A Homily to be Preached on Sunday 19th August 2007

Homily – 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C) (Readings)

We have an unsettling Gospel today… Christ’s words are pretty scary. He tells us of a fire that is to come. He warns us that he comes to bring division, rather than peace. He speaks of families divided against each other. It doesn’t really sound like Good News, but these are words that we need to hear if we are to make sense of the Gospel and of the world around us.
The Alternatives
It is a mistake to believe anyone who promises us a quick-fix, enlightenment without effort or pleasure without any strings attached. You’ll find that kind of promise easily enough. The drug-peddler will offer you a high without any ill-effects. Advertisers will try to sell you a life-style where all our problems can be solved by spending money. New age religion pushes guilt-free spiritual highs, whilst brushing the realities of sin, death and the need to love one's neighbour under the carpet.
The Realism of Christ
Christ doesn’t do that. He’s realistic. He brings us the fire of the Holy Spirit to free us from our sins and to transform the unjust world around us, but doesn’t hide the fact that this liberation, this transformation isn’t always going to be an easy process. So great and so urgent was this work of salvation that He underwent the Cross to accomplish it. It should therefore be no surprise that our vocation as Christians, our attempt to welcome this salvation into our lives will lead to struggle and conflict – both with ourselves and with the world around us. Can we really claim to have received the fire of the Holy Spirit if we do not feel the need to struggle with our own sins?
Looking at the World
I’m sure too that many of you look around with confusion and dismay at many of the changes that are happening in Ireland today. Society seems to be becoming more and more hostile to Gospel values. It is therefore clear that being a Christian will increasingly mean standing apart from mainstream opinion. This affects everyone, but we should particularly think about the difficulties that our young people face – for them to follow Christ is to enter into a very clear conflict with the society and values around them.
Not a Reason for Despair
But these struggles are not a reason to lose faith. It is when we become satisfied with ourselves and the society around us that we should become worried that perhaps the fire of the Holy Spirit has been extinguished within us. We will not find perfection in ourselves or in the world around us in this life. However, there is comfort for us in the Letter to the Hebrews. No matter how bleak things look, no matter how much we are tempted to give up the fight, there is always the example and presence of Christ. We are told,

Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to
perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured
the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his
place at the right of God's throne. Think of the way he stood such opposition
from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage.

We are not saved despite the struggles and trials we undergo, but because of them.

A Homily to be Preached on Sunday 12th August 2007

Homily – 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

Distorted Perspectives on Faith
The accusation is frequently made against people of faith that they are small-minded and mean-spirited. Newspaper columnists and commentators rarely seem to miss the opportunity to dismiss faith as being an ignorant and irrational narrowing of horizons, a force that does more harm than good. But, in reality, this is not so. Today’s readings provide a very different picture of what Christian faith really is. After all, the evidence is all around us. Faith builds Cathedrals and churches, hospitals and schools. Faith leads people to leave their native countries and devote their lives to helping the less well off. Faith raises up men and women of the calibre of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St Charles of Mount Argus, Pope John Paul II, and countless others. Our sinful human nature may lead us to be small-minded and mean-spirited, but our faith always calls us to be big-hearted and generous in spirit.
You see, faith is not just about believing the right things. It also involves trusting in the promises of God. This is why the Letter to the Hebrews sets Abraham before us as our model of faith. The Lord promised a great inheritance for him and his descendents, and so, despite his age and childlessness, he set away from the security of his homeland and lived as a stranger in the Promised Land. There’s nothing small-minded or mean-spirited about taking what seemed to be such a gamble, but Abraham understood the power of the Promise of God. His example shows us that living by faith means understanding that we are not restricted to survival based on our own resources and strength. Trying to do that really is a recipe for living a grasping and narrow existence. However, if we trust ourselves to the promises of the God who is ever-faithful, we will have the courage to live a life of true generosity and open-heartedness.

The Challenge of Faith
This is why Christ challenges us in this Sunday’s Gospel. He tells us that there is no need to be afraid because God has promised us His kingdom. If we are willing to accept that, then we need have no fears about being generous. If we believe in His Word, then we can find reserves of calm in an increasingly difficult and turbulent world. If we trust in Him, and keep our eyes fixed on His Kingdom, only then can we understand the true value of the things of this world. Above all, living according to faith is, in a very real way, the beginning of eternal life. How can we entrust ourselves to the love of God in the next life, if we did not try to trust and love Him in this life?

The Call to Watchfulness
So, Christ invites us to watchfulness in order that we are ready for the Master’s arrival and do not miss out on the great promises that God has made to us. True, we are told what will happen to the servants who become complacent because they do not expect the Master to come. But this watchfulness is not about dodging a God who is determined to catch us out for not living by the rules. Instead, we know He tries to lead us in love into that kind of life which is the beginning of eternal joy. The Master who is to come, after all, feeds us in the Eucharist and offers us His forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. He gives Himself to us as our strength and is the very reason that we can live the kind of life that He rejoices in. In short, He challenges us to live in His friendship. The concrete details of how this is done will vary from person to person – but, if we live a life of faith and truly believe in His promises, we will have the strength to do this.
Perhaps we’re being called to faithfulness in marriage and to raise a family. Perhaps there are signs in our life that we are being called to priesthood or religious life. Perhaps we are realising the need to forgive someone or to find the courage to ask forgiveness. Maybe we are being called to break free from some particular sin. Maybe we are too concerned with money or pleasure or entertainment and have realised that there is something hollow about the life we are leading. Whatever it is, we are all being called by God – and He promises us that following that call will lead us to eternal life. Accepting that challenge and trusting in His promises is not small-minded or mean-spirited. Indeed, it is the only way that we can possibly live a truly free and human life.
In the words of Pope John Paul II: “Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.”

A Homily to be Preached on Sunday 29th July 2007

Homily – 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C) Luke 11:1-13
28th July 2007

Have you ever wondered about the smirk on a camel’s face? Well, the Arabs have a story to explain it. You see, Muslims speak about the 99 Names of God. They talk about God the Merciful, God the Creator, God the All-knowing, God the Wise and so on. But, they say, these 99 names are not enough and that He has a hundredth name which men don’t know. However, the camel does know, and that is why he has a smug self-satisfied look on his face.
However, despite having 99 Names for God – speaking of His Power, His Mercy and His Goodness, nowhere amongst them is found the name Father. Maybe this is a surprise to us, because we’re so used to calling Him Father, but it is something uniquely Christian. Indeed, for the Christian, Father is the most important name we use when we talk about God, and when we talk to God. It says more about Him and our relationship with Him than any other name we can give Him.

God the Father - A Uniquely Christian Doctrine
It is from Christ Himself that we learned to call God Father. We read in the Gospels that God the Son invites us to share in His Sonship, and make our relationship with God the Father the centre of our lives. We read today that the disciples were fascinated by Christ’s prayer. They must have seen Him spend many hours in conversation with the Heavenly Father, and finally worked up the courage to ask Him to teach them to pray.
Being taught how to pray is no small thing. The disciples are asking Jesus what to say to God one-to-one. In prayer before God, there is no room for pretence or falsehood, and so the prayer that Jesus gives us tells us who God really is, and what kind of people He wants us to be.
And so, He tells us to call God “Our Father.” What a revelation this is! It’s one thing believing that God created us and the entire universe; that He is Good and All-Powerful. It is quite another to learn that He wants us to call Him Father. He wants us to know that He has a Father’s love for us, and that we should not be frightened to consider ourselves His sons and daughters.

Growing as a Child of God - The Centrality of Trust
In the words of the Our Father, there is a whole course in Christian living. Whole books have been written about this prayer, but perhaps one of the most important things that the Our Father teaches us is the great virtue of trusting in God the Father. After all, the relationship between parent and child is marked by the fact that a child flourishes by trusting his parents. A child thrives and grows into a well-balanced adult by knowing that his parents want the best for him, and that whatever goes wrong, home is a place where they can return for comfort and even forgiveness.
If this is true of earthly parents, how much more is it true of Our Heavenly Father. By inviting us to call Him Father, He is reassuring us that we can trust Him and rely on Him. He asks us to trust Him for our daily bread, and to know that He is a God of forgiveness. Like the father of the prodigal Son, we are reassured that He will be quick with His forgiveness if we stray.
As a Father, we can also trust that God wants us, His children, to grow; and so He gives us a way of life. We are called to imitate Him in our forgiveness of others and in our concern that His Kingdom should prevail on Earth, as well as in Heaven. This, however, is only possible if we learn to trust Him first. We can only have the courage to put our own interests aside and be forgiving, if we know that we too are forgiven when we fall. We can only live a life of Christian love, if we first realise that God loves us first.

The Adult Faith of a Child of God
We must also have an adult understanding of what it means to be a father. I’m sure that the parents here know that being a good father or a good mother means sometimes saying ‘no’ to their children, and that to grow, sometimes children have to learn some difficult lessons. So, as God’s children we will face trials that seem to make no sense to us and may even cause us to doubt the existence of a loving God. This is why we need to cultivate a keen awareness of God as Our Father. We can only face the genuine difficulties, and struggles and sorrows and set-backs of life, if we know that God is our loving Father, and that whatever happens to us will be for the best and will lead us to the happiness of His Kingdom. He does not give us scorpions instead of eggs.
This trust is not always easy, but the Father has made known His goodness in many ways. Above all, He has sent us His Only Begotten Son to show us the path of Sonship and to encourage and strengthen us, and has poured God the Holy Spirit into our hearts to guide us along that path, and to fill us with the Divine Love that makes it possible to grow as His sons and daughters.

Blessed be the name of the Lord – Father, Son and Holy Spirit!