jerusalem: “From that day on [the High Priest and the Pharisees] planned to kill [Jesus].” Jn. 11: 53
What an awesome, magnificent experience to have been there, and seen Jesus facing the tomb, and commanding: “Lazarus, come out!” Jn. 11: 43
However, let’s never forget that – yes – it was a manifestation of the glory of the Lord, but it also showed the awfulness of death.
Martha, the sister of Lazarus, recoils at the thought of the stone being rolled away: “[She] protested, ‘Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”’ Jn. 11: 39
Terrible it most certainly was: but, suddenly, out of the ‘Shadowlands,’ a body bound in a burial shroud came forth.
Jesus says: “Untie him and let him go free.” Jn. 11: 44  
The raising of Lazarus is a foreshadowing of the fact that:
“Christ died and rose again for this very purpose – to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.” Rm. 14: 9
When another stone was rolled away from another tomb in the Garden of the Resurrection on the first Easter Day, there was no stench of death because Jesus has conquered death.
And for that very reason, I can honestly say that I’m not afraid of death.
Of course I’m afraid of the process of dying: I hope I die quietly in my sleep, at a good old age, with all my faculties intact.
I’m glad I don’t know the ‘how’ and the ‘when’ in advance.
This I do know – and stake my life on: when I close my eyes in the sleep of death, and awaken on the other side of death, Jesus will be there to lead me into eternal life.
But, you know, we can be spiritually dead – and that’s far worse than physical death – even if in the world’s eyes we’re living
la dolce vita – the good life.
We can be among the living dead because our life has lost its purpose, our spirit is deadened, we’re trapped by sin, and we don’t know and love God.
These are the people who live in tombs – and some of them are Christians – these may not be tombs of stone, but tombs they most certainly are and, from these tombs Jesus calls us to come forth.
When we place ourselves into the hands of Jesus, then He’ll liberate us from our: ��Bondage to decay and death and [bring] us into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Rm. 8: 21
That is at the heart of the Services of the Easter Triduum we, in a short time, will be coming together to celebrate as the brothers and sisters of Jesus in the family of the Church.
The history of the Church, and of every Parish, is filled with the empty tombs of those who’ve been brought to new life in Jesus.
Jesus is THE Resurrection and THE Life: but He’s more than that.  He’s MY Resurrection and MY Life.
I pray that this Easter He’ll be yours too.

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Lev. 19: 1 – 2, 17 – 18                                                1 Cor. 3: 16 – 23                                               Mt. 5: 38 – 48
Alan Greaves was walking to his church in Sheffield to play the organ, just as he always did.
It was Christmas Eve 2012, and he would have been playing for the Midnight Eucharist; except this time he didn’t make it.
He was brutally beaten about the head by two young men, leaving him with injuries consistent with those of Alan having been in a serious traffic accident.
He died three days later without regaining consciousness.
In July last year, after his killers had been convicted, his widow, Maureen, said this: “Alan was a man who was driven by love and compassion and he would not want any of us to hold on to feelings of hate and unforgiveness. So, in honour of Alan and in honour of the God we both love, my prayer is that this story doesn't end today. My prayer is that Jonathan Bowling and Ashley Foster [Alan’s killers] will come to understand, and experience, the love and kindness of the God who made them in his own image, and that God's great mercy will inspire them to true repentance.”
Jesus says: “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” Mt. 5: 44 – 45
He didn’t say it was going to be easy; He didn’t say we have no chance of achieving it because we’re sinful, fallen people; He didn’t say it’s an optional extra to following Him.
No; Jesus says we have to forgive: it’s not a sort of life-style choice; it’s a commandment from His lips.
If we don’t, we’re just like the children of this world who want to take revenge on anyone who goes against them.
They may not physically kill someone, but the hate in their hearts is just as toxic, because it actually kills their own souls in the process.
But that venomousness isn’t the exclusive domain of our non-Christians brothers and sisters, is it?
How many of us here in this church harbour hate in our hearts against someone?
How many of us destroy people, bit by bit, through gossiping about them?
How many of us only help those we love and like and, unlike the Good Samaritan, leave those others in need to suffer?
After all, charity begins at home, and stays at home, we think.
Then: “Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pains, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.” Pope Francis: Evangelii Gaudium; 54
No; our Christian faith must never be mere lip-service; it has to be faith in action, otherwise it degenerates into hypocrisy.
The goal we must faithfully strive for in our becoming a Christian disciple is, as Jesus says in the Gospel: “To be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Mt. 5: 38
That’s impossible, you’re no doubt thinking: but let’s recall that our first faltering steps as disciples of Jesus begin with our Baptism; although I guess most of us have no recollection of being Baptised, because we were babies when it happened.
If we’re not careful, we come to look on it as an event in the dim and distant past.
Together, let’s reawaken the spiritual memory of our Baptism; because we’re called by Jesus to live out our Baptism as the present reality of our lives.
We may be doing our best to be a Christian, but feel I’m not good enough to know Jesus personally and deeply.
However falteringly we follow Jesus, and remain in His Church, despite our weaknesses and sins – and, let’s be honest, those of the human face of the Church – it’s precisely in the primary Sacrament of our own Baptism where we become a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Paul, writing to the Corinthian Christians, says: “Don’t you realise that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives on you? God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” 1 Cor. 3: 16 – 17
Paul is reminding them that, by the power of their being Baptised, it means they’ve been born again, clothed in Christ, and grafted into Jesus’ relation to God the Father.
That’s what makes us the temple, the dwelling place of God; that’s what gives us the grace to become perfect, just as our Father in heaven is perfect so that we can truly forgive, like Maureen Greaves has.
We can’t do it on our own; that’s why someone else Baptises us, not ourselves, and why it’s always done within the context of the love and care of the Lord’s Church.
From the moment Jesus Ascended to His Father, and told His Church to go and Baptise everyone into the loving life of the communion of the Holy Trinity, one Baptises another, and another, and another……….
Baptism is a chain of grace, which binds us to Jesus in His Body, the Church.
And, in Baptism, we see the most genuine features of the Church: the Church as a Mother who gives birth to new children of our Father, and brothers and sisters of Jesus, by the indwelling life of the Holy Spirit deep within us.
Today, let’s pray, and commit ourselves to rekindling the grace of our Baptism so that we begin to become: “Perfect, even as [our] Father in heave is perfect.” Mt. 5: 48

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]                                               

 Isaiah 58: 7 – 10       1 Corinthians 2: 1 - 5              Matthew 5: 13 – 16

"I determined that while I was with you I would speak of nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 1 Cor. 2: 2 Words taken from the second reading today
If the Custodii of the Vatican Museums could be distracted for a few moments so that you could lie on the floor of the Sistine Chapel and examine Michelangelo’s ceiling without getting an awful crick in your neck, you’d notice one thing missing.
Michelangelo didn’t include a scene of the Crucifixion of Jesus.
Of course, on the end wall there’s the Last Judgement, with a Greek-god like Jesus coming in glory, but nothing about the Cross, the Tree of Life.
It’s as if, in all that beautiful art, the Crucifixion would have been too brutal to portray, because the Cross is frightening.
The truth is that even Jesus was afraid of it; He knew how horrifying crucifixion would be.
He knew; and so great was His fear that on the night of Holy Thursday He sweated blood, and asked God: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Mt. 26: 39  
But, then surrendered Himself to the caress of His Father, and said: “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Mt. 26: 39 And this is the difference.
He didn’t run from the Cross; but I, so often, run from mine.
The Cross scares us; we naturally try to run away from bearing our own crosses for the sake of the Saviour.
Each one of us might think: ‘What will happen to me? What will my cross be like?’
We don’t know, but there will be a cross, and we need to ask for the grace not to flee when it comes.
Of course it scares us, but this is precisely where following Jesus takes us.
Paul, in saying to the Christians in Corinth he wants only to preach Christ, and Him crucified, has fresh in his mind his experience at Athens.
There, he’d tried to use his own wisdom and persuasiveness to bring the Athenians to Christ: and only a couple of people, Dionysius and Damaris, became Christians after listening to him.
Paul learnt from that experience and, when he got to Corinth, he sees that the only ‘wisdom’ he needs to give people new and everlasting life is to preach: “Christ crucified; the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor. 1: 23 – 24  
So, to bring people to faith in Jesus we have to talk to them in a way they'll understand, but without letting go of the power and wisdom, which exists in the Crucified Christ.
If we put Jesus into a box and gift-wrap Him so He can be presented in a ‘Crucifixion free, user-friendly package,’ then we're going to end up with a caricature of the Living God, manufactured in our image.
The Crucified Christ is the power that saves, and the wisdom that leads us into the heart of God: “The mystery that has been kept secret for centuries and generations, but has now been revealed [to us in Christ].” Col. 1: 26 
The last thing any of us wants to be is a failure because, to appear to be a failure, is seen as a sign of weakness in the world we live in.
I think since the Serpent hissed those tempting words:  “Really? Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?” Gen. 3: 1 into the minds of Adam and Eve, it's been so. The primary temptation that we can do anything, and be anything, without God: in fact, in believing I alone am God.
The biggest failure in the history of the universe is Jesus of Nazareth, because He claimed to be the One and Only Son of God.
"He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make." Jn. 1: 3 Yet He died on the Cross as a criminal and blasphemer. What a total failure!
But then I must be a total failure as well because, as Paul says in another place: “I live my life by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2: 20
At least that's what I try to do: but, too often I listen to the hissing of the Serpent, and find myself trying to live by not giving my life over to Jesus, and actually ending up very unhappy; and being a real failure because I've let go of Jesus.
I believe many people are put off Jesus because Christians can seem so unhappy, and negative about our life in Him.
That shouldn't be so, because we have good news: no, we have the best news to give to people!
The joy of the Gospel is at the heart of our faith in Jesus, who said: “I have come that [you] may have life, and have it to the full.” Jn. 10: 10
The new, and eternal life, which consists in loving communion with the Father, to which the Son calls each of us by the power of the Spirit.
And, Jesus trusts us – and entrusts us – with spreading the joy of the Gospel to the world.  
He says to us: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” Mt. 5: 13 & 14
He trusts us to give flavour, and light to His world – this small part of His world that we inhabit.  
Jesus doesn't want us to be like salt that's lost its flavour or a light bulb that's gone out.
His heart's desire is that we should love Him, and then let His love flow out from us to others.
However, this love has to be rooted at the foot of the Cross, otherwise, it will be a sickly-sweet substitute for the love of Jesus
It was his Mother who was closest to Jesus at the Cross. Perhaps today – and every day – it would be good to ask her for the grace not to run away from the Cross.
She was there, and she knows how to remain close to the Cross.
Through her prayer for us, may the Lord, lead us to live life to the full in: “Christ crucified; the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor. 1: 23 – 24

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [A]

Isaiah 8: 23 – 9: 3                               1 Corinthians 1: 10 – 13, 17                               Matthew 4: 12 - 23
I’m guessing that all of us like routine in our lives – with the occasional burst of controlled spontaneity to make it more interesting.
How many of us, if approached by a complete stranger, would leave everything we know and love to follow them? Not many, I’m willing to bet.
Recently I was visiting with a man whose wife had died after they’d enjoyed 60 years of marriage together, and he told me of how they first met.
He was on holiday at the seaside, saw this girl walking towards him, and said to himself: ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry!’
He spoke to her, walked along the promenade with her and, 60 or so years later, he and I were arranging that girl’s funeral.
Love at first sight: and it had changed that man and woman’s life in an instant, and forever.
If falling in love for life was like the driving test where you have to sit a written exam before taking the practical test, we’d all fail.
How can you define love? How can you encapsulate it into a few words on a piece of paper? You can’t – if it’s true love.
And, I believe that’s what happened to Peter and Andrew, and James and John, that day by the Sea of Galilee.
They fell in love with Jesus and, in those four men, we can see what our reaction to Jesus should be when we too fall in love with Him.
Like the boy and girl at the seaside all those years ago, when we really meet Jesus, then our life is turned completely around to another direction.
That’s what the word, ‘Repent,’ spoken by Jesus means: turn around to face in another direction.
Turn to face me, Jesus; I’m the Kingdom of Heaven, in the flesh.
But this quest for love isn’t a one-way street from us to God.
No: God first loved us, and pursues us with unfailing love, even when we don’t want to know.
As John, in his First Letter tells us: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 Jn. 3: 1
So it’s a dual movement: on the one hand, the movement of God towards the world, towards humanity, towards each person – the entire history of salvation, which culminates in Jesus – and on the other, the movement of mankind towards God,  whenever we seek out beauty, truth, and love.
And this dual movement is driven by mutual attraction; but what is it in us that attracts God?
It’s because we’re His children; He loves us, and He wants to liberate us from evil, from disease, from death, and to bring us into His Home; the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus speaks of in the Gospel.
On our part, at the heart of our spiritual DNA, there’s also love and desire: goodness and truth attract us, truth, life, happiness and beauty call to us.
And Jesus is the meeting point for this mutual attraction, and this two-fold movement because He’s both God, and a human being: Jesus: God and man.
But the Lord always takes the initiative: His love always precedes our own!
Just as we can see in Jesus going to find those four fishermen by Galilee to call them to leave their nets, and join Him to fish for people for the Kingdom!
The other insight I get from this Gospel is that Jesus calls each person as an individual, but does so to mould them into a body, and that Body is the Church: the Kingdom in embryo – a work in progress until Jesus returns at the end of time.
ALL the Church is inside this movement of God towards the world; and her joy is the Gospel, which reflects the light of Jesus: and the Church is made up of those of us who’ve experienced this attraction, and carry it inside, in the heart of their lives.
ALL of us have been called by the Lord to become, as Bishop Philip said in his Pastoral Letter the other week, a ‘Missionary Disciple.’
In practise – in the everyday reality we live in – being a ‘Missionary Disciple:’ “Has to do with bringing the Gospel to the people we meet, whether they be our neighbours or complete strangers.
Being a [missionary] disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey. [But we must never batter people over the head with our faith; we must] always [be] respectful and gentle, the first step is personal dialogue, when the other person speaks and shares his or her joys, hopes and concerns for loved ones, or so many other heartfelt needs.”
Pope Francis: Evangelii Gaudium; 127 & 128    
So, the Lord calls to us, seeks us, and awaits us; and one thing’s for sure, we can’t be complacent about our faith.
Because: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance; and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.” C. S. Lewis                                                                                                   Maybe, at present, you feel as if your Christian faith is in a sort of ‘Shadowlands.’                                                                                      If you’re living that experience now, may the Lord’s loving light shine upon you; and may you hear Him calling to you once again, to: “Come, follow me!” Mt. 4: 19

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY

                                                                                                                                  Isaiah 60: 1 - 6                                                Ephesians 3: 2 - 3, 5 – 6                                 Matthew 2: 1 – 12
“Arise! Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you. Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.” Is. 60: 1 - 2
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany: Epiphany, which means the revealing of Christ the Redeemer and Saviour to us through the coming of the Wise Men from the east.
In that passage, Isaiah speaks of the ‘glory of the Lord.’ Looking forward many centuries to the moment when: “The Word became flesh and lived among us. [And] we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jn. 1: 14
The ultimate revelation of God, which Isaiah prophesied, when he said: “The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). Is. 7: 14
The prophecy, which bore fruit when the glory of the Lord, in an amazing way, shone over Mary.
“For the child within her [as the Angel of the Lord told Joseph] was conceived by the Holy Spirit. She will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” Mt. 1: 21 
Jesus, who was born to Mary, brings salvation – healing - for our sins.
He is Immanuel, but not just God with us: He is God within us, through the Holy Spirit who shines His glory into us to bring Jesus to birth in our souls.
The light of the star drew the Wise Men to the glory of Jesus, the true light, in Bethlehem.
"The light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." Jn. 1: 5
But if we look back over the last year, does it not seem as if the darkness of the world has extinguished the light of the Lord?
Over the past year, I'm sure that times of thick darkness have covered our individual lives, one way or another, too.   
And yet, in this thick darkness, the light of the glory of the Lord brings healing, joy and salvation to all who come, like the Wise Men, to the Child of Bethlehem.
And yet, in coming to the Child of Bethlehem, we can’t escape the stark reality of suffering: because, in the coming of these Wise Men, the shadow of the Cross falls across Jesus.
It casts its shadow in the slaughter of the baby boys of Bethlehem by Herod, and of the Holy Family having to become refugees in Egypt to escape the tyrant.
Gallons of academic ink have been spilt, asking:  were they Kings? Were there three of them - or more, or less? Was the star a supernova, a comet or a miraculous star? Is it all just a myth without any grounding in reality?
Anyhow, who were these Wise Men? There are some things we can deduce about them
They were most likely astronomers from Persia who searched the universe for new stars or comets, which in the ancient world were thought to herald the birth of a new king.
Perhaps this is what they were, and what the Star of Bethlehem was.
We don’t know for sure; and it doesn’t really matter, and to speculate too much completely misses the deep truth Matthew is revealing to us in His Gospel.
He uses historical truths, blended with allegory – the symbolic expression of a deeper mystery – to reveal the truth about Jesus.
And, as Paul says: “The glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1: 27
The Wise Men brought the best material gifts they could for a King: but even more than that; they gave of themselves.
Maybe these wise, learned, rich, and clever men had been searching for meaning and purpose in their lives for years.
When they discovered the star, they knew in their hearts that He was a special King: the One who would, somehow, be the answer to their searching.
The journey they took was long, not only in distance, but also in time and energy.
They didn’t have the attitude that they couldn’t be bothered, or that someone else could find the King and come back and tell them about Him.
They didn’t wait for the King to come to them.
These Wise men thought it was worth spending possibly two years of their lives, leaving the comfort and security of their homes to face an unknown, and uncertain journey.
It was indeed a journey of faith: but faith, not as some vague sort of hope, but a certainty that what they would find would be the end of lifeless ways.
The Wise Men had open hearts and minds, and were prepared to accept the unexpected from God.
They risked everything on this mysterious star and, in Bethlehem, they found a seemingly ordinary child with His parents; yet: “They bowed down and worshipped him.” Mt. 2: 11
They’d travelled hard and long, and found their way home; to their true home with Jesus.
Perhaps you feel that you don’t need to take a journey of faith to the Lord because you’ve been a Catholic for years.                                                                                                                                                                                                     But maybe you’ve closed your heart and your mind to the possibility that the Lord is calling you to journey, like the Wise Men, into a deeper friendship with Him.                                                                                                                                             All of us, on our walk with Jesus, drift away from Him from time to time, or let our relationship with Him stagnate: I know, because it happens to me.                                                                                                                                        All of us need to: Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! [And] Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Is. 40: 3                                                                                                                                                                 So, together, let’s use this Feast of the Epiphany to set out on that journey again.                                                                                              Let’s pray to the Lord that He will shed His light upon our hearts, so that we may pass through the shadows of this world, and reach the brightness of our eternal home with Him.

CHRISTMAS MIDNIGHT MASS 2013

Isaiah 9: 1 - 7                                                  Titus 2: 11 - 14                                                       Luke 2: 1 – 14
It’s a myth perpetuated by the media and aging ‘Rock Stars’ that, if you were a teenager in the 60’s., you went around in a haze of free-love, cannabis, and Jimi Hendrix at the Isle-of-Wight Festival.
Not true, I can tell you, as those were my teenage years: and, if I’d ever come home with a whiff of cannabis about me, my Dad would have clipped my ear and grounded me for weeks!
That era was, in fact, quite scary to grow up in.
We had the Cold War, and enough nuclear weapons stock-piled by the USA and Russia to destroy the world several times over.
I think Simon & Garfunkel encapsulated what the 60’s were really like in a song they recorded called ‘7 O’Clock News/Silent Night.’
It’s just them singing the Carol, ‘Silent Night,’ accompanied by Art Garfunkel on the piano; and it’s overdubbed by a ‘7 O'Clock News’ bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966 when the Cold War was at its most icy, and the Vietnam War at its most brutal.
And, as the track progresses, the Carol becomes fainter, as the news report gets louder.
The effect is positively chilling; and it’s a grim, ironic comment on the state of the world on that one day in 1966.
Although it could have been any day in the history of the world, because there never seems to have been a time that’s had: “A peace that has no end.”  Is. 9: 7
It could have been the day that Jesus was born, because the time He was born into was no different to any other.
He and his family lived in a country occupied by the forces of the Roman Empire; and the Emperor in Rome had issued an order that a census of his Empire had to be taken.
This meant everyone had to go back to their family town to be registered: no extenuating circumstances, no excuses; everyone had to go.
So, when she was in the ninth month of her pregnancy, Mary, with Joseph, had to travel on foot and donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a distance of some 80 miles.
And, after that exhausting journey, when they reach Bethlehem, Mary begins to give birth: but Bethlehem is so full of people that they can’t find anywhere to stay.
So, they have to bed down in a cattle shed where the Son of God is born, and placed in a feed trough.
God, the Eternal Son, became a tiny, helpless baby.
We all get caught up in the rat-race of the secular Christmas; but I sense that, underneath it all, everyone is searching for something true, beautiful, and everlasting in life.
Don’t get me wrong; there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a good time, and giving presents at Christmas.
But, if all it amounts to is a hangover and an empty heart on Boxing Day, then where's the good news in that?
“Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Saviour - the Lord - has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” Lk. 2: 10 – 11
This was God’s message to the shepherds, and is God’s message to us today.
The ‘Good News’ – no, the best news – 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
‘Silent Night,’ by Simon & Garfunkel, echoes, for me, the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah.
The din of the world was trying to drown out the hope that a Saviour would come for God’s People.
But, a son is born to us, Isaiah cries, in hope: he will be the Prince of Peace.
This was the anthem, really, of the Lord’s people, sung in a dark world looking for their Saviour.
So, the people sang and sang for decades, for centuries; but that song became fainter as events in the world seemed to overwhelm them, and make a mockery of their hope.
Then, one night, away from the palace or temple, a child was born.
Not just any child, but THE son Isaiah foresaw all those hundreds of years before.
The Son: He who is given to all the people who walk in darkness in every era in the history of the world.
And all of the longing of the centuries culminated in the song of Heaven’s Armies singing the praises of the Son of God, lying in a manger about five miles from Jerusalem at Bethlehem.
We gather each Christmas to sing the familiar Carols; and, one of its attractions is that they bring back memories of Christmases when we were young.
A time when life seemed much simpler and innocent, before we grew up, and, as we try to convince ourselves,  we’ve outgrown the Baby Jesus.
But, remember, Jesus grew up too: and He calls us to follow Him as children; as adults; whatever the circumstances of our life.
The good news of this night is, as the Angel says: “A joy to be shared by the whole people.” Lk. 2: 10   
For when we encounter Jesus, it does bring great joy: but, for this to happen, we must have an open heart that allows us to be found by the Lord.
He is the Lord; and He will tell me what He has for me, because the Lord doesn’t look at us all together, as one mass of humanity.
No! He looks at each one of our faces, in the eyes, because His love isn’t an abstract love: it’s a concrete love for you and me.
So, this evening, let yourself be found by the Lord.
And, to be found by Jesus is precisely this: to let yourself be loved by the Lord!
For: “Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine;
love was born at Christmas, star and angels gave the sign.” Christina Rossetti: Love Came Down At Christmas

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT [A]

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Isaiah 35: 1 - 6, 10                      James 5: 7 – 10                  Matthew 11: 2 – 11
“The party's over, it's time to call it a day. It's time to wind up the masquerade. The party's over.”
Jule Styne, Betty Comden & Adolph Green: The Party’s Over
We celebrate Christmas every year; for one day we retreat from the world into a cocoon of presents, food, drink, and family.
The next day, as we read bad news in the papers, and watch the world’s suffering on the TV news, maybe we think: ‘It’s time to wind up the masquerade. The party’s over.’
Like John the Baptist sitting in prison awaiting death because of his preaching about the Messiah and His Kingdom having come, we ask Jesus the same question he did: “Are you really the Saviour we’ve been waiting for, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Mt. 11: 3
John was totally bewildered: he’d spoken so powerfully in his preaching about Jesus: “Look! [he’d said] The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jn. 1: 30
Isn’t this Jesus, John thinks, the Messiah who will: “Baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire” Mt. 3: 11
John is completely baffled: the Kingdom hasn’t come as he expected it to.
From his prison cell he doesn’t hear the sounds of shock and awe, or the sounds of cleansing battle as the Messiah strikes down for ever the enemies of God’s People.
All John the Baptist hears is the sound of silence.
‘So where is the Kingdom?’ ‘Are you really the promised One?’
John is, in reality, praying to Jesus as he sends his followers to the Lord to ask Him those questions.
Doesn’t that sound just the sort of prayer we put to the Lord when life seems to be unravelling around us?
Wouldn’t it be so much easier for us to understand if God just zapped the wicked, and came and established His Kingdom at the head of all of Heaven’s armies to drive out sin and wickedness?
But Jesus doesn’t look on all that He’s created and redeemed like that; we’re not characters in an X-Box game for Him to annihilate with the press of a button.
No: as the words of the hymn so beautifully express His love for us, and the means by which He establishes His Kingdom:
“We may not count her armies, we may not see her King; her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering; and soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase, and her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.” Sir Cecil Spring-Rice & Gustav Holst: I Vow To Thee My Country
The answer Jesus gave to John, and gives to us, is that the power of His coming is found, not in the sound and fury of battle, but in the changes He brings within our hearts and lives.
And, it’s at Christmas that we see God most powerfully at work in the helplessness of the Baby Jesus as He lovingly submits Himself to the care and devotion of Mary and Joseph.
So, the power of Jesus’s coming this Christmas won’t be found in the brightness of our Christmas lights, the dazzle of our decorations, the size of our trees, or the cost and number of our presents.
His coming will be seen in His entry into my life, and yours, to dwell within us as my Saviour, and my Friend.
And the real miracles of the Saviour occur not just on Christmas Day, but every day, within our hearts.
The real power of Christmas is manifested on the inside, not the outside.
Manifested when I really come to know Jesus as my Saviour; my Friend: not just as someone from the dim and distant past of my childhood whom I’ve discarded like a Christmas present I’ve grown out of.
For me, Jesus is my Saviour and my Friend - He has been for over 40 years – and, as I was received into the Church just before Christmas 1968, this time of year is very special to me.
I suppose I couldn’t express how I feel about the Lord any better than in the words of a song; but it isn’t, perhaps, the sort of song you might expect.
It’s a love song, as all Christian music at its heart is; but it’s actually a secular love song called, ‘I See Your Face Before Me,’ and yet it says it all to me.
“In a world of glitter and glow; in a world of tinsel and show, the unreal from the real thing is hard to know. I discovered somebody who could be truly worthy and true. Yes, I met my ideal thing when I met you.” Arthur Schwartz & Howard Dietz: I See Your Face Before Me
You don’t need to be a convert to the Catholic Faith, as I was, to have that experience of Jesus.
Jesus wants anyone, and everyone to come to know Him and love Him, even if you’ve been a Catholic since you were born.
Advent is the best of times to identify whatever is keeping us from experiencing this gentle power of Jesus, the Saviour, in our lives.
So maybe the question to ask ourselves is not, ‘What do I want for Christmas,’ but, ‘What do I want from Christmas?’
What do I want the Saviour to do in my life to: “Rekindle the gift of God that is within [me through my Baptism.”] 2 Tim. 1: 6
The deep joy of Advent comes from knowing that Jesus came to bring to life the dead places of my heart; to help me recover the vitality in my soul; that the wilderness and desert in my life will rejoice and blossom at His healing touch.
And, you know, this will come in unexpected ways – when we’re least expecting it – because the Lord likes to surprise us with the present of His presence when we need Him most.
To question, as John the Baptist questioned Jesus, may not be the way some of you were brought up as Catholics.
But it's a good thing to do, if it's prayer-centred, constructive questioning, because it helps us to grow and mature as Christians.
John the Baptist questioned Jesus; but the answer Jesus gave to John’s question is not what he expected.
Jesus is the Messiah – the Saviour – John the Baptist had awaited and heralded, and He did come to do battle.
Not with the Romans, but with the power of sin; not on the plains of the Holy Land, but in every human heart; not once, but in every generation.
Use the remaining days of Advent to let the Saviour change your world, your life, and your soul.
Embrace Him, and live in His truth; then you’ll know that the Saviour has indeed come to you!

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST KING OF THE UNIVERSE [C]        
2 Samuel 5: 1 - 3                                                              Colossians 1: 12 - 20                                               Luke 23: 35 – 43

In the ‘day job��� I used to have in Oxford University at the Bodleian Library, during my time there I met one King, and one King to be – King Juan Carlos of Spain, and our own Prince Charles.
King Juan Carlos, with his movie-star looks and charisma, knew how to work a crowd: Prince Charles, on the other hand, was reserved, quite small, and rather diffident.
Ironically, it was in the same place that I met another King who changed my life forever – Jesus Christ the King of the Universe.
The King; whose: “Kingdom is not from this world.” Jn. 18: 36
The King; whose throne is the Cross because, there God: “Made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood.” Col. 1: 20
I remember it so well: it was Monday – Whit-Monday actually – May 27 1968, and I was at work.
It was 2.15 in the afternoon, and I was looking out of a window onto Trinity College gardens.
There was no vision; I wasn’t struck to the ground in ecstasy: I just knew from that moment that there is a loving, personal God who became the man, Jesus, to save me, and that I had to become a Catholic.
I knew for certain that God had: “Rescued [me] from the kingdom of darkness and transferred [me] into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased [my] freedom and forgave [my] sins.” Col. 1: 13 – 14
The implications of that call from the Lord, I’ve been exploring ever since; and will be into eternity.
In the Our Father we pray to the Father that His Kingdom will come on earth, as it is in Heaven.
I suspect we probably pray that with our fingers metaphorically crossed that it won’t; for we want to be ‘kings’ of our life, our own little worlds, don’t we?
We might wistfully think about the Kingdom of Heaven now and again as that place ‘up there’ I might get to someday – but not now Lord – and certainly don’t bring it into my life!
So often in Scripture – and particularly the Book of Revelation - the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a great feast – a wedding feast: “The wedding feast of the Lamb.” Rev. 19: 7
All this awaits us: we don’t know the date, but that encounter will take place!
So let’s pray that the Lord may prepare us for this, knowing that: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Rev. 19: 9
Monarchs and Empires will rise and fall, but Jesus, the True King won’t.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Heb. 13: 8  
And this life is our preparation – our engagement as it were – to Jesus, the Lamb of God
In marriage, although two people become one body, we don’t just do it in isolation; we become a member of a family.
If we respond to the Lord’s free invitation to join His marriage feast, we don’t do it in isolation either: we can’t be a Christian on our own, we become a member of the Lord’s family, and that ‘family’ is His Church; with all its human faults and failings – just like any family.
But it’s not an optional extra: as Paul tells us in the second reading: “The Church is his body, he is its head.” Col. 1: 18
And, as the Head of the Body, Jesus says: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For cut off from me you can do nothing.” Jn. 15: 5
Talking of grapevines, as Jesus does there, let’s remember that the first ‘sign’ of His Kingship was at the Marriage Feast at Cana where He changed water into wonderful, vintage wine; and they all had a party!
A Christian is one who is invited to join in the feast, to the joy of being saved, to the joy of being redeemed, to the joy of sharing life with Jesus.
This is a joy! You are called to a party! A feast is a gathering of people who talk, laugh, celebrate, and are happy together.
 
 
Have you ever seen anyone party on their own? No.
Opening a bottle of wine alone, that’s not a party, it’s something else. You’re either drowning your sorrows or binge-drinking.
You have to party with others, with the family, with friends, with those who’ve been invited, as I was invited – as you were invited.
Being Christian means belonging, belonging to this body, to the people that have been invited to the feast: this is Christian belonging
And the Wedding Feast of the Lamb is so beautiful, and eternally satisfying: there is the Lord God, beauty, goodness, truth, tenderness, and fullness of love.
So, everyone is invited to the Lord’s wedding feast; because we’re not just guests of Jesus, the King, we’re members of His ‘Royal Family’ since, through faith and Baptism, we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, and each other.
You may be thinking, I’m not good enough to be part of the ‘Royal Family,’ I’m a sinner.
So am I: but ALL of us sinners are invited; ALL of us sinners are invited to become one of the family.
For, again, as Paul says in the second reading today: “He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to the saints, who live in [His] light.” Col. 1: 12  
In a few moments we’re invited to Consecrate our Diocese, and ourselves, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; but let’s put out of our minds those traditional, sickly – to me anyhow - images of the Sacred Heart.
Rather, let’s reflect upon Jesus on the Cross, where His heart is rent asunder out of love for us; and, from His Sacred Heart: “Blood and water flowed out.” Jn. 19: 34 “
There, the Church is born from the supreme act of love on the Cross, from Jesus’ open side: and the Church is a family where we��re loved, and love.
So, may our prayer today be that of the repentant thief who was crucified with Jesus was: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” Lk. 23: 42
Then, when we reach the end of our life’s journey, Jesus will say to us: “I assure you; today you will be with me in paradise.” Lk. 23: 43

THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [C]
Preached at a Diaconate Mass with Bishop Philip November 17 2013

Last winter, at Sony/Columbia Records HQ in New York, an audio tape was found in the archives that had lain there incorrectly labelled, and completely forgotten, since August 1962.
The jazz artists on the recording were the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and the singer Tony Bennett: earlier this year it was brought out on a CD called ‘The White House Sessions,’ as it was a concert in the grounds of the White House given at the invitation of President John F Kennedy.
It’s a great recording, and I listen to it a lot in the car: but what, you may ask, has it got to do with today’s Gospel?
Well, it made me remember the musical, ‘Camelot,’ and this lyric from one of its songs: "Each evening from December to December, before you drift to sleep upon your cot don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot for one brief, shining moment that was known as Camelot.” Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe: Camelot
In 1960, when John F Kennedy became President of the United States, his Presidency, and Administration, became known as ‘Camelot.’                            
The hope, that despite the ‘Cold War’ and the ‘Iron Curtain’ across Europe, America and the world, was entering a golden age.
Yet in the midst of it was the Cuban Missile Crisis, which, for 13 long days, brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation. 
And, after only 1000 days, ‘Camelot’ came to a bloody end when President Kennedy was shot to death outside the Book Repository in Dallas.
That Camelot was lost, just as King Arthur's Camelot was lost.
I remember when I entered St. Peter's Basilica for the first time in 1970 for the Canonisation of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales, how I was overcome and overawed by its magnificence, just like the Disciples in the Temple.
But, I wonder what my reaction would have been if a man next to me said: "The days will come when everything you see will be torn down. Not one stone will be left standing on another." Lk. 21: 6
How could it be that this wonderful building, which had stood on that spot for centuries, would be lost for ever?
How could God allow such a thing to happen?
For the Jews it was unthinkable that the Temple, where the very presence of God dwelt with His people in the Holy of Holies, could be reduced to a burning ruin.
But in 70AD, a few short years after Jesus spoke those words, the Roman army entered Jerusalem, completely destroyed the Temple and the city, and massacred everyone in them.
We all construct our own little Camelot’s in our life – both materially and spiritually - thinking we’re safe; thinking they’ll last for ever, don’t we?
But, unless we build on the foundation of: “Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” Eph. 2: 21 they’ll crumble and fall.
Jesus says to His Disciples; “Take care not to be deceived.” Lk. 21: 8
But, do I let myself be deceived by: “That ancient serpent, the Devil, the deceiver of the whole world.��� Rev. 12: 9 and, almost unawares, let go of the Lord’s hand, and put my hand in his, to build my own Camelot?
If I do, I might feel secure, believing that all is going well, only to find myself in the dark down a blind alley?
When I had a secular job, I ran the Bookstack at the Bodleian Library.
It had 11 floors, about 6 million books, and 30 staff: there were no windows at all, only artificial light.
If you've ever seen the film ‘Ghostbusters,’ the opening scene takes place in the basement of the New York Public Library. That's just like the Bookstack!
I remember that one day, the main lighting, and the emergency lights suddenly failed; it was absolutely pitch-black.
Even though I knew the place like the back of my hand, I became completely disorientated, and couldn’t find my way out.
I stumbled about, lost, until people came in with torches to find me.
That’s a vivid illustration to me of what life lived without Jesus is like.
But if we hold tightly to Him, then we won’t be deceived; for He came: “Into the world as the light, so that no-one who believes in him should stay in darkness.” Jn. 12: 46
Yet, so often, we've: “Loved darkness more than the light.” Jn. 3: 19
And, as Jesus says: “If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be.” Mt. 6: 23
So let’s not be deceived into thinking that the Devil is something from a bygone age when people, we think, were more gullible.
No: The presence of the Devil is on the first page of the Bible; and the Bible ends as well with the presence of the Devil, but with the victory of the Lamb who was slain, over the Devil.
"When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. [Jesus says] There will be great earthquakes, famines and plagues, and fearful events and great signs from heaven." Lk. 21: 9 – 11
Outward manifestations of the spiritual battle that’s being waged in the world; just as Jesus says in John’s Gospel: “Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, [on the Cross] will draw all people to myself.” Jn. 12: 31 – 32  
As the great C.S. Lewis wrote: “When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead... death itself would start working backwards.”  C.S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Ch. 15  
In these last days in Ordinary Time, the Lord, through His Word in Scripture, prepares us for Advent.
That season when we’re called to reflect on the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time; and to prepare us to stand before the Lord, and face His judgement on us then, or at the hour of our death – whichever occurs first.
But let’s not face that moment with fear in our hearts, because: “In this hope we were saved.” Rm. 8: 24 that, yes, I’m a sinner; but I’m standing under the mercy of God, washed clean in: “The precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” 1 Pt. 1: 19
Knowing that: “He saves us with tenderness, He saves us with caresses, He saves us with His life [laid down for us.]” Pope Francis: Meditation during Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae Chapel; October 22 2013
So let’s stand confidently, but humbly, under the merciful gaze of Jesus, remembering His word to us this morning: “Stand firm, and you will win eternal life.” Lk. 21: 19

THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [C]  

                
Wisdom 11: 22 - 12: 2          2 Thessalonians 1: 11 - 2: 2          Luke 19: 1 – 10
The Ordinary Time of the Church's Year will culminate in a few weeks with the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
Then the Church year begins all over again the following week with Advent; then Christmas; then Lent, and so on.
The seasons in the Church's Calendar have a soothing rhythm – rather like a gentle bossa-nova beat - and we can become so used to them that they feel like a comfortable pair of liturgical slippers!
And I know for myself how easy it is to slip into those slippers, so that being with the Lord in this particular and special way on Sunday - the Day when we always celebrate His Resurrection – becomes just a matter of habit; of routine.
Maybe it happens because we loosen our connection with the fact that Jesus is real, not just an indeterminate sort of spirit.
As Pope Francis said at Mass last Tuesday morning: “Jesus is not a spirit! Jesus is a person, He is a man, with flesh like ours, but in glory. Jesus has the wounds on His hands, His feet, on His side and when He prays, He shows the Father the price of [our salvation], and prays for us, as if He is saying, ‘Father, that these may not be lost,’”
But, when we get closer to Jesus, it’s costly; because He: “Demands my soul, my life, my all.” Isaac Watts: When I Survey The Wondrous Cross
Writing to Christians living in very difficult times, and being persecuted for their faith, Paul tells them to: “Always be joyful; for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
1 Th. 5: 16 & 18
We're naturally happy sometimes, and sad on others; but Christian joy isn't dependent on circumstances, on our feelings, on our moods.
It actually flows from what Jesus has done for us, and it's constant. Like: "A fresh, bubbling spring within [you], giving [you] eternal life.” Jn. 4: 14 as Jesus promised the Samaritan woman at the well. 
The Book of Wisdom says of God: “You are merciful to all, and you overlook people’s sins, so that they may repent. For you love all things that exist.” Wis. 11: 23 - 24
The Lord loves us: He wants us to come back to Him with all our hearts.
Through His grace, which is the undeserved love He lavishes upon us, we're given the power to live for Him; so that people will see in us, however dimly, the Lord Jesus.
Grace, repentance, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are the ingredients we need to experience for ourselves the constancy of Christian joy.
If this sounds abstract, big on theory, but little to do with putting it in to practice, then let's look at Zacchaeus because, in his life, you can see these three things happening.
This meeting of Jesus and Zacchaeus is a monumental encounter, worthy of Shakespeare; and yet it’s written down in such a measured way by Luke.
In that respect, it’s like the meeting Jesus has with Nicodemus in John’s Gospel, where Jesus says to him: “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Jn. 3: 3
You can’t understand who I am unless I draw you to myself; reveal myself to you: and the supreme unveiling of who Jesus really is will be on the Cross – the Tree of Life.
Because, Jesus says: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” Jn. 12: 32 
Luke says that: “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up [into the tree] and said ’Zacchaeus! Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.’” Lk. 19: 5  
Jesus saw straight through the layers of extortion, greed, and callous contempt that Zacchaeus had for his fellow human beings.
Saw through the layers of hard-heartedness, to the unspoken question emerging from behind Zacchaeus’ hard, crafty look.
That question, which Zacchaeus had been repressing all his life: how do I find acceptance and love? How do I find true love?
He found the answer he’d been searching for when Jesus looked at him.
Jesus knew about tax-collectors - one of His Apostles, Matthew, had been one; and Jesus knew that, even though they couldn’t resist the chance to make a quick buck, there was a sickness of heart for which only He had the remedy.
In that meeting of their eyes, Zacchaeus was healed, and made whole again: he was literally born again.
It was as if all of his life before that moment had been a nasty dream, to which he’d been held captive, and now he was free.
His life before meeting Jesus had been rubbish, whereas life after Jesus was a new creation.
I know from my own life experience of becoming a Christian that this can happen to anyone – to everyone – if you trust the Lord.
That’s just what Zacchaeus did – he trusted God: he turned round from all that had held him captive for so long, looked into the eyes of Jesus, and found release.
So: “Zacchaeus quickly climbed [from the tree] down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy.” Lk. 19: 6
Then Zacchaeus: “Stood before the Lord.” Lk. 19: 8 and gave evidence of his repentance in public.
Repentance here isn’t just a change of heart involving a token, ‘Sorry,’ to the people he’s extorted, but joyfully making restoration and restitution, which Zacchaeus is determined to do lavishly.
However, Zacchaeus doesn’t care what it’s going to cost him, because he’s found something far greater than wealth and possessions; He’s found Jesus or, should I say, Jesus has found Him.
Now, it’s as if all the weight of sin and suffering had been lifted from his shoulders, and he could stand erect because, where Jesus is, there salvation is to be found, for those who enter into a personal, passionate, and intimate friendship with Him.
But Zacchaeus doesn’t physically follow his Master, which he could have done to escape the puzzled, and probably still angry looks of his neighbours.
He’s going to live out his new life right where he is; because where he is, now that he belongs to Jesus, there will be found the Lord’s salvation.
Jesus says He came to seek and save those, like Zacchaeus, and like me, who are lost, and I'm so glad He has.
I hope that the Lord has called your name as he did to Zacchaeus, so that you: “May you have the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.”
Eph. 3: 18
And, to achieve that God-given understanding, let’s recognise those things in our lives that weigh us down under a weight of sin; repent of them, and know in our hearts that: “Salvation has come to [my] home today.” Lk. 19: 9    

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [C]

Ecclesiasticus 35: 12 – 14, 16 – 19      2 Timothy 4: 6- 8, 16 – 18