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18 Apr 2015

3rd SUNDAY OF EASTER

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This weekend we continue our celebration of the Easter season which continues until Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Our gospel reading for this Sunday tell us about the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus. They were leaving Jerusalem, their hopes shattered after Jesus’ death or at least that is what they felt. Then they met the risen Lord. They didn’t recognize him at first, but they did after he opened the Scriptures for them and broke bread with them. After their encounter they returned to the community in Jerusalem with the news of what had happened. While they were still speaking to the community, Jesus stood in their midst and said to them peace be with you. He is encouraging them and not to be afraid. It’s still not enough. Then he invites them to touch him. Still more, he asks for food and eats in their presence. The resurrected Christ is very physically present, very much as he was when they traveled and ate together. Still, he’s different; more is needed. He is not just someone who somehow survived what was done to him and escaped. He didn’t experience a near death on the cross – he died and rose again as he said.

Jesus reminds them and us that he is the same, yet there is something very different about him. They knew that he was with them; he has proven that by establishing his physical presence. Yet, the disciples need more in order to accept his new presence with them. What he did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus he does again and again for us in the person of our priests. He expounds what the Scriptures had said about him in the same way our priests do for us today. Do we see that? Can we understand what God can do and has done  for us – bring new life after death? Jesus doesn’t choose just certain Scriptures as proof texts. He tells us as he told the disciples “everything written about me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”

What would we be like if Jesus came and stood among us in real flesh and blood, I think that our reaction would be exactly the same as the apostles disbelief. But if we stop and think for a moment Jesus does come amongst us each time (for me as a Catholic) we go to Mass, Jesus is there with us on the Altar in the elements of Bread and wine and in the person of the Priest offering these gifts to the Father on our behalf.

We remember the last supper when Jesus gave us himself as an everlasting memorial and we remember that each time we hear the prayers of consecration at Mass that we do this in memory of him.  Let us walk with Jesus in all of those who serve the poor and needy in the name of Christ. Let us walk with those who serve the children or those outsiders who seek Christ. In the mere process of being witness, the context comes alive. For Christ walks with us  the Easter people when we serve others.

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11 Apr 2015

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER Divine Mercy Sunday

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This weekend we celebrate the second Sunday of Easter. This Sunday is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday, we also have the launch of the extraordinary Jubilee of the Holy Year of  Mercy in Rome. The holy year will begin on the 8th December and will last until the feast of Christ the King 2016.

The Easter season has the most exciting Scripture readings of the year. They take us from the empty tomb of Easter Sunday all the way to the coming of the Holy Spirit 50 days later at Pentecost. The Apostles are huddled together in fear in the empty room. They weren’t so sure that the women’s report that Jesus had risen was believable. They weren’t singing for joy! Now, a whole week has gone by. They still felt “rocky” about their future.

Thomas wasn’t the only one who had doubts about Jesus, I think so many were doubtful then as so many are doubtful right here and now. The Apostles were pondering the shocking experience of the week before when all seemed to be lost as Jesus hung on the Cross. But here we are over 2000 years later thinking about how they felt after the events of that first Holy Week. Jesus had broken through those doors and came to assure them that he was alive and then his message must have troubled them: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” in the same way we are sent out in the Joy of the Gospel to bring his message to other people wherever we are by what we say and do. We are asked to bring the mercy of God to all those out there who need his healing merciful love.

We remember the joys the hope, the grief and the anxieties of the people in our time these are the joys and hopes, the grief and anxieties of the followers of Christ that means you and me. As Pope Francis directs us, we must courageously reach out in the joy of the Gospel to those who are doubtful among us, and assure them of the great mercy of Jesus. Our world is hurting so much because of the many evil things that are happening within it. May all of us be the witnesses to the joy of the Gospel bringing the caring face of the mercy of God to the people of our time and place as Christians in our own communities.

MERCY YEAR

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28 Mar 2015

PALM SUNDAY

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As we gather together this weekend  we have come to our annual celebration of our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem his own city at the beginning of Holy Week more commonly known as Palm Sunday. The entrance into Jerusalem is one of the very few events in Jesus’ life which is mentioned in all four gospels.  It is the only time that Jesus accepts and encourages public acclaim as Messiah.  He even goes as far as organising his entrance by telling the disciples to go and fetch the donkey.  The key moment in God’s great plan of salvation is about to unfold and Jesus knows exactly how it will unfold.

As we reflect upon the story of Jesus coming to Jerusalem we recommit ourselves to Christ and his message of salvation.The events of Palm Sunday were foretold thousands of years ago. The first reading from Isaiah, one of the four Suffering Servant oracles written at the time of the Babylonian captivity, speaks of a courageous and obedient messiah-figure, who says,

“I have set my face like flint” against the beatings and scourging that lie ahead, “knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” The second reading from Philippians reminds us of Jesus’ total emptying out of His divinity in order that He might identify Himself with the lowest criminal being led to His execution, “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” We move towards the heavenly Jerusalem only because Christ himself has already made that journey to the Cross for us and now he offers to make it with us. 

 The full drama of the Gospel  begins with the crowd’s fickle acclamation of Jesus as King at the beginning of the reading. It is a foreshadowing of the blasphemous mockery the soldiers will hurl at our thorn-crowned Savior a few days later on Good Friday. And yet, we raise our voices joyfully with the crowd, linking the honor given Him, especially by the children, with His ultimate victory beyond the grave. We wonder and rejoice as the veil is raised to permit a glimpse of Jesus, the Messiah-King and liberator.

The Church is a master of drama in the liturgies of this week. Through the use of lay readers for the Passion and the voices of the congregation, we all become part of the action. On Palm Sunday we feel embarrassed to cry out “Crucify Him” with the palm branches still in our hands. It reminds us of our own fickle response and our lack of courage in responding to His love and truth. Yet we know that it was the sins of us all which brought Jesus to Calvary. Palm Sunday and Holy Week are all about Jesus suffering for our inadequacies and our own very real sins. Holy Week is a time for us to realize what we’re really like, and to find that the only remedy for our pains and our fears is love. That is Love of God and  love of others . Are we ready to join our own pains and fears to the Master’s? Are we ready to add as much love as we can possibly muster to His boundless love? As we recall the Passion story on Palm Sunday and then more solemnly on Good Friday we are called as witnesses to respond and to imitate his life. And as God’s family, we are called to look out for one another. It’s not just about “me.”It’s about “us.” Our journey is a journey of self-emptying in love too so let us not be afraid to set out on our Journey through the week that we are beginning with Palm Sunday so that we will be able to celebrate the bright light of  the resurrection at Easter.

HW

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21 Mar 2015

5TH SUNDAY OF LENT

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Well here we are at the fifth Sunday of Lent often known as Passion Sunday; we are now heading towards Palm Sunday and Holy Week. The Sundays of Lent give us the opportunity to look at where we have been, where we are and where we need to go as we listen to the Word of God and what it tells us. Indeed we should be listening to the Word of God every time we hear the scriptures being read in Church or wherever. In the Gospel for this weekend some Greeks ask to see Jesus. Jesus responds by saying that anyone who loves his life will lose it; to gain your life, you have to be like a grain of wheat which brings forth much fruit only by falling into the earth and dying. The seed which must die to produce a harvest is a powerful image of Jesus death. The Greeks must have been baffled. They were baffled in much the same way that we are when we listen to the stories from scripture about Jesus and all the things that he had done. The gospel goes on to tell us that a voice is heard from the cloud, as at the Transfiguration in the other gospels, but here it speaks of the ‘glory’ that will come to Jesus for giving up his life. It is in his death and resurrection that he draws all people to himself, both Jew and Greek.

Many Learned men and women have tried to put their interpretation on the Scriptures but if we listen with open hearts and minds what the word of God means in our lives and the way we live them will become apparent. For many people including me God’s presence is not often thought of  at the time when it is upon us, but afterwards, when you look back at what has happened or what you have said you often see that the hand of God was with you. I have often said things to people about situations that they are in and thought to myself where did I get that from? Then on reflection I know that what I said was inspired by the Holy Spirit and was the right thing to do or sat in the right place.

As we come to the last few days of Lent let us prepare with great intensity for Palm Sunday and the Easter Triduum and then we will really be able to enjoy the Easter feast on Easter Sunday which we have been preparing for since Ash Wednesday and don’t forget the Easter celebration lasts until Pentecost Sunday !!!

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14 Mar 2015

4TH SUNDAY OF LENT

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This weekend we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Lent and this is also known as “Laetare Sunday” since its mood and theme is one of hope and rejoicing that Easter is near.  So what is the cause for rejoicing? The opening prayer offers an important clue. We pray to God as “[you] who through your Word reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way.” it then goes on to say that  we pray, that with prompt devotion and eager faith the Christian people may hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come on palm Sunday and Holy Week

The Gospel reading from John tells us that a person is condemned because that  individual “has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” God has no desire to condemn, but people condemn themselves by putting God and the ideals of faith out of their lives. Over many centuries many people have said there is no  god. There are so many people out there in our so called modern world  who have turned out the light of faith in their lives permanently for many reasons.  I know people of all ages who have been brought up in the Christian Faith and then have left it all behind .

At the end of the Gospel we are told that Jesus the Light came into the world, but the people preferred darkness to light, because some of the things that they had done and were doing were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hate the light because the light shows up what they were doing. Jesus was sent by God; light in the darkness of our daily lives and living. At the Easter Vigil we proclaim the risen Lord as Christ our Light and we celebrate with joy. We are invited to celebrate this Sunday with joy, because we have been invited through baptism and confirmation to live in the light of Christ and to act accordingly

We also pray for those adults in the RCIA process who will take up the light of Christ for the first time when they are baptized at the Easter Vigil.  may they be a light to those around them as they come to the joy of baptism and confirmation. We also remember and pray for all those who have left the faith and extinguished the light of faith in their lives and we pray that they may reignite the faith in their lives by seeing the good example of those around them.

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29 Nov 2014

1ST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

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This weekend we begin the season of Advent and we begin another church year as we begin our preparation for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. As with Lent the vestments are purple and we light the first purple candle on the Advent Wreath. Advent like Lent is a time of spiritual preparation and there are many opportunities for doing this between now and Christmas Eve. In our secular world Advent seems to begin the season of Christmas and the measuring of Christmas-time profits in the business sections of our newspapers. We will hear happy, silly jingles in stores and malls. While at church, this season’s sounds will be contradictory – sober hymns that, with the Scriptures, liturgical banners and colors, will help us “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Amongst all the razzmatazz of the Christmas preparations and the madness of the shoppers on our town and city streets including Black Friday we need to stop and ask ourselves what are we waiting for this Advent. It is a question that we need to ask ourselves every year at the beginning of Advent much the same way we ask ourselves what are we doing for the six weeks of Lent at the beginning of the Lenten season. Those who are ready and awake will know when God comes and how to respond to God’s presence. Advent awakens us to realize we have invested our treasure in the wrong places and that world must end. The master, whom we serve, is coming to help us awaken from sleep so we can put aside all that is false in our lives and our world and rebuild our house on rock, that is the rock of faith

Paul’s words “God is faithful” will accompany us through any change or adjustment we need to make in our lives. This is the God Isaiah evokes as he imagines us as clay to be formed by our God, “the potter,” and reminds us, “we are all the work of gods hands.” Hope is the basis for a watchful and vigilant spirit. The Lord will come. And in the blink of an eye, God renews us, he will also renew the universe to its pristine state. The Father will transform both humanity and nature to the way he intended them to be from the first moment of creation–free from sin, sickness, and death–free from the consequences of evil. In our anticipation for the Lord’s coming, we hope that our faith will help reveal the Kingdom and prepare others as well as ourselves for eternity. Our efforts alone will not bring about the Kingdom, as if we humans can progress or evolve to a higher plane by ourselves. But, God, acting through us, will reveal and realize the Kingdom. Then, when we act according to his will; we add our contribution to his activity. CCC 1042-1050

As 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’. To make all this happen, then we need to wake up, as we are warned by the apostle to the Gentiles, in the  reading to the Romans: ‘Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (Rm 13:11).

As we begin this advent we ask ourselves what are we waiting for ? Are we waiting for the presents and razzmatazz of Christmas Day or are we preparing for the greatest gift of God, Jesus his Son, Christ the light in the darkness for a broken world.

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16 Mar 2012
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FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

We gather together at our Sunday or in some cases at our daily mass  as God’s holy people. As you know this Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Lent it is also Mothers Day and we thank all our mothers for their goodness to us over the last year and we pray for all those who have lost their mothers since this time last year. Also for all those who are Irish or of Irish decent I wish you all a Happy St. Patricks Day.

We pause at this  point of our Lenten Journey to reflect on the journey of spiritual renewal we are undertaking. Lent is the penitential journey of reflection and renewal a journey that will bring us to the celebration of the death of Jesus at holy Week and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The threefold practice of fasting, alms giving and prayer are more visible during Lent than at any other time of the year. Fasting and penitential acts clarify the mind and they reveal to us the limitations on our liberty which self-indulgence imposes. In the Catholic tradition, I am a Catholic, there are now only 2 days of fast & abstinence Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Having said that I would encourage those who are able to try and undertake these 2 fast days. Apart from these two particular days we are asked to make every Friday a day when we undertake some sort of fasting.

Almsgiving through the many Christian organizations of which Trocaire is our primary one with their annual Lenten campaign makes us more available to others in a brotherly sharing of our resources unhampered by the divisions and artificialness  of social life. Praye­r at all times and in a special way in Lent makes us more open to God and more aware of that fundamental dependence of all creation on his word.  What images and memories does the word “Lent” bring to your mind? Are they mostly positive, negative, or somewhere in between? I always remember liking the Holy Week ceremonies more than the 40 days leading up to them.  I liked them because of the actual ceremony and I really like them now because I understand their spiritual meaning more. The season of Lent is not a time for rejoicing, in its starkness it is more of a time for Spiritual preparation for the events of Holy Week & Easter. Lent offers all of us the opportunity to seriously examine and enrich our commitment to Christ and his church. But this does not mean we have to walk around with sad expressions on our faces it was once said by A saint “May Heaven deliver us from sour-faced people!”

There are so many means available to us to realize the purpose of Lent, the celebration of the sacraments, especially Sunday and daily Mass, prayer and the sharing of our goods with others, fasting and abstaining from various things are examples of some of  the things that we might do to have a good Lent. So then during Holy Week we rededicate ourselves as members of the church as we recall our Lord’s death on Good Friday and victory over death in the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. On Ash Wednesday we began by placing the  ashes on our foreheads and by undertaking our Lenten observances .we made a commitment to become more credible witnesses to God’s love for humanity in this season of renewal and beyond it into our daily lives and living right through this year.

Lord  Jesus,

you call us to bring your joy to the world.

You invite us to be your Body on earth the Church,

Your mission for us is to reach out to the fearful and weak! You empower us to reveal your presence to a weary world. You enthuse us to enter deeper into a life assured of resurrection. Be with us, as we continue our pilgrim journey Guide our footsteps with the light of faith, that we may walk in your ways during this Holy season of Renewal

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02 Mar 2012

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT 2012

Well here we are hurtling through the first week of lent.

what does lent mean to most people I suppose not a lot but for all of us who are Christians it is a time of spiritual warfare in order to build us up in the ways of God who leads us along the right paths.

The message of lent is clear. we need to to open our minds and hearts to the possibility of God’s voice speaking to us in our lenten observances . let us  Open our mind and hearts to his presence in our lives and our daily living. In order to experience Gods loving care for us we need to  shake off rote and routine of our lives. And he will be there in the good times and the bad showinf us that he us the way the truth and the life.

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