Homily (Sermon) - Called to Witness
The Readings for the twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
Psalm 39
Hebrews 12:1-4
Luke 12:49-53
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]
A few years ago I saw a documentary about training police officers, I can’t remember too much about the programme but I remember vividly one scene. The trainees were sat in a class room. The door opened and a lady asked if the lecturer could spare someone for a quick errand. The lecturer dispatched a young man and then turned to the remainder of the class and explained that during this lesson they would watch a film depicting a crime. The villains would be obvious but when questioned about it they were to always blame the victim for the crime. They could make up whatever evidence they wanted, but they all had to agree that the victim of the crime was the villain.
The young man returned from his errand after all this had been said, so knew none of it. They all watched the video and then the lecturer started asking the class what they had seen, what crime had been committed and who they should be arresting.
The whole class had seen a woman robbed of her handbag by two young lads, but when the lecturer started asking the class what they had seen, they described a woman shop lifting and two young men stopping her. The lecturer went round the whole class coming to the young man who had run the errand last. When asked to describe what he saw he described a young woman shoplifting and being stopped by two men.
The lesson for the officers that day was the same as our lesson from scripture today. Do not let peer pressure and the views of the majority around you distract you from the truth you know is real!
You are a witness for Christ in the world. You have witnessed something divine, something that has brought you to a faith in Christ. Here in church, surrounded by your fellow witnesses, your sisters and brothers in Christ, it’s easy to believe. It’s easy to once again hear, see, touch and taste the divine. To witness again, to know completely the love of God.
But then you leave here, sent out into the real world, the secular world, the world of challenge and doubt. The world where common sense prevails and you can be perceived as the fool for your beliefs.
It’s not easy being a Christian today. True there have been worse times and places to follow God. Jeremiah got thrown in the well to be left for dead because the King was swayed by the common sense of the people. But the same thing can still happen today, Bishop Óscar Romero, was assassinated in 1980 for his views on wealth and poverty and the work his priests were doing.
We live in a world that is driven by wealth. We are fallen people, greed is a part of us, but it’s not a good part. It’s one of the parts we need to fight. We are taught by a loving God to put others first, to follow His teachings. Love God and Love our neighbour. The problem for us is that we can be very softly persecuted for those views. Our society believes that wealth is success, that possessions define the person, that you should have what you want, when you want it, because you are worth it.
I believe you are worth so much more than that. I believe Christ called you his brothers and sisters. I believe you are the adopted children of God.
Christ tells us today, he didn't come to bring peace on earth. He knew the message he brought would cause conflict, sometimes violent conflict but much more often intellectual conflict, differences between friends and families. Differences between you and the people you meet every day of your life. The peace of Christ is not yet for the world, but it is for you. “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you” words you hear every time you come to Mass. This is what you need to take and hold onto when you venture out into the world. You are called to follow Christ to the Cross, You are called to be Christ in this world today. You are called to witness.
Do you know what the word for witness was back in New Testament times? It was Martyr!
I don’t believe that you will be killed and Martyred for your views today in this country. I do think you might be ignored or laughed at. That your witness to the truth will be belittled as old fashioned and not relevant any more. I do think that Christianity today makes people uncomfortable. And I know that it’s never easy being the one person in the room that disagrees with everyone else.
Today’s readings and today’s lesson are not an easy to hear. You believe, and because you believe you must witness, because you do, others will also be given the chance to believe. But for that to happen you must stay true in your witness, you may not be martyred with violence, you are much more likely to be martyred with indifference and dismissal.
When this happens to you and you feel low and cast down, come back to Church, come back to your family, comeback to the Eucharist, come back and experience again the divine. Know that it is Christ who will pull you from the mud and set you back upon the rock.
About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Homily Index
Homily - 10th Sunday OT Year C - We have been Rescued!
Homily (Sermon) - We have been Rescued
The Readings for the tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Old 1 Kings 17:17-24
Psalm Psalm 29
New Galatians 1:11-19
Gospel Luke 7:11-17
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]
“I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me”
Around 850 years before Jesus was born the nation of Israel was led by a King called Ahab. Ahab wasn’t the best of Israel Kings and he made a few mistakes, one of the mistakes he made was marrying a young lady called Jezebel. Jezebel was a powerful lady and quickly influenced the Kings policies. During the reign of King Ahab the people were allowed and encouraged to build temples to the false god Baal.
God wasn’t happy with the way his people were being led and really not happy about them worshiping false Gods. So God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to the King, to tell him there was going to be a great drought because of his actions. Ahab wasn’t happy to hear this from Elijah and God told Elijah to go and hide.
Elijah’s first hiding place was out in the country side next to a brook. As the drought took hold, the brook quickly dried up. God then sent Elijah on to the land of Sidon. “I have designated a widow for you there, to provide for you.” God told him.
This is the background to our old testament readying today. Elijah had been staying with the widow for over a year when her son fell ill. The loss of her only son would have been a terrible loss. Not only the loss of her closest family, but also of most of her rights in society. With no husband and no son she would have been reliant on the charity of other for food and shelter.
Elijah then takes the boy’s corpse and pleads to God to bring the boy back to his mother, Elijah prays, “O Lord my God, do you mean to bring grief to the widow who is looking after me by killing her son?” God listens to Elijah and the boy is returned to life and Elijah gives him back to his mother.
This is a very similar story to the one we hear about in the Gospel reading today. Jesus arrives in a small town just as a funeral procession is leaving a widows house. Her son is dead and she follows behind crying.
Jesus is moved by what he sees. He speaks softly to the widow, “Do not cry.” He tells her. Then stopping the procession he says “Young Man. I tell you to get up.” At this the dead man sits up and starts walking. Then just as Elijah had, Jesus gives the boy to his mother.
The similarities are oblivious. The connection to the prophet Elijah is clear, and the people proclaim Jesus as a great prophet just as Elijah was. But this they got wrong.
Have any of you noticed the difference between the two stories?
The difference is the words of Elijah and the words of Jesus.
Elijah’s words are the words of a prophet, the words of a believer, begging his Loving God to directly intervene of the world.
Jesus’s words are not to God, but from God. They are the words of God himself. They are the words of the Christ. Jesus didn’t pray to His father, he took the authority he had been given and used it. He just gave the young man an instruction, “I tell you tell get up.”
We see here a very clear and beautiful picture in the incarnation. Our Lord and God walking on the face of the earth just as we do. He is a kind and compassionate God, full of love. He is also very aware that the scholars would compare this miracle to Elijah’s and those whose hearts were open to Him would see and understand the differences.
Later when John the Baptist’s disciples came to Christ asking who he was, this was one of the examples quoted to them. It a clear statement to them and to John, that Jesus is the Christ, he is the son of God.
The question for today though is what does this mean to us?
What are we going to take away from today?
What are we going to think about this next week?
In today’s two stories both widows are saved by God. Their life, as well as the life of their sons is given back to them. They are redeemed.
Jesus came to us for a reason. He came to redeem us all. He did that by dying on the cross. The ultimate sacrifice for Sin, the last sacrifice for Sin, the only sacrifice that could be offered for the sins of everyone, for all time. He was the sacrifice.
And because of Him, because God, your creator, loves you enough to die for you, you are redeemed. You are saved. You are rescued.
Today I want you to take the message of redemption and rescue away with you. I want you to put yourself in the place of the widow, I want you to consider what Jesus has done for you. Then I want you to express your feelings about that to God. If you don’t think you know how to do that, then take a look again at today’s psalm.
It starts, “I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me” and finishes, “O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.” It your choice, either pray the whole psalm or jut insert your own feelings in between those lines.
“O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.”
The Readings for the tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Old 1 Kings 17:17-24
Psalm Psalm 29
New Galatians 1:11-19
Gospel Luke 7:11-17
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]
“I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me”
Around 850 years before Jesus was born the nation of Israel was led by a King called Ahab. Ahab wasn’t the best of Israel Kings and he made a few mistakes, one of the mistakes he made was marrying a young lady called Jezebel. Jezebel was a powerful lady and quickly influenced the Kings policies. During the reign of King Ahab the people were allowed and encouraged to build temples to the false god Baal.
God wasn’t happy with the way his people were being led and really not happy about them worshiping false Gods. So God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to the King, to tell him there was going to be a great drought because of his actions. Ahab wasn’t happy to hear this from Elijah and God told Elijah to go and hide.
Elijah’s first hiding place was out in the country side next to a brook. As the drought took hold, the brook quickly dried up. God then sent Elijah on to the land of Sidon. “I have designated a widow for you there, to provide for you.” God told him.
This is the background to our old testament readying today. Elijah had been staying with the widow for over a year when her son fell ill. The loss of her only son would have been a terrible loss. Not only the loss of her closest family, but also of most of her rights in society. With no husband and no son she would have been reliant on the charity of other for food and shelter.
Elijah then takes the boy’s corpse and pleads to God to bring the boy back to his mother, Elijah prays, “O Lord my God, do you mean to bring grief to the widow who is looking after me by killing her son?” God listens to Elijah and the boy is returned to life and Elijah gives him back to his mother.
This is a very similar story to the one we hear about in the Gospel reading today. Jesus arrives in a small town just as a funeral procession is leaving a widows house. Her son is dead and she follows behind crying.
Jesus is moved by what he sees. He speaks softly to the widow, “Do not cry.” He tells her. Then stopping the procession he says “Young Man. I tell you to get up.” At this the dead man sits up and starts walking. Then just as Elijah had, Jesus gives the boy to his mother.
The similarities are oblivious. The connection to the prophet Elijah is clear, and the people proclaim Jesus as a great prophet just as Elijah was. But this they got wrong.
Have any of you noticed the difference between the two stories?
The difference is the words of Elijah and the words of Jesus.
Elijah’s words are the words of a prophet, the words of a believer, begging his Loving God to directly intervene of the world.
Jesus’s words are not to God, but from God. They are the words of God himself. They are the words of the Christ. Jesus didn’t pray to His father, he took the authority he had been given and used it. He just gave the young man an instruction, “I tell you tell get up.”
We see here a very clear and beautiful picture in the incarnation. Our Lord and God walking on the face of the earth just as we do. He is a kind and compassionate God, full of love. He is also very aware that the scholars would compare this miracle to Elijah’s and those whose hearts were open to Him would see and understand the differences.
Later when John the Baptist’s disciples came to Christ asking who he was, this was one of the examples quoted to them. It a clear statement to them and to John, that Jesus is the Christ, he is the son of God.
The question for today though is what does this mean to us?
What are we going to take away from today?
What are we going to think about this next week?
In today’s two stories both widows are saved by God. Their life, as well as the life of their sons is given back to them. They are redeemed.
Jesus came to us for a reason. He came to redeem us all. He did that by dying on the cross. The ultimate sacrifice for Sin, the last sacrifice for Sin, the only sacrifice that could be offered for the sins of everyone, for all time. He was the sacrifice.
And because of Him, because God, your creator, loves you enough to die for you, you are redeemed. You are saved. You are rescued.
Today I want you to take the message of redemption and rescue away with you. I want you to put yourself in the place of the widow, I want you to consider what Jesus has done for you. Then I want you to express your feelings about that to God. If you don’t think you know how to do that, then take a look again at today’s psalm.
It starts, “I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me” and finishes, “O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.” It your choice, either pray the whole psalm or jut insert your own feelings in between those lines.
“O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.”
Homily - Ascension - Year C
Homily (Sermon) - It's out turn now.
The Readings for Ascension Year C:
First Acts 1:1-11
Psalm Ps 46:2-3, 6-7, 8-9 R v6
Second Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel Luke 24:46-53
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]
When Gail and I got married we went to Paris for our honeymoon. While there we visited the royal palace at Versailles and spent a wonderful day exploring the palace and the gardens. It's a wonderful place with many beautiful things to see, from antiques to flowers. But what I remember most from that day were the clouds.
They were big, bright, fluffy clouds. Clouds you could see shapes in. Look there it's a bunny rabbit, and over there, a crocodile, that one looks like a car. Do you know the sort of clouds I mean, the one you just have to smile at. The ones that only appear on bright sunny days. The ones that only appear in the very bluest skies.
I am sure it was a sky such as this that the disciples stood under at Bethany. Jesus stood before them and talked about himself in the scriptures, in the Law of Moses, in the Psalms and the Prophets, what we now call the Old Testament. He opened their minds so they could understand. These men had been with him, had witnessed his teaching, his miracles, his torture and death. They now stood with him after his resurrection. They understood that they would be taking the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins out into the world. And as they understood, He blessed them, and ascended until a cloud took him from their sight.
Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, the moment when our Resurrected Lord leaves this mortal world and returns to heaven. But it's much more than that, it's not about Jesus leaving it's about Jesus taking his rightful position, as Paul tells us and the Ephesians, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, as ruler of everything. He is the head of the church, and we as the church are his body. We as the church are the fullness of Christ. Christ is present today in this Mass, in the Eucharist, in the Word we have just listened to, in Father Frank, in Persona Christi and in YOU, in us all. So as Jesus left this mortal world, He also joined us, as we continue to do his work and spread his word. The Disciples knew this, it was evident in the joy they felt as they saw him ascend. Soon the Holy Spirit would come to the disciples and strengthen them for the task, and we will celebrate that at Pentecost next week.
So Ascension is an ending and a beginning, and today we have heard the same story told in both ways. We first heard the story told at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, then we heard it again right at the end of Luke's Gospel. It's a little like a two part Doctor Who story, at the end of the first episode you are left wanting to know what happens next, and at the start of the next episode they remind you where you are and lead you into the next part of the story. Most biblical scholars would credit Luke with writing both Luke's Gospel and Acts. So if you were listening closely you may wonder why there are some small difference in the telling. For me these differences come about because the focus of the Gospel is Jesus, while the focus of Acts is the work of the Apostles.
In the final few sentences of Luke's Gospel, he tells us Jesus is divine, he is the Christ, he is God. We hear that the scripture foretold of his coming. In fact we hear this ourselves today in our Psalm, “The Lord goes up with shouts of Joy” Luke goes on to describe a demonstration of Jesus' priesthood as he blesses the disciples, just before he is carried in heaven. After he has gone the disciples worship him, they worship his unseen presence, as we do today, and they were filled with joy, the same joy that we can be filled with when we let Jesus into our hearts and lives.
When we look next to Acts we get the same event as the start of a new story, the story of our faith, of our church spreading over the world. We hear in a lot more detail Jesus preparing the disciples for their task. For example we are told He is with them for 40 days after his resurrection, hence today's celebration is 40 days after Easter. But in the gospel Luke didn't mention any time, in fact you could easily assume Jesus ascended on Easter Sunday. In the gospel, time isn't important, we are being told our Lords Story, when he walked this earth, but in Acts, time, is important. Luke wants us to know the disciples were prepared, that the message they passed down to us is correct. So he tells us of the 40 days Jesus spent preparing them.
Also in Acts we hear about the time the disciples have to do their work, that Jesus will return at a point known only by the Father. They have only an unknown amount of time to tell everyone, to prepare everyone, for the return of Jesus. It is because of them and the people they told, and the people that they in their turn told, and so on over two thousand years, that you come to be sitting here today. So the story we hear started today in Acts is our story, it's one we will continue tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, unless... unless we get another perfect cloudy day. A day when you lookup to the clouds and instead of bunny rabbits, or crocodiles you see our Lord coming again in glory.
So until that day, how are we going to add to the story, we are the church, we are Christ's body, we continue his work, what will be written in the Acts of the people of the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes/St Austines/St John Fisher.
It's our turn now.
Pope Francis - Very Human
I can't help but like what I am seeing and hearing about Pope Francis. He seems very human, still doing the simple things like taking the mini bus to diner with his friends rather than a special car. I loved the comment he made to the cardinals at dinner just after they had elected him Pope, "May God forgive you what what you have done."With every phone now having a camera we are seeing simple images of him like this shot of him paying his own hotel bill.
When he has been talking publicly he seems well able to go off script, say what he's thinking, for example today The Table reported him saying "half of us are in our old age, this is like the seat of knowledge of life. The old have wisdom. This wisdom is like good wine that gets better over the years. Then we must give the young people wisdom of life, go back to your sees enriched in your ministry from these days""
Pope Francis - First Words
Brothers and sisters good evening.You all know that the duty of the Conclave was to give a bishop to Rome. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone almost to the ends of the earth to get him… but here we are. I thank you for the welcome that has come from the diocesan community of Rome.
First of all I would like to say a prayer pray for our Bishop Emeritus Benedict XVI. Let us all pray together for him, that the Lord will bless him and that our Lady will protect him.
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory to the Father…
And now let us begin this journey, the Bishop and the people, this journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust. Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world that there might be a great sense of brotherhood. My hope is that this journey of the Church that we begin today, together with the help of my Cardinal Vicar, may be fruitful for the evangelization of this beautiful city.
And now I would like to give the blessing. But first I want to ask you a favour. Before the Bishop blesses the people I ask that you would pray to the Lord to bless me – the prayer of the people for their Bishop. Let us say this prayer – your prayer for me – in silence.
[The Protodeacon announced that all those who received the blessing, either in person or by radio, television or by the new means of communication receive the plenary indulgence in the form established by the Church. He prayed that Almighty God protect and guard the Pope so that he may lead the Church for many years to come, and that he would grant peace to the Church throughout the world.]
[Immediately afterwards Pope Francis gave his first blessing Urbi et Orbi – To the City and to the World.]
I will now give my blessing to you and to the whole world, to all men and women of good will.
Brothers and sisters, I am leaving you. Thank you for your welcome. Pray for me and I will be with you again soon... We will see one another soon.
Tomorrow I want to go to pray to the Madonna, that she may protect Rome.
Good night and sleep well!
You can listen to the Vatican Radio recording here: http://media01.radiovaticana.va/audiomp3/00362051.MP3
Taken from Vatican Radio - www.news.va
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