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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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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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13 Jul 2024

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

On the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time our  readings focus on God’s call and mission. We see how God chooses ordinary people to carry out His work. In the First ReadingAmaziah orders Amos to leave Bethel and prophesy elsewhere. Amos responds he was called by God from his life as a shepherd to prophesy to Israel and that was were he stayed. In the Second Reading from  Ephesians we are told that we are blessed in Christ with spiritual riches, chosen to be holy, redeemed by his sacrifice, and sealed with the Holy Spirit, fulfilling God’s plan in the church for unity and glory.

The Gospel reading is all about Mission. Jesus summons the twelve apostles and sends them out on a missionary tour.  The chosen followers of Jesus have to carry the word of God as a challenge to others. In that mission the apostles have the authority and the power of Jesus. They have to travel on that.  They are not to rely on their own resources but on the authority that has been given to them and the hospitality that will be offered them. With no bread and no money, they have to depend on the kindness of others: that vulnerability makes their message their real resource. If they have bread to eat, it also means that people are not only hospitable they are also listening to the word they preach. If they are not accepted, they have no option but to move on. And when a town rejects their message, the apostles are to shake the dust from their feet – a symbolic act performed by Jews returning to Palestine after journeying abroad. The Twelve went out and preached that God would adopt humanity, making its members which include you and me “sons” and “daughters” of the Father. This was Good News then just as it is now!  I think we need to be like the twelve who were sent out with the message of Jesus but with one difference we need to seek out those who do not want to hear the message instead of shaking the dust off our feet we really need to let our feet get dirty.  We have to have carry the word of God and see it as a challenge to ourselves and to others. In telling us about the beginning of the church in so dramatic a fashion, Mark, wants to be certain that disciples in his church and in the church  of our time will be mindful of some important implications. We, like the first disciples, are inadequate for the task; yet Christ’s mission for God’s kingdom is given to us.  If we labor under the illusion that we can bring about God’s reign on our own, we will be advancing something other than God’s kingdom on earth. Paul refers to his experience of preaching the gospel as foolishness. He relishes saying “we are fools for Christ’s sake?   Because he understands that it is because of his weakness that the power of Christ can dwell in him .       

The message of hope from today’s Gospel is that we don’t have to spend years of study before we can explain what Christ means; we can do it quite easily using actions and words we all understand. The crucial point in the Gospel is that by doing things Jesus’ way the Apostles get close to the people, they understand their concerns and they share their life. We are called to do the same today as we try to do things Jesus way by helping the people to get close to Jesus and what he teaches all of us.

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06 Jul 2024

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time are a call to listen to God and follow Him even when those around us do not. These readings make us think of how we can persist as disciples in times of adversity and how to handle rejection. In the First Reading God empowers Ezekiel to speak to rebellious Israel, ensuring that whether or not they listen, they will recognize the presence of a prophet among them. In the Second Reading Paul embraces his weaknesses and hardships, seeing them as opportunities for Christ’s power to shine, affirming that divine strength is perfected through human weakness. This Sundays  Gospel sees Jesus going back home to Nazareth. This is not a social visit like everyone else in the other towns in Galilee, Nazareth and its people have to hear the Good News of the kingdom. When Jesus teaches in the local synagogue, many of the townspeople are astonished at the things he is saying. They wonder at the origin of Jesus’ teaching and the nature of his wisdom, as well as the miracles that are done through him.

From the unanswered questions about Jesus’ wisdom, the neighbours move to more familiar territory and focus on what they do know about Jesus. Whatever their wonder, they are not going to allow the wisdom of Jesus  to interfere with their memories of him as the son of Joesph the carpenter. Prior to this section in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has been doing some extraordinary things. His baptism by John in the river Jordan was accompanied by an affirming voice of the Father from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests.” After his desert testing Jesus called his first disciples, cured the man in the synagogue with the unclean spirit and the paralytic in Capernaum; expelled the legion of devils from the Gerasene man, you may remember last week Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus and then cured the woman with hemorrhage, Jesus is doing wonderful things in what he says and what he does as he proclaims the coming of the reign of God. Though he did all the wonderful things the people still had little faith which also seems to be the case these days for so many in our own time.

The people wanted the powerful signs of God’s final coming with a strong right arm to rescue them. But when Jesus spoke about the signs of the kingdom’s presence, he spoke of scattered seeds and, to emphasize the kingdoms small beginnings, he compared it to a mustard seed, “the smallest of all of the seeds of the earth” Where was God’s show of power and mighty arm in a tiny mustard seed? Mark sums up their reaction, “And they took offense at him. And so it is today as many take offense at the values of Christianity and the good it makes for all of us in our world. A world which in many respects is so faithless with many  people taking offense at Jesus and his teaching. Jesus revealed God’s presence to the people of Nazareth as a different kind of power: the power used only to help others, not ourselves; a gentle power that does not force or coerce people to do our will; the power of compassion and gentleness, when others are expecting force. All of us know from our own experience that when we admit our failures and limitations, that honesty can mark the beginning of a new understanding. If our Lord and God can take failure in his stride, we might even end up boasting about God’s fantastic message!

What is the fantastic message of the wisdom of Jesus? Jesus message is really about using whatever power that we might have in a positive way to help others and the greater our weakness the more powerful we will be that is powerful with the power of compassion and gentleness that we are called to show to everyone around us as we go forward at this time.

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19 May 2024

Pentecost Sunday

Today we celebrate the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the beginning of the apostolic mission to bring the Church to the world. The readings for the Pentecost clearly tell us that we need to be willing to receive the Holy Spirit and then use the gifts we receive. In the first reading we hear how the Holy Spirit came to the disciples and empowered them to share the gospel with people from different nations as a result of this we are able to hear the word of God spoken in our own language. The second reading tells us that it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to proclaim the gospel in unity. By the time John wrote his gospel, Jewish Christians had been excommunicated for their belief in the Messiah. Ostracized and socially persecuted, some Christians reacted in fear, while others boldly proclaimed the gospel. Early Christians needed a sense of stability, a sense of divine peace.

Through the words of Jesus, “Peace” was John’s prayer for his readers as we listen to this gospel reading. With the sight of Jesus, fear turned into great joy. Anxiety turned into relief.  Desperation turned into vindication. And the lack of spiritual direction turned into a real sense of deep spiritual grounding. The divine presence stood close to them and with the divine presence came divine peace. We too have the divine presence in the Blessed Sacrament and it brings Joy and spiritual grounding to all those who come and Jesus says to each and every one of us you are welcome. We can’t ignore the problems that are there and there are many in our own lives and the lives of those around us church and otherwise.  If we pray through the problems as well as thinking them through we will find that they are much easier to get through the tough times.   Gathered at Mass week in week out we bring our prayers to God. We each have our own needs. Family and friends may be sick.  People we know need work. The person who has been central to our lives for so long has passed on.   

We bring all our concerns in prayer to church because they remind us of our need and they raise our hopes in the power of God made real to every generation through the Holy Spirit.  Through the Holy Spirit our relationship with God is fruitful, satisfies our longings, and brings us peace.  Because of God’s faithfulness to all of us, we give thanks and once again present our needs as we remember the presence of God and the Holy Spirit who are with us. The feast of Pentecost is a day of thanksgiving for the beginning of the Church, in which are contained all the treasures of spiritual grace. Pentecost is also the day of thanksgiving for the coming of the Holy Spirit firstly to  the Apostles as well as all of us. It is a day on which we renew our trust in the working  of the Holy Spirit within us and the Church in the world and  we thank Him for His inspiration and guidance in all the good and bad times and things that are part of our lives.

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04 May 2024

6th Sunday of Easter

This Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter. it is also the beginning of the month of May. May is the month in  which we venerate the Mother of Jesus in a special way and in our parish we are hosting the annual Novena to our Lady of Perpetual Help.

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see a remarkable event where Peter, a Jew, realizes that God does not favour one group of people over another. As Peter spoke to a gathering that included both Jews and Gentiles, the Holy Spirit came upon everyone present. This was a clear sign that God’s love and salvation were available to all, not just a select few. Moved by this understanding, Peter baptized the Gentiles, officially welcoming them into the Christian community. This passage teaches us that God’s love knows no boundaries and that we, too, are called to transcend our prejudices and share God’s love with all.

The second reading, from the first letter of John, tells us straightforwardly: “God is love.” This profound truth is at the heart of Christian life. It means that loving others is not just a command from God, but a reflection of God Himself. When we love one another, we are participating in God’s own life.John goes on to explain that God showed this love most clearly by sending His Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins. This act of sending His only Son as a sacrifice is the ultimate example of love. Every act of love we show to others is a reflection of God’s love for us and an encounter with Him. In the Gospel for this Sunday Jesus tells us ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love. This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.  The teaching about love is not a recent innovation, or a new-age trend as many people seem to think. Jesus does lay down a commandment for us today, but he does so, not as the master talking to servants, but as a friend speaking intimately  to other friends. Servants follow rules, their lives are dictated by the one who holds authority over them. Jesus’ religion isn’t based on such a model though many in the church today seem to think otherwise. Instead, love is the foundation of our faith. Jesus is asking us to live out of the realization of that love. We are his friends, he tells us, so now we are asked to go out and live like friends with one another. “Friends,” in this context, means “beloved ones.” We need to live out of that description for we are the beloved disciples. The instructions that Jesus gives are valuable  lessons by which we will master the love of God our Father in what we say and what we do. Jesus chose his followers to carry out God’s plan of salvation in every age he chooses us today in our turn to do the same.  

Love is the best way to become his “co-worker,” since it reveals the reason he made the world and affirms our friendship with the creator. Love changes everything it touches. It tells us to stop bragging about this or that. It enhances our reputation. It denies the power of position and wealth which we sometimes feel is ours by right, it raises us up as true leaders. It connects us to God and to one another. Divine love transcends mere emotion. It becomes our lifeline to God. And it forms the basis of real community where everyone is valued and none are left out. It is inexplicable in theory, yet easily seen in action. Wherever God loves, he acts. Wherever he acts, he is there with us. HE IS WITH US simply because he loves us and the love of God knows no bounds; we remember the love that God has for each and every one of us each time we look at the Cross. There was no greater love than the Cross of Good Friday. We are called to bring the love of God into our own lives as well as the lives of those around us remembering that the Love of God lasts forever.Jesus assures us that whatever we ask the Father in His name will be granted, emphasizing the power of living in accordance with His command to love. We experience God’s presence through the love we give and receive in our everyday interactions. Through His words and example, Jesus has equipped us to bring this divine love into the world.

As followers of Christ, we are called to live out the love of God in a real way, showing love to everyone we meet without partiality. When we show love genuinely, we make the truth that “God is love” visible and active in the world. Let us strive to embody this love in all that we do, bringing the light of Christ into every corner of our lives and our world.

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