March 21, 2013

HOMILY for Thu in Week 5 of Lent

Genesis 17:3-9; Psalm 104; John 8:51-59

Three things happen to Abraham in today’s First Reading. Firstly, God chooses him, and makes a covenant with him. We might say that God gives Abraham his word. But, the tendency is to think of a covenant as just a contract. After all, when we make a contract we give someone our word, we promise to fulfill a certain obligation in return for a certain remuneration. But contracts usually (and ought to) exchange just property, goods, and services, not people. Rather, what God exchanges with Abraham is a covenant. It is something personal and relational. A covenant is an exchange of love between people. And this covenant that God made with Abraham and his people is extended to all humanity through the gift of baptism. In baptism, God gives us his Word, Jesus Christ and pours his Spirit of love into our hearts. Through baptism, we become one with Christ and share in his Sonship; a family bond, a covenant and exchange of love is created between God our Father and each of us. 

Two other things that happen to Abraham in today’s reading points towards baptism. Abraham is given a new name by God. The gift of a name is a sign of a new state of life or vocation. Abram had been called by God to be the father of his people, and because he had entered into a covenant with God, he was given a new name, a family name, you might say, to indicate this. So, too, when we are baptised (or sometimes, at Confirmation), we receive a new name as a sign of our new birth and calling as God’s children. Our Christian name is a mark of our covenant with God. 

Thirdly, Abraham is given a royal dignity and the promise of land, a kingdom. So, too, at our baptism we were anointed just as the kings of Israel were anointed; indeed, just as Christ, the Anointed One was anointed. This is a reminder that because we share in Christ’s kingship through our baptismal covenant with God, we are meant to reign with Christ in heaven, to “inherit the kingdom prepared for [us] from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34). 

Hence, Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “If any one keeps my word, he will never see death” (Jn 8:51). For any one who is baptised into Christ, the living Word, and remains in the Word; any one who keeps Christ’s sanctifying grace in his soul, will never see death but will have eternal life. This grace, which can be lost through mortal sin – deadly sin – is restored to us through the gift of the sacrament of reconciliation. In confession, there is once more this covenantal exchange between us and God’s living Word. He speaks his re-creating Word of mercy and healing, his Spirit of love restores us to grace, renewing our covenant with God. And God’s Word is given to us again, coming to dwell in our soul, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Heaven is restored to our souls. But even if we had not broken our covenant with God through mortal sin, we are still being strengthened with God’s grace in this sacrament, healed by his love from the wounds that every little sin inflicts on us, and we’re being embraced by Christ. 

So, tonight, I invite you again to come to the Reconciliation Service, beginning at 8pm, to sunbathe in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar, and to renew our covenant with God. As Pope Francis reminds us: “Never tire of asking forgiveness, because [God] never tires of forgiving us”. 

2:42pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txgmi4p8
(View comments) 
Filed under: covenant baptism confession reconciliation Sanctifying Grace life Christ 
January 19, 2013

HOMILY for 1st Sat per annum  (I)

Heb 4:12-16; Ps 18; Mark 2:13-17

It is sometimes said that Christianity is a “religion of the book”, that our faith is founded on the Bible, which is the word of God. But this isn’t entirely accurate. The Word of God, properly speaking, is not a book but a person, the Risen One who is thus “living and active” (Heb 4:12). So, Christianity is about following the person of Christ; our faith is founded on Jesus, the eternal Word incarnate. As St Bernard said: “Christianity is the “religion of the word of God”, not of “a written and mute word, but of the incarnate and living Word”.

The very beginning of Hebrews speaks of this incarnation of the Word: “in these last days [God] has spoken to us by a Son” (1:2). The letter then picks this theme up again, speaking of the “good news” spoken to God’s people of Israel and also to us [cf 4:2], but “the Word which they [the people of Israel] heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith” (4:2b). So, we are exhorted to do differently: to believe in the Word, in Jesus Christ, to obey him, and, so, to enter into God’s rest (cf 4:3, 11). 

But Hebrews also says that this Word of God judges us, searches us, and knows us intimately; we are “laid bare” before him. This would be frightening were it not that Jesus, because he is just and because he knows us so well, also knows what we long for, what humanity needs. Ultimately, what the restless human heart desires is to rest in God. What the sick need is a doctor; sinners need a Saviour. Hence we’re exhorted to believe in Christ who is the Saviour and Physician given to us by God. We’re exhorted to obey him and take the medicine prescribed, namely, to enter into communion with him, to enter and rest in him, in his “living and active” Body, the Church. For is it not here, through the Church and her sacraments, that we “may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16)? 

Recently, I’ve been to watch Les Misérables the movie a second time, and I would recommend it to you. Some words sung by the saintly Bishop seem to sum up the message of God’s Word, and of his holy Church, whose duty is to continue Christ’s mission of healing and mercy so that we can enter into God’s eternal rest. He says: “There is wine here to revive you, there is bread to make you strong, there’s a bed to rest ‘til morning – rest from pain and rest from wrong”.


9:00am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txc6Y6L2
(View comments) 
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: grace mercy sacraments Church Word of God Christ rest 
August 26, 2012

HOMILY for 21st Sunday per annum (B)

Jos 24:1-2a. 15-17. 18b; Ps 33; Eph 5:21-32; John 6:60-69

For the last four Sundays we’ve been reading St John chapter six, and today we’ve come to the final part. It’s worth re-capping what’s happened so far. First, Christ feeds five thousand, a sign that Christ desires to feed God’s people both physically and spiritually. Both are necessary because Christ has come “that [we] may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). But St John doesn’t dwell on this miracle – it’s more of an introduction to catch our attention, leading to the bulk of the chapter, which is about being fed by Christ with the “food that endures to eternal life” (Jn 6:27). The people then ask for a “sign” that they may “see and believe” that Christ is from God. They ask him: “What work do you perform?” The lengthy discourse that follows answers their demand, and the sign that Jesus gives is the miracle of the Eucharist, a sign and work that only divine power can effect. The fact that Christ dares to teach this, without ever taking the opportunities to lessen the impact of his teaching, is the evidence he offers to those who want proof that he comes from God. As C.S. Lewis has said, Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or God.

Last week we heard how Jesus’ teaching caused scandal; it is forbidden in Jewish Law to drink any kind of blood. Surely Jesus is speaking metaphorically, symbolically? But Jesus insists that “my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed”. He doesn’t back down but uses even more graphic language: we’re to chew and gnaw on his flesh! And that is where we ended last Sunday, with these words ringing in the synagogue at Capernaum. 

This week’s Gospel plunges straight into the drama as the disciples make plain that they find it difficult to cope with this teaching. The Lord is given a final chance to relent, to change his words, to refine what he’s said. But he doesn’t. 

Rather, he just repeats what he’d said earlier: “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father”. In other words, God alone can and will give the faith that is required to accept and believe him. And “the flesh is of no avail”, meaning that the natural sciences cannot explain the Eucharist, nor can our everyday human experiences help us. 

Hence, the Eucharist is the mystery of faith par excellence. Until 1969, the words “mysterium fidei”, the ‘mystery of faith’ were said right after the Consecration of the Precious Blood to refer to what had just happened in the Mass, as bread and wine become, at Christ’s Word and by the instrumentality of his priest, Christ’s own Body and Blood. The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was the mystery, the great sign and work of God that elicited a response of faith, of complete trust in the Word and teaching of Christ. So, Pope Paul VI reiterated in 1968 on behalf of the whole Church: “We believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence”. And we Catholics have continually affirmed this hard teaching, even at the cost of division among us Christians, and even if we don’t fully understand how it happens. Why? Because of who first insisted on this teaching: Jesus Christ, whom we believe to be God, and whom we know to be the Truth. So, we trust his Word. As St Thomas Aquinas said: “The presence of Christ’s true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority”.

Read More

9:45am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txSA0Gok
(View comments) 
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: Eucharist Real Presence body blood Christ faith truth 
August 25, 2012

HOMILY for the 20th Sat (II)

Eze 43:1-7; Ps 84; Mt 23:1-12

Muslims famously face Mecca when they pray. But what direction do you and I, we Christians, face when we pray? This probably seems a strange question to ask, but it was of great importance to the early Christians. Because worship is not dis-embodied and purely spiritual – we are not angels, after all – but, as human beings, worship and prayer is also bodily, occupying time and space, marked by postures and direction. And so, these cosmological questions mattered: when we prayed, where we prayed, and which direction. If we asked the early Christians, the Fathers of the Church, in what direction they prayed, they would have said that they were orientated, that is, literally ‘east-ed’. Hence Tertullian, writing in 197, stated that Christians pray “in the direction of the rising sun”. 

Why? Origen, writing in the early 3rd century, explains that praying towards the rising sun is “an act which symbolizes the soul looking towards where the true light rises”, and, in common with many Fathers of the Church, he believed that this tradition came from Christ and his apostles. In the Liturgy, this meant that the whole assembly turned, if necessary, so that together with the priest, they faced the east. St Augustine, writing over a century after Origen, explained, “We do this not because God is there, as if He had moved away from the other directions on earth… but rather to help us remember to turn our mind towards a higher order, that is, to God”. For posture and direction in prayer, indeed, prayer itself, is for our benefit, not God’s. So, the early Christians orientated themselves in prayer as a symbol and a reminder to themselves that their whole person – body and soul, heart and mind – had to be orientated towards God. 

The idea that God comes from the east, from the direction of the rising sun, of the light has rather primal origins in sun worship. However, such religious instincts do point toward a profound truth that is fully expressed in the Scriptures. So, we read in Ezekiel’s vision in today’s First Reading: “The glory of the God of Israel came from the east… the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east”. And in the New Testament, Christ becomes identified as the “sun of righteousness” (Mal 4:2) who, in the words of Zechariah, “visits us like the dawn from on high” (Lk 1:78). So, we turn towards the east, towards the light of truth, and ultimately, towards Christ, “the light of the world” who will return in glory. As St John Damascene said, Christ ascended towards the east “and He will return just as [the apostles] saw Him ascend into heaven… [thus] waiting for Him, we adore him facing east”. 

Hence, in the Liturgy, facing east was about waiting for the Lord to return, which, in a sacramental sense, he did in each Eucharist. Even when the practice of actually facing compass east faded away, the Christian liturgical assembly continued altogether to face an image of the Jesus, the “rising sun”; the Crucified One who heralds the dawn of the resurrection. Thus, the altar end of a church is always called the east end, whether or not it is geographically in the east, and we faced the cross in our prayer, orientated together to face the Lord. And this was an important ecumenical position we shared with the eastern Christians, the Orthodox. 

This bodily orientation, to my mind, is still important today and it should not be overlooked. But even when St Augustine wrote, he recognized that turning one’s body and facing east was easy enough. Of much more concern to him, and this is no less true today, is the turning of one’s heart to God, of conversion to the Lord. As he put it: “You turn your body around from one cardinal point to another; turn your heart around from one love to another”. Whichever way we face, our prayer and worship must clearly move us towards this re-orientation of our lives so that when we’re asked which direction we face in prayer, we can say we face Christ, “the true light that enlightens every person” (Jn 1:9).

11:29am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txS5wGUc
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: orientation Liturgy east prayer Christ light worship 
June 27, 2012

HOMILY for Wed 12th Week OT (II)

2 Kings 22:8-13,23:1-3; Ps 118; Matt 7:15-20

Figs and grapes are cultivated plants. They require the care and attention of a gardener. For untended, the ground ‘naturally’ produces only thorns and thistles. Sheep require the care and attention of a shepherd. For left to their own devices, they ‘naturally’ stray off the narrow path and on to wide plains where they can be scattered and the weak are picked off by wolves. 

With these images, Christ comes to the final section of the Sermon on the Mount. Its wisdom teaches us that we need to submit ourselves to God’s tender care and attention if we’re to be fruitful. For he, the divine Gardener desires to cultivate our heart so that we produce sweet and attractive fruit. As St Paul said: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. But without his grace, our fallen human nature produces only the thorns of sin and the thistles of pride. So, we also need to listen to the voice of the divine Shepherd who calls us on the path that leads through the “narrow gate”. We might recall from yesterday’s Gospel, that this path is “hard”, but it leads to life. 

How do we listen to Christ’s voice, and when are our hearts tended and cultivated?

Read More

9:58am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txODD9cH
(View comments) 
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: Church Christ truth prayer grace sin pride disobedience 
June 22, 2012

HOMILY for Fri 11th Week OT (II)

2 Kgs 11:1-4. 9-18. 20; Ps 131; Matt 6:19-23

“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. 

A typical reading of this, I think, is fairly clear and somewhat moralistic: what we really value is shown by what we desire most, and the Lord tells us to value enduring things, to desires those, and so, to build them up. For money and material possessions cannot secure lasting happiness in the way that friendship, familial love, and virtue does. 

However, given that today is the Octave day of the Sacred Heart, it occurred to me that today’s Gospel can also be read from a different perspective, from Jesus’ viewpoint. For, Christ surely practices what he preaches. So, what is the treasure that he, God, lays up in his Sacred Heart? 

Read More

10:00am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txNu5JcN
(View comments) 
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: Eucharist Christ love mercy Sacred Heart treasure 
May 9, 2012

HOMILY for Wed 5 of Easter

Acts 15:1-6; Ps 121; John 15:1-8

The Scriptural image that most often comes to mind when we think of Christ and his Church is that of the Head and his Body, or the Bridegroom and the pure Bride. And yet, neither of these are images used by Christ himself. The one he does use is the one we repeat in today’s Gospel: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing”. So that the “me” in whom we must abide is not just the person of Jesus Christ in some spiritual way but also the visible person of the totus Christus, the entire Christ, which is his holy Church. As the Second Vatican Council put it: “the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ without whom we can do nothing”. 

As long as we are united to Christ through the Church, then we draw from his truth and love, and we are made fruitful with the sap of his life-giving grace; we share his nature and his divine life. But notice that we the branches also have such freedom that we can grow extraneous leaves, tendrils, and offshoots that restrict the fruitfulness of the vine. As such, the Church may develop ideas, customs, and practices that limit the fruitfulness of the true Vine, or the maturation of its fruit. So that those who come to taste its fruit find only small, unappealing, sour grapes. 

Read More

10:02am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txL9X6gS
(View comments) 
Filed under: Easter Week 5 church heresy truth Magisterium Christ Vine 
March 14, 2012

HOMILY for Wed in Week 3 of Lent

Deuteronomy 4:1,5-9; Ps 147; Matthew 5:17-19

Compared to the great empires of Egypt, Assyria, Rome and Babylon that surrounded it, and at times, overwhelmed it, Israel could never have been considered a “great nation”. And yet, when Moses gives the Law revealed by God on Sinai to Israel, he says: “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people”. Because the greatness of God’s people, of his holy nation, is not found in their military might, or cultural riches, or economic power. No, Israel’s greatness is found in her wisdom and understanding of the Truth.

And the wisdom that God’s people possess is not theirs by right but a gift. Adam and Eve had snatched the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for themselves, and so got things so terribly wrong, because they still needed to be taught how to choose wisely according to the knowledge of good and evil they had taken. Lacking such instruction, and indeed, having rejected God’s command, they led humanity astray. So, now God is teaching his children by his Law, so that they can wisely walk in his ways, and have life. So, God’s Law, the Ten Commandments, is a gift. It is an expression of divine wisdom that ultimately leads to Man’s flourishing and happiness; it reveals and directs the natural desire for the good and true that is already written in Man’s heart.

Read More

12:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txHzcP47
(View comments) 
Filed under: Lent Week 3 Law Christ morality Wisdom 
March 4, 2012
“After he had told the disciples of his coming Death, on the holy mountain he manifested to them his glory, to show, even by the testimony of the law and the prophets, that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection…”  – from the Preface for the 2nd Sunday of Lent in the Roman Missal. This photo of the Transfiguration is one of the mosaics on the facade of the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes.

“After he had told the disciples of his coming Death, on the holy mountain he manifested to them his glory, to show, even by the testimony of the law and the prophets, that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection…” 

– from the Preface for the 2nd Sunday of Lent in the Roman Missal.

This photo of the Transfiguration is one of the mosaics on the facade of the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes.

5:04pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z_p5txHSZoo_
(View comments) 
Filed under: Transfiguration Christ mosaic Lourdes photo 
Liked posts on Tumblr: More liked posts »