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20 Dec 2024

4th Sunday of Advent

This weekend we light the third purple candle on the Advent wreath as the anticipation grows to a crescendo as we  draw closer to the celebration of the Christmas mysteries. Christmas is almost upon us: yet are we ready in the true sense of the word remembering that Jesus is the reason for the season? Christmas we are told is a time for so many things  yet for many it is a time of stress and pressure with all the extra work to sort out every­thing that needs to be done.  For many it is a time when we are fearful that the children won’t be disappointed or that there will be tension in relationships or there will be a breakdown in the ceasefire with the in-laws.  

In the first reading from Micah Jerusalem was under siege and Davids dynasty was in peril. The prophet said that salvation would come from an insignificant place and that was Bethlehem from there a new leader would gather the nations together into one people.  In the second reading from Hebrews the sacrifices mosaic law were unable to purify the people from sin. Only Christ himself was able to bring the reconciliation between  god and his people. We  meet Mary and her cousin Elisabeth in our Gospel reading. Mary, who herself had been prepared for the coming of the Messiah. She has heard the angel’s greeting, and his strange news, and has accepted her role in God’s plan.  Now she hurries to her kinswoman, Elizabeth, who herself bears John the Baptist in her womb. John, alerts us to the presence of the Lord, as he leaps for joy in his mother’s womb. His joy is that God has kept his promise, and is with his people.  That two women were chosen to play such a role in the story of salvation is remarkable, as women were often marginalized in the society of their time.

In all these events we see the great mission that Mary undertook as a privileged instrument in the hands of God. Mary is not only the mother of the source of grace; she is the very model of what a Christian heart should look like. We look to Mary to see our fullest Christian dig­nity. In Lumen Gentium 68, Vatican II describes our contem­plation of Mary as an act of entering our own deepest mystery, catching a glimpse of what we shall he at the end of our faith journey. Over the next few days the journey to Christmas will have many pressures for everyone especially those who are worried about so many things family and otherwise.  Mary in her calm gentle way encourages us to trust in God’s word and to believe in God’s promises as she did. The great Christmas feast is almost here. As always in Advent, what is promised in the first reading is brought to fulfilment in the Gospel reading. We began Advent with the cry, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. We will end it at Christmas with the joyful shout, ‘God is with us!’

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14 Dec 2024

3rd Sunday of Advent

On this the 3rd Sunday of advent we light the rose coloured candle on the advent wreath and the vestments at mass may be Rose as well. This Sunday is also known as Gaudete Sunday as we rejoice that the Lord is near.  Last week we heard about John’s ministry of preaching repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins. The idea of repentance is about turning around and facing in a new direction. John’s call to the people was to turn away from the old ways of life and to turn towards God. The Gospel opens with the people, the tax collectors and some soldiers, having heard the call to change their lives, all asking John, ‘What must we do?” We should also be asking ourselves what must we do?

 Both John the Baptist and Paul share one belief: that the Lord is very near. God’s nearness didn’t act as a threat to them, but gave them a infectious  source of joy that no one could take away  from them. Their joy in the closeness of God gave an edge to their preaching and teaching. It gave them a vision to see the far side of disaster; it moved them to draw others into that sense of joy.  None of them was closed in his own joy they moved out going round in the hope their  inner joy would be caught by the people of their time and place and many people were caught by the joy they had to pass on to them. The picture of John the Baptist as a man of joy is not one you hear about very often. John is usually portrayed as a lonesome figure, with a weird wardrobe and weirder diet, who rants and raves at anyone with ears  to hear. But John was a character who intrigued people and as a result they would seek him out and follow him. People don’t journey into the wilderness just to get insulted; you don’t become disciples for the wardrobe and diet.Here was a man who cared nothing at all for comfort, money or fame, who could not be bought, and who would speak the truth without fear. In John people could see something of God.

John spoke in words they could grasp when he told them exactly what they should be doing.  He made such a deep impression on the crowd that word goes around that he might be the Christ. That expectant feeling is a measure of John’s effect on people around him. John did not  claim to know who the Messiah was going to be instead he tells the people that he is not that person. That role is for someone else, someone greater and more powerful than he was.  And as we know that person was Jesus the Son of the Father. We are called to be joyful witnesses to Jesus but as we know with all that is going on around us these days that is not easy. There are many things that continue to block the presence of the Lord within us. It’s time for us to answer the question what must we do and that is to  prepare the way so that we will be able to welcome Jesus  into our lives our hearts and our homes at Christmas. Let us  Rejoice in the lord always because the Lord is near.

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06 Dec 2024

2Nd Sunday of Advent

This Sunday we light the second purple candle on the Advent Wreath The sense of preparing is very strong in our readings this weekend. The Gospel highlights the role of John the Baptist as the one who prepares the way for Jesus. The first reading from the prophet Baruch is a call to do the same. It talks about taking off the dress of sorrow and distress and putting on the beauty and glory of God. It’s a call for the people to become God’s people.  In the Responsorial Psalm we hear about the  marvels the Lord worked for us! When the Lord restored Zion, they were overjoyed. Nations acknowledged God’s great deeds as they rejoiced, knowing that their sorrow would turn into joy.  

In the Second Reading  from St Pauls letter to the Philippians Paul says I joyfully pray for you, confident that God will complete His work in you. He goes on to say I pray your love grows in knowledge, so you can discern what is best and be righteous in Christ. John was  the herald of the Lord calling the people of his time and ours to  repentance John the Baptist plays a prominent role in all the gospels, but particularly in Luke. John hears the word in the desert and preaches throughout the whole region of the Jordan prepare the way for the Lord make straight his paths. The Jordan was another important place in the faith life of the Jewish believers. After their desert wanderings the people crossed over the Jordan river into the promised land. They left behind slavery, came to know God in the desert and were finally prepared by God to cross into new life.  Blessed John Henry Newman reminds us that “Advent is a time of waiting; it is a time of joy because the coming of Christ is not only a gift of grace and salvation it is also a time for commitment because it motivates us to live the present as a time of responsibility and vigilance.  

We all need help and encouragement to leave behind all the things that have become destructive in our lives. We need help in thinking about ourselves differently. We have to take time to reflect on the kind of person God wants us to be and what God’s plan is for us as we prepare the way for the Lord in 2024. This  means as we prepare the way for the Lord we prune away all that hinders us from making Jesus welcome when he comes at Christmas .  Our Advent journey is showing us how to prepare our hearts for a fresh discovery of God’s presence in our lives; how to recognise the presence of Jesus among and around us; showing us how to turn around and face towards God with faith, hope and love; and how to be the living presence of Jesus in our moment of history. As we continue our  advent  journey we ask ourselves what are we waiting for. Are we waiting for the presents and razzmatazz that the secular part of Christmas bring or are  we preparing spiritually for the greatest gift of God, his Son, Jesus the light in the darkness who John the Baptist foretold.

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29 Nov 2024

1St Sunday of Advent

This weekend we begin our advent journey for 2024, everything goes from hopeful green of ordinary time to the penitential purple of Advent. Last Sunday we celebrated the end of the Church’s year with the Feast of Christ the King. Now one week later we start all over again as we bless the advent wreath and light the first purple candle. Advent is the season that brings us back to the ancient longing of the human race for the coming of one who would bring to this world liberation from sadness and the fulfillment of perfect peace. As we know in our world there is so much sadness and very little peace as a result of this we continue our prayers for peace in the world.

In the first reading this Sunday Jeremiah looks forward to the coming of one who will save God’s people, one who acts with honesty and integrity Jesus was the one he was talking about . In the second reading St Paul encourages the people of Thessalonica in their following of Christ. He prays that their love will grow and that their hearts will be ‘confirmed in holiness’  so that they would be blameless in the sight of God. In the gospel reading   Jesus is clearly fretful about the future as he paints a bleak picture of the end of the world. There is talk of nations in agony, of bewilderment, of people dying of fear, of the power which menaces the world.   It is a nightmare view of total disaster that “will come down on every living man on the face of the earth”.  Given that vision of ultimate collapse, it is hardly surprising that it might drive people to drink! Being sober and awake might not seem very attractive in the face of such catastrophe.  Yet that is Jesus advice to us: “Stay awake, and be ready praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen” so that we will have  confidence before the Son of Man.   

This Gospel is for our time as much as any other when we have so many countries at war as well as all the crazy things that are going on in world politics. The Gospel also encourages us to do two things which are difficult to hold together: to be honest with ourselves about the way things are going, and at the same time not to lose hope in the future. The danger is that we see the terror clearly, and don’t see the reason for the hope that is within us at all. Given the muddle we’re often in, Jesus has to convince us as he tells us about the future that is really liberating. The way he does that best is through the example of his own life. Advent reminds us that we don’t walk alone into the future whatever it holds for us. We look to the past to reassure ourselves here and now as we go forward. When we look we see how far-reaching God’s love is for all of us no matter who we are.  The Advent readings are a rich tapestry of images cantered on the truth that God has come among us and will come again. Our Advent invitation is to prepare the way for  the lord so we can welcome him as Emmanuel – God with us at Christmas.

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23 Nov 2024

Feast of Christ the King

This weekend we celebrate the feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday of the Churches year. The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, that is a way of life which leaves God out of a person’s thinking and has us living life as if God did not exist as we all know God does exist and we see this throughout history. In this feast  we profess our common belief: Christ is King to the glory of god the Father.. Our Gospel reading for this Sunday has Jesus before Pilate. Jesus turns his interrogation into a meeting of souls. It is an encounter that impresses Pilate deeply; encounters with Christ are bound to change us in some way.  Jesus refuses to answer Pilate’s charge of kingship directly. He states that his kingdom is “not from here” (John 18:36), which Pilate interprets to be an affirmation that Jesus is a king.

Jesus also puts the question aside as something Pilate claims, and instead offers the idea that he is a witness to the truth (18:37).In the reading from John’s Gospel  which is also part of the Good Friday Passion Narrative we see  this conflict is described in terms of the “truth” that Jesus  has brought from his Father: “It is because I speak the truth that you cannot believe me”.  Jesus urged the people of his time as he encourages all of us in our time to find the truth of our calling to be “a light to the nations,” showing the world the life and joy of people who are living according to all they have learned from Jesus.  The kingdom of Christ, is  a kingdom of charity and peace. We remember that the Kingdom of God exists in every home where parents and children love each other. It exists in every region and country that cares for its weak and vulnerable people. It exists in every parish that reaches out to the people of the parish without looking at who they are or what they can contribute .  The King we celebrate this weekend is the Son of God who walks the dusty roads of our daily lives finding the weak, the ill, the oppressed, the ones whose hearts are wounded, the ones whose minds are confused by the things that they see going on around them.

Jesus finds all kinds of people as he journeys with us along the dusty roads of life, he finds ordinary folk as well as the elite, the powerful as well as the weak and he invites all of us to walk in his ways as we prepare to start again as we begin the churches new year next Sunday. We remember that the kind of kingship that Jesus talks about places a different emphasis on all earthly kingdoms and empires, from Imperial Rome right to today. It topples the world’s values and overturns the concepts of power and majesty and replaces them with a kingship of service of god and one another. Sometimes we fall short, but Jesus always calls us back with forgiveness. He asks us to recommit ourselves to service wholeheartedly as we prepare spiritually  in  Advent for Christmas .

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31 Aug 2024

22Nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week the schools have re opened after the summer break and we begin the season of Creation that runs until the beginning of October. During the month we give thanks for our world and all the good things within it that are god given gifts remembering that we are called to use them wisely for the good of everyone.  The readings for this Sunday tell us to be wary of those things which lead us to sin and remind us that we must really follow Jesus in our hearts. In the first reading Moses instructs Israel to strictly follow God’s laws to demonstrate wisdom and receive life and land. God’s closeness and just laws set them apart from other nations. In the Second Reading we hear that all good actions and perfect gifts come from God, who is unchanging. We are called to embrace His word, act on it, and care for those in need.

In the Gospel Jesus is accused of flouting sacred tradition. Religious officials from Jerusalem and local Pharisees want to know why Jesus permits his disciples to disregard the unwritten tradition of the elders. The problem is that the disciples do not wash their hands before they eat. The complaint is not that the disciples ignore good hygiene, but that they ignore the tradition of ceremonial washing. In doing this they are numbered among the unclean. Jesus does not dismiss the Law but he condemns its misuse. The Pharisees were certainly guilty of misusing the Law by placing heavy burdens on the shoulders of the people. The ritual hand washing before eating has its origins in the common sense practice of washing one’s hands before eating a meal, something any sensible person would do. But by the time of Jesus this custom had become incorporated into the Law, it had become much more elaborate and was accompanied by prayers as a way of consecrating the whole day and all one’s actions to God. This is fine and good, but it should not become a burden or become a reason for accepting some people and rejecting others, depending on whether they observed these prescriptions or not. Jesus cuts through all of this and turns it around and accuses the Pharisees of honouring God with lip-service while their hearts are far from him.

 Jesus sees the true purpose of the Pharisees, he knows that they are there to build a case against him.  Jesus points out that nothing that goes into a man can make him unclean, it is what comes out of him that makes him unclean. Jesus goes to the very core of the matter and tells us that it is not whether we fail to perform this or that act that makes us evil but the desires of our heart. It is our heart that we have to look at to see whether we conform to God’s laws or not. The law of God forbids all those things that set people against each other: theft, murder, greed, etc. The positive command of God’s law is “to serve God in each other,” to walk blamelessly, do justice, walk humbly with our God and to not harm one’s fellow-man. Let us try to do this in the days ahead as we go forward as gods people.

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24 Aug 2024

21st Sunday or Ordinary Time

In the First Reading this weekend  Joshua challenges Israel to choose who they wanted to serve, the gods of their ancestors or the gods of the Amorites Joshua tells them that he will serve the Lord  and the people reaffirm their commitment to the Lord, recalling His deliverance and protection. In the Second Reading  from Ephesians we hear about how Christ’s love guides marital roles: wives respecting husbands as the church respects Christ, and husbands loving wives as Christ loves the church, symbolizing unity and sanctity. In this Gospel reading, Jesus puts the choice to His apostles of following Him, or of leaving Him that is also the choice he gives to all of us as well.

Jesus did not give an easy remedy for the doubts his disciples had in reaction to his words, nor did he water-down impact those words had on them. After hearing Jesus’ teaching on the bread of life, many of the people find Jesus’ language intolerable how could anyone accept it. As a result of this intolerable language some  of them choose to leave him.  In a similar way today so many people find the words of Jesus to be intolerable language as many people have got up and left their faith behind them and some may never return again. No one who accepts that Christ is the Son of God has any difficulty in believing that he left us himself in the Eucharist. He promised to give his body and blood in the Eucharist as an everlasting memorial to be our spiritual nourishment and our means of offering an acceptable  sacrifice to God every time his body and blood are made present by the words of the priest. He fulfilled that promise at the Last Supper. He gave to his Apostles and their successors the power to repeat this act of divine love when he said: “Do this in memory of me.”

When Simon Peter answered Christ’s challenge will you too go away?”  he spoke not only for his fellow Apostles he also spoke for us when he said “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. and we believe; and we know that you are the Holy One of God.” We are the people who really believe that Christ was the incarnate Son of God. Peter made his act of faith before he was fully convinced of the divinity of Christ, but he already knew that Christ was close to God and spoke nothing but the truth. We have the proof of Christ’s divinity which Peter and the Apostles later got, he gave them the bread of life and he went to the cross and rose again. We also have the witness of the early Christians whose belief in Jesus   was at the very center of their Christian lives as it should be the center of ours.   We can trust that what Jesus taught is true, even if we do not fully understand how it could possibly be.

Many people who became saints died for their belief in Jesus; hopefully we can live our faith fully, even in times of doubting the actions of some of those in the Church.  So today we say Lord, You have the message of eternal life” and we believe; and  we know that you are the Holy One of God and we will follow you.

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17 Aug 2024

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first reading this weekend tells how Wisdom has built a house and invited the foolish (those who are not yet wise) to feast on the food that is her teaching Wisdom has spread a table of choice food and drink. She has invited the all of us to the feast. Those who eat the bread and drink the wine of Wisdom perceive God’s saving action and understand the life to which they are called as God’s own people. In the Gospel, the dialogue between Jesus and the people continues. This time they are arguing about how Jesus could possibly give them his flesh to eat. Jesus insists that if they don’t eat it they will not have life in them and they will not have eternal life.

The receiving of this gift from god becomes the acceptance and acknowledgment of the Lord’s care for us and thus, ultimately, the nourishment we need to continue the journey.  There is one concrete way that the Lord helps us to make this connection that is by providing the Eucharist the bread of Life.   In the bread and wine offered at Mass  the risen Lord makes himself present.  While the priest invokes the words of blessing (thus acting as the instrument of Christ or “in persona Christi”), the conversion of the bread and wine into the blood into the Body and Blood of Christ remains the work of God through the working of the Holy Spirit. The offer to partake in the “living bread” is God’s offer of unity with Christ and his followers.  When we receive communion we don’t receive an inanimate object.  This is Jesus the son of God we receive . The One Who Is who was and will be in the future. When we receive communion we take within ourselves the dynamic, powerful presence who speaks to us through the life He has given us.  How great is our God. He has found a way for each of us to have continual, intimate encounters with Him.

Let us pray, for those whose access to the Gift of the Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament is not so easy whether they have left the faith or perhaps they might be struggling with it or for many they may not yet found it as we remember that Jesus has said ‘I am the Bread of life he who comes to me will never be hungry.’   This Sunday we are invited to have faith in Christ’s presence among us; we are challenged to believe that we really can live in him, and he in us. The more often we accept the invitation to communion, the more we will understand its meaning. Let us pray, for those whose access to the Gift of the Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament is not so easy whether they have left the faith or perhaps they might be struggling with it or for many they may not yet found it as we remember that Jesus has said ‘I am the Bread of life he who comes to me will never be hungry.

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09 Aug 2024

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time demonstrate that God sustains us despite everything that is going on. In the First Reading Elijah, overwhelmed, sought death in the wilderness but was sustained by an angel with food and water, enabling his journey to Horeb the mountain of God.  The Second Reading  tells us to a avoid behaviour that grieves the Holy Spirit. Instead, we should be kind, compassionate, and forgiving, just as God forgave us. We  are called to lead lives of love as we follow Christ’s example. The Gospel reading deals with a doubting audience, and at times we  are also members of that doubting audience.

The people who heard Jesus were shocked and critical of his claim to have come down from heaven as the Bread of Life. Despite the miracles they had witnessed, and the words of wisdom they heard preached with such convincing authority, they could not go the extra step to accept his words and deeds. We, on the other hand  are able to take that extra step because our Christian faith has come to us from Jesus, passed down through the generations of those who went before us. We know where he came from, we know where we are going and we know how to reach that destination our heavenly homeland. The personal faith that we have means that “God out of the abundance of his love, speaks to us as a friend and lives among us as  the living bread which came down from heaven.  All of us have doubts when it comes to our faith and we search for answers to our questions.  When we search we find Jesus who is the answer to our doubts.

Through the teachings of the church and through our communion with him through the eucharist we understand who Jesus is and we also understand his message.  When we gather at the Eucharist we bring ourselves and our needs in prayer to God. We bring ourselves to God because God is with us and continues to be with us in good and bad times through the sacramental life of the Church. When we see the Eucharistic Bread, we believe that it is Jesus who is there before us:  such is the faith we have in the Eucharist.    So  today we give thanks for all our blessings, families, friends and all that we have and hold dear. We also give thanks to God for the presence of Jesus in our lives as we remember that Jesus is the bread of life. The food for our journey that comes from the God who sustains us and loves us and is there for us as a friend, a  helper and a guide.  

We pray for peace as there are many communities and countries at war with one another. From Ukraine to the Holy Land and even on our local streets where racism has reared its ugly head. And so we pray: God of peace, you are peace itself; a divided heart cannot find you, a violent mind cannot welcome you. Grant that we who are one in heart may hold fast to the gift of peace and that those who are divided may forget their strife and come to know your gift of peace. Through Christ our Lord

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02 Aug 2024

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the First Reading for the 18th Sunday from Exodus the Israelites complained of hunger, so God promised to send bread from heaven and meat at dusk. God sent them manna from heaven as food demonstrating His power and care for all of them. In the second reading from  Ephesians we are told to Discard your old ways and renew your mind St Paul tells us not to continue to live the aimless life the pagans live. He then tells us that we should be renewed by the spiritual revolution, embracing a new self, crafted in righteousness and holiness, as taught by Jesus Christ.

Our focus in In the  Gospel reading is food for the body that is bread and food for the soul that is Jesus the Bread of life. Jesus tells the people that they are only following him because they have enjoyed the food that physically satisfies them; they should work, he says, for the food that leads on to eternal life. The one thing which earns this food is believing in the one God has sent. To be nourished by Jesus one must have faith in him. This implies a personal relationship with Jesus. Once this personal relationship has been established everything else finds its proper place and true purpose.  The Galileans promptly ask Jesus for a sign to aid their belief in him  a sign like the manna their fathers ate in the desert. Jesus points out that it was God, not Moses, who sent  the manna from heaven and  he compares himself to the God who now gives them the real bread from heaven. Jesus declares that he himself is the bread come down from heaven.

Whoever believes in him will never be hungry. Yet there are so many people in our world who suffer from physical and spiritual hunger.  I think that these days with all the possibilities for so many things we need to be the bread of life for all those who are out there who have lost the faith or those who are searching and many people are. What does it mean to be the Bread of Life to others? It means two things: Feeding the hungry through our work with and donations to organisations that bring physical relief  to the people who need it in the world. It also means that we are a light of faith to others showing that God the Father sent Jesus from heaven to be our spiritual food, our strength, our hope, and our joy as we live our lives as Christians. There are so many people in the world that are hungry for the bread of life that Jesus tells us about in this Gospel Reading and the question for us today is how will we feed their hunger so that they can make the choice to accept this great gift of God as we have done?

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