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RELIGION LITURGY AND LIFE

07 Dec 2013

2nd Sunday of Advent Year A

 

This weekend we hear about John the Baptist who was the herald of Jesus who said that there is one who is to come after me and I am not worthy to take the sandals of his feet.  We hear in our gospel reading that Zachariah regained his speech when they came to name the child John. John’s task was to announce the coming of Jesus and to point to him when he came. John’s work was extraordinary.  He was called to reawaken a sense of expectation among a people that had grown tired and distant from God as many have done in our present generation.   John was called to bring renewal to institutional expressions of religion which, at the time, had so often become fossilized into mere formulae or external ritual.  This too is what is happening within the Church in our present time under Pope Francis our Church is being renewed for the work that needs to be done in our present time. John attracted thousands to come out into the desert to see him. Tradition sees the desert as the place where God speaks to the heart of his people. It is from this solitary place of spiritual combat, the desert bordering the Jordan, that John appears “with the spirit and the power of Elijah” (Luke 7:17).By his word and his baptism with water, john must called the children of the covenant back to the Lord their God as he calls us today to come back to the Lord our God.

The figure of John serves as a warning, to all believers, to the Church and Church organizations of our need to draw our strength from Christ alone, rather than identifying with the cultural patterns or the Fads and fashions of the time, which in any case come and go. The Church is here in the present as it has been in past times to proclaim and live out the message of Jesus in every generation in season and out of season whether people at large like it or not. The Church and is not there in any way to be inward looking.  The Church that is the people of god, you and I  are called to constant renewal, to tear ourselves away from conventional expectations, attitudes and superficialities and centre ourselves completely on God.  The Church in every age must become like John the Baptist, an uncomfortable reminder of how we must allow the truth of Jesus to break into our lives to enlighten the darkness that can at any moment enter into our lives or the life of the Church. As the journey of Advent continues, as we prepare to celebrate the nativity of Christ, John the Baptist’s call to conversion sounds out in our communities.

It is a pressing invitation to open our hearts and to welcome the Son of God who comes among us to make the kingdom of God manifest to all of us. As we continue our Advent Journey let us hear the call of John the Baptist and put it into action in our lives.

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30 Nov 2013

1st SUNDAY OF ADVENT YEAR A

 

Well here we are now in Advent the official run up to the feast of Christmas as we begin the Spiritual preparation we light the first purple candle on the Advent Wreath and we pray that we will make good the preparations for the season of Christmas. The message of the advent season is clear for us. We must continually strive to work for a peaceful and just world, so that Christ may have room in all hearts. How? We must listen carefully to the daily preaching of Pope Francis! Peace starts in the hearts of believers. We start our journey to ascend to the mountain of the Lord, to be illuminated by His Words of peace and to allow Him to indicate the path to tread. (cf. Is 2:1-5). Moreover, we must change our conduct abandoning the works of darkness and put on the ‘armor of light’ and so seek only to do God’s work and to abandon the deeds of the flesh. (cf. Rm 13:12-14). Jesus, through the story in the parable, outlines the Christian life style that must not be distracted and indifferent but must be vigilant and recognize even the smallest sign of the Lord’s coming because we don’t know the hour in which He will arrive. (cf. Mt 24:39-44)Blessed John Henry Newman reminded us in a homily for the Advent Season: “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 but it is also a time of commitment because it motivates us to live the present as a time of responsibility and vigilance.

This ‘vigilance’ means the necessity, the urgency of an industrious, living ‘wait’ We need to take this Advent seriously, for the coming of the Lord will be not just a beautiful Christmas, but the actual day of judgment. As the inscription on an old sundial in an English garden says, “It’s later than you think!” With joy, let us climb the mountain of the Lord!

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23 Nov 2013

CHRIST THE KING

Here we are at the feast of Christ the King which marks the end of the liturgical year as well as the end of the year of faith. We stop today and think about the kingship of Christ the Lord and we also think about the faith that he left us which we have been celebrating in a particular way over the last twelve months. The goal for this Year of Faith has been to conform our lives to Jesus Christ, and to not only learn the Faith but to live faith in the world where we are. 

 The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, a way of life which leaves God out of man’s thinking and living life as if God did not exist. The feast is intended to proclaim in a striking and effective manner Christ’s royalty over individuals, families, society, governments, and nations. The way to serve Christ our King is to work for the coming of his kingdom. In working for the relief of the deprived, the oppressed and the outcast we are serving Christ in person, because he fully identifies himself with all those in need. Those in the gospel reading who were excluded from God’s kingdom were guilty of the sin of omission. It was the sin of the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side the side farthest from the battered body of the traveler.

The disciple of Christ the King cannot afford the luxury of saying “I keep myself to myself” or “I do nobody any harm.” To be deaf to the cries of the oppressed is to be deaf to Christ. To be blind to the agony of those about us is to be blind to Christ. To take Christ as our Shepherd involves becoming a shepherd to Christ present to us in the sufferings and deprivations of others.

As we conclude the liturgical year, are you with Christ? Is your life an open sacrifice in a demonstration of love? As we conclude this year, we too embrace the cross and walk in the victory of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What began as a humble event—the birth of the Messiah—has changed the world. As we conclude the Year of Faith, let’s not forget the beautiful truths that we have learned, but let’s continue to learn more about them, celebrate them, live them, and pass them on. It is our prayer that when people look at us, they will say, “Christ is King.”

 

 

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16 Nov 2013
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16 Nov 2013

33RD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

 

 

 

In the world today, we often feel like we need a “time out” or the equivalent of a few “stop the world, I want to get off” moments.   I have been lucky that this week I have had one of those moment as I have been out of action for a couple of days due to a bit of sickness and it has been good to recharge the batteries. Many things and countries around are in turmoil as we see in the Philippines and other places where there have been disasters of one sort or another as well as  non-stop action if not in our own lives then in the lives of someone we know. Sometimes I think that a break in the constant adrenalin flow of the day would be nice,  if even for just a brief time, time enough to collect myself and that is why it was good for me to be able to take time out during the week even though the head and throat were sore for in the run up to Christmas things will as usual get busier and we might not get a chance to think about God and things of the Spirit.

 Our readings for this Sunday tell us about the time that the world has left as well as the time that we have left. The prophet Malachi says that the Day of the Lord is coming. In the Bible, The Day of the Lord refers to the last days of the world. In the Gospel, Jesus Himself gives some details for those who ask Him for signs that will precede the end time. First, He tells them not to believe those who claim to preach in His name that the end is now! “Do not believe them,” Jesus warns.

Then He speaks of natural disasters and wonders from the sky. Even then, He says, the end will not come before a general persecution and imprisonment of His faithful followers. This is the time for them to give witness to His Name. Don’t prepare your defense ahead of time, He says, for “I myself shall give you a witness in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” It’s all about having courage to cling to our faith. “By your perseverance, you will secure your lives,” Jesus concludes. When we hear the  readings for this weekend we are tempted to dismiss them as something in the far future, something we most probably will not experience. We forget that the end of our own days will certainly come, and much sooner than any of us anticipate as time is flying by. So the father in the story is correct: None of us can allow hatred, anger or upset to destroy the time we have left to serve the Lord.

 In time of trial it is of great profit to us patiently to endure for God’s sake, for the Lord says: “By patient endurance you will win life for yourselves.” He did not say by your fasting, or your solitude and silence, or your singing of psalms, although all of these are helpful in saving your soul. But he said: “By patient endurance” in every trial that overtakes you, and in every affliction, whether this be insolent and contemptuous treatment, or any kind of disgrace, either small or great; whether it be bodily weakness, or the belligerent attacks of Satan, or any trial whatsoever caused either by other people or by evil spirits.This Sunday we are offered the time and grace to commit ourselves to the Gospel’s invitations to faith in his Kingdom and our working for the Widow’s and Orphans and against the possessors who are oppressors” of such poor.

The heavens and earth and all its temples may and will pass away, but for those who accompany Jesus during their days on earth, they will pass along “in that number.”

 

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02 Nov 2013

31st SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

 

 

This week we celebrated the feast of All Saints on November 1st and  then All Souls on November 2nd. Last Friday we prayed with  all the Saints of God who are in heaven and on earth, I’m sure we all know someone in our localities who we might say are saints and there are so many great examples of people who were declared saints on our own time. Then on Saturday we prayed for all the holy souls, that is for all those who have passed to their eternal reward we pray that they are in the kingdom of God. Also during the Month of November we offer our prayers and masses for the holy souls remembering our family members our friends and all those we have known in this life who have passed on may all of them rest in the peace of god’s kingdom.

 Our gospel reading for this Sunday is the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector who was a small man who was anxious to see the person that all the fuss was about. The image of this Sunday’s gospel is a short man looking for something more.  He climbed into the branches of a sycamore tree to get a peek at Jesus as he passed by.  Zacchaeus put his dignity and prestige on the line when he scrambled up the tree like a kid.  Jesus saw him in his need and willingness to repent. Zacchaeus’ house became a place of God’s presence to sinners. The story of Zacchaeus encourages us to seek and find Jesus present in our own lives in our daily living.  We need to let go of ordinary behavior and become removed from the ground of our lives and ascend to a different level to find the Lord passing by.  

Just as Zacchaeus finds Jesus passing by in the crowd, we also find Him in the crowd.   We each have a role to play in God’s continuing work of creation.  Our task is to bring care and love to all creation we encounter.  Our relationship with God depends on how we relate to all others.  Do we impose taxes and burdens on the poor, the weak?  If we abuse, ignore, burden, conquer and subjugate them to our wills and our self-centered desires we end up being the thorns and weeds that are removed from the harvest and cast into the fire as thrash. We come to worship to get a better glimpse of Jesus. It is the “tree” we climb. Our hope is that Jesus  will stop and give us a clearer glimpse of where he is in the midst of the issues and struggles we face day and daily. We’ll stay in this “tree” where we meet the Lord today – but just for a while. Then we will climb down to return to our daily lives. In the days ahead may we be like Zacchaeus  not afraid to go out into the world looking for Jesus and recognise him in those around us.

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26 Oct 2013

30th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C

 

The Tax Collector and the Pharisee

The Tax Collector and the Pharisee

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of October with the schools in our locality having the midterm break for Halloween next week. It is also hard to believe that next Friday we celebrate the feast of All Saints closely followed by all souls the next day but that as the saying goes is for later. The readings in our Liturgy for this weekend are all about the HUMBLE person of faith that God calls all of us to be in our own time and place. That means that we shouldn’t lose the run of ourselves when dealing with people and the situations that we might find ourselves. What does the Gospel Reading about the tax collector and the Pharisee say to you and I, what do the words of the Pharisee who thinks that he is better than everyone else say. Also and I think more importantly what about the words of the Tax Collector when he said in a simple humble way  God be merciful to me a sinner what do these words  say to you and me? I think that the Tax Collector despised by the people possibly because of the job he does (nobody likes the tax man even now) is saying to us that we need to have the humility to be humble before God who knows that we are sinners even before we say it and we also have to be humble with other people dealing with them with real humility.

To have a person showing real humility is to be true to yourself in word and deed:  humility is the truth and often times we don’t like to hear the truth about ourselves or any situations we might find ourselves in.  The person who is truly humble will always see pride in him or herself as a bad thing.  The person who is humble believes himself to have nothing, when in fact he has God, for him and in him!  The person who knows  himself to be dependent on God humbles himself so much,  putting himself in his proper place before his Creator, that God cannot  leave him in this state:  the Lord lifts him up to his own Glory in order to make him his adopted child.  In a word, he who humbles himself, God justifies! The more someone belittles himself before God, the more the Lord is pleased to come and live in him and to make him shine with his divine light. 

In our modern world, Pride which was very strong in the words the Pharisee spoke dominates the world, and it is this pride which often leads many people the world over down a long lonely path. The old saying rings true that pride comes before a fall and in so many places and situations we might find ourselves or perhaps we have seen other people in. Today, the same as  every  other Sunday, we shall receive within us Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist.  We shall approach the altar of the Lord.  This approach testifies at once to our humility and to our grandeur.  It testifies to our humility, for we humble ourselves in believing that what we see as bread is not bread but rather the Body of Christ.  It testifies to our grandeur, for, in communion, we truly become the Body of Christ, adoptive sons in the only Son of God!  May this approach be our justification, for the salvation of the world! I finish with these words from Micah which sum up the gospel reading for this Sunday and what does the Lord require of you? To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? The Lord requires us in the same way to be just, kind and to walk humbly with our god so let us go forth into the world with true humility in our hearts and minds.

 

 

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19 Oct 2013

MISSION SUNDAY

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This weekend we celebrate World Mission Sunday. Mission Sunday celebrates the great missionary spirit that has brought the faith to all corners of the world over so many years. Mission Sunday  is a particular  Sunday set aside by the Church for the public and annual renewal of our commitment to missionary activities and was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1926 a  the day of prayer and promotion of mission. Therefore, today we are asked to join our hands and hearts in continual prayer for the success of missionary activities throughout the world. The various missionary activities and organizations that promote mission encourage us never to lose heart in order that Missio dei (God’s mission) may be sustained, and all peoples come to know the salvation of our Lord and God. The theme for the 2013 celebration of World Mission  Sunday is Growing in Faith and that is what we should be about from the start of our lives right until the end. Growing together in faith is a good theme for this celebration as we are coming the end of the Year of Faith. This Sunday we remember all those who have gone into the mission fields members of the religious orders such as the Columbans, Mill Hill Fathers, Dominicans, the Medical Missionaries of Mary and there are so many other religious orders who along with the Lay Missionary who have brought Christ and his message to the far flung corners of the world. We must earnestly pray to the Lord of the harvest for the strength to persevere in our missionary activities. In a special way, we commend our brothers and sisters who are often engaged in extremely difficult missions all over the world May they find the strength to carry on in spite of all odds.

We also pray for Christians all over the world, that the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, the first missionaries may spur and encourage us to succeed in our various missionary apostolates whether they are in the countries where we live or abroad.

 

 

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12 Oct 2013

28th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

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As I sit here writing this on Friday evening I am thinking about so many different things that have happened and people that I have seen, having said that coming from Belfast the two murders that have taken place in Northern Ireland during this past week are uppermost in the mind’s eye. One of those who died murdered at the hands of those who are trying to impose their will on the local community lived not far from me here in North Belfast and will be buried after a funeral Mass on Monday Morning at our local church. Much has been said over the last few days about what this man had done but the overwhelming message from everyone including our politicians is that NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE THE LIFE OF ANOTHER and this statement has to be reinforced time and time again is so many situations in life. In our world today life is so very cheap, with so many taking up arms against their brothers and sisters in so many situations in the world. When we stop we think of Syria, Egypt and Iraq to name but a few there are so many war zones in the world, we pray for peace wherever we are, peace in our hearts our minds and our souls.

Our Gospel story for this weekend is the story of the ten Lepers, It is really a story of being grateful for all the various things that are done for us in faith and otherwise Jesus cured ten, but only one returns to day thank you, perhaps this percentage of thankfulness continues among God’s children today. All of us have reasons to give thanks for so many things yet very few turn to the Lord with words and hearts expressing  our gratitude for all the wonders he has done for us in our personal lives and in the life of the Church. The working of the grace of God is seen here in this reading in the gratitude of the Samaritan the man who came back to say thank you.  A Samaritan who was thought to be socially repulsive, and an outcast even before he contracted leprosy, shows the dignity of faith in returning to give thanks to Christ. “Rise, and go ob your way, your faith has saved you.

How often do our prayers turn to the theme of thanksgiving to God?  The gospel today encourages us to voice our prayer as simply and directly as the lepers did in the story do: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” No need for pretense, excuses or false pride to block or alter the request. Bluntly put: “Have pity on us.” We yes YOU AND I are like the lepers, who did not pray as individuals alone, but as a group in need.  When we voice our simple prayer out of need, what do we expect – instant help and healing? Sometimes that’s what happens. But we take a clue from the lepers in the Gospel story Luke tells us, “As they were going they were cleansed, “As they were going, they were cleansed.” In my own life I often say that my prayers are answered not when I wanted them answered but when God saw I needed the requests  answered. We need to ask ourselves today, “Am I really grateful for God’s constant love and for His forgiveness? Or do I just take Him for granted?” Thankfulness is a necessary component and expression of our love for God who has loved us in Christ to His death on the Cross. What can we do but give thanks every day to God who has put to death our death by the death of His own Son and, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, given us a share in His own life which never ends? If we open our hearts and minds to this perspective of faith, how could we fail to begin and end every prayer and offering in heartfelt and loving thanks to our heavenly Father? 

Let us continue our lives with a lively faith which includes thanking God for all that he has done for us.  We remember the words taken from the psalms “what wonders the Lord worked for  us indeed we are glad.”

 

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05 Oct 2013

27th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Faith

 

 Well here we are at the 27th Sunday in ordinary time and our scripture readings are all about FAITH. In the Gospel Reading Jesus says that if you have faith even as big as a wee mustard seed, and that is so very very small, you could command trees and they would obey you. Faith is often described as believing in what is not seen.  Faith is a sort of catch-all for what we lack, sometimes giving explanation for events we dont understand: sometimes it becomes an attitude of hope: sometimes it is used by churches to align those with different views.  If we have faith then we believe in God.  “Lord increase our faith,” the apostles asked Jesus. Elsewhere they requested, “Lord teach us how to pray” (Lk 11:1). We too ask the Lord for faith as we pray for all the various people and the  things that they need.  For to pray is to focus the heart on God, to love and trust God, to have faith in God’s concern for us. Every prayer is an act of faith in God, and every  time we turn to God in faith, we are praying. It is no more possible to have faith without prayer than to swim without water. But we must try to pray to God in the right spirit. For often we are trying to bring God around to our way of thinking rather than putting our thoughts under God’s guidance waiting to turn ourselves to the way of the Lord. We are told in the Gospel for today that the Lord says; the just shall live by faith—even faith so little it isn’t as big as a mustard seed.

 The apostles implore the Lord Jesus to increase their faith. He makes clear that faith will grow for those who are generous with their time, talents and treasure for the sake of the Lord and the kingdom of heaven. If we keep our eyes on him, the author and finisher of our faith then we realize that the mustard seed of faith will grow and be enriched. It will be enriched when we nourish the mustard seed of faith by prayer both as a community of believers and on our own and when we are generous with our time and our talents in the service of others. As we continue our faith Journeys as we move on let us not be afraid to be people of faith and hope  nourishing that wee Mustard Seed in the days and weeks ahead.

 

 

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