The Advent of Faith, Hope and Love

 

Why the Church is built around the Theological Virtues

Death and the Incarnation

Sermon for the first Sunday in Advent

In Advent,

it is customary 

to think on 

the Four Last Things,

Death, Judgment,

Hell and Heaven.

We do so 

in preparation

for a great mystery:

Word made Flesh

God made Man

Divine made Human.

A seemingly impossible

happening.

The immortal

becomes mortal.

Why?

Why not just become

an immortal human being?

Why bother to die?

[PAUSE]

We know that 

sin and death are 

two sides of the same coin.

We sin because we die

and we die because we sin

as St Paul tells the Romans.

But Jesus doesn't sin.

So why does He die?

The Problem is

that we don't necessarily die

because we sin. 

Look at the Holy Innocents

who die 

before they even commit 

a sinful act.

They die

because of someone else's sin

- Herod's murderous paranoia.

Human beings die

because of sin

and Our Lord

chooses not to be an exception

to this.

He embraces full humanity,

empties Himself 

even of immortality

relying on the grace of His Father

to be fully human

and live the human life.

And that means 

openness to death.

But He need not have died.

It is possible that He didn't have to.

The problem is

that we killed Him.

[PAUSE]

Of course,

it is the perfidious

rulers of the temple

and Jewish religious leaders

who are directly responsible

for Jesus' Death.

They use the crowds 

as an instrument

in their cry of "Crucify!"

and thus the crowd sins 

through ignorance and weakness.

But God knows.

God sees all this

in His Eternity.

And, 

knowing that Jesus dies,

God uses that death

as a means of life.

This is the genius

of Almighty God

to use the Death of His Son,

whom the Pharisees 

chose to murder

freely and without coercion,

to undo the power

of sin and death

and give life to all 

who would seek 

to live in Him.

[PAUSE]

In Adam,

we are separated from God

and at the mercy of a world

corrupted by sin

and, in our weakness,

we die.

Look at the news

and see the connection

between sin and death.

Then look to Christmas Day

and see God Incarnate

born to end sin and death

by making death

a gateway to Eternal Life

in Him.

The world may indeed

go to Hell in a handcart

as the saying goes,

but that is not the fate

of the Christian.

While we may 

be devastated by 

the levels of sin, death,

depravity and decay around us,

we can still look into the manger

just as we have done for 

two thousand years

and see the same hope

that sin and death will pass away

because the Word of God

will never pass away.

The Incarnation does not end in Death:

it ends in our life into Eternity.

The Problem of Holiness

 

When can a church be called Holy?

As the darkness deepens

Sermon for the Sunday next before Advent

Who is Jeremiah 

speaking to?

He tells us that God 

"will raise unto David

a righteous Branch,

and a King shall reign,

and prosper,

and shall execute judgment

and justice in the earth."

Is that message for us?

[PAUSE]

It would seem not.

Jeremiah

is preaching to

the peoples of Israel

and Judah

affected by the Great Captivity

and scattering

among the nations.

He tells of the coming Messiah,

the Branch of David,

the Root of Jesse,

the Lion of Judah.

But that's all past.

Jesus has come and gone.

What possible message

can Jeremiah have

for us now?

What can Jeremiah say

to this time

in which there is still

a barbarous war

in the Middle East

in which so much hatred

is being aired

and acted upon

with such great ferocity?

[PAUSE]

What message does Jeremiah

have for us

in a world in which

there is much 

darkness and depression?

Mankind is becoming

anxious,

fearful,

untrusting,

resentful,

demanding recompense

in order to find some closure

on the pains of living.

Mankind is seeing its demons

in Society,

in the Environment,

in the hearts of others,

in the stars and planets,

in the systems of living

which are supposed to protect

and allow for growth.

Mankind is now

imprisoned in a cage of freedom

which has been fabricated

by our fall from the face of God.

Mankind seems to be losing hope

and the darkness is coming.

[PAUSE]

But who is Jeremiah

speaking to?

He addresses precisely

those who have lost hope.

His words

are the words of God

- he is a prophet after all.

His words tell us 

of the growth of the Branch

the coming of the Kingdom

the establishment of justice.

He is not presenting

a final end

but the beginning of something

that, for us,

has already been sown

but is growing now

and will continue to grow

throughout Human history.

God's message through Jeremiah

is a message of hope.

God wants us to have hope

and hold it

and allow it to grow

so that faith and love 

may also increase.

God has never, 

never left the people who love Him

without hope.

Granted, 

we may not know what God is doing -

in fact we probably cannot know

what God is doing -

but he tells us to hold on

and continue to dare to hope

in Him

though the stars fall from the Heavens

and the angel trumpets echo 

around the earth,

though the dreaded horsemen

thunder across the nations

and men become sick and faint.

We hold on.

[PAUSE]

Advent approaches.

This is a time for us

to fast and pray

and to nuture the tiny grains of hope

that we have

because the Kingdom of God

is coming

and is now here with us

and we shall see it again

present with us

in the tiny Christ Child 

of Christmas Day.

The Devil will always

try to destroy that hope

in whatever way he can,

but, while the Innocents may perish,

the Christ Child will not

and He will give all good things

to those who lose for His sake.

The Innocents will receive their justice.

And we will see our hope fulfilled,

because we dare to cling onto it

for the love of Him

Who dares to hope in us

and shares His hope with us.

Glory be to Him 

that sitteth upon the throne

and to the Lamb

now and unto the age of ages.

Amen.

A present of presenting a present Presentation

 

Why the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady hammers home the incredible story of our redemption.

Making Jesus unclean?

Sermon for the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity

Let's just be clear about this.

According to the Jewish Law

touching blood

makes you unclean.

And,

if someone unclean

touches you

you become unclean too.

How selfish of this woman, then,

to touch the hem of

Jesus' garment,

just to stop her bleeding.

She doesn't even ask him.

She just does it.

She makes Jesus unclean

without Him knowing.

Not only is Jesus unclean

but all whom He touches

become unclean.

Who knows

how many people

become contaminated

just because this woman

wants to stop bleeding.

Who knows how many people

have had their relationship with God

damaged

by one woman's selfishness.

[PAUSE]

That's the way

a Pharisee might see it,

all fixated on the Law

and the Rite

and the purity.

But there is something

they will overlook.

Does the woman's bleeding stop?

Yes,

of course.

So,

how can someone unclean

on the outside of society

unable to approach God heal her?

This healing comes from God.

It means that Jesus is 

not unclean.

Oh,

He notices the power leave Him

to heal her,

but see how He tells her

that her faith has made her whole.

He does not see selfishness.

He sees her trust in Him.

She knows that,

if He is the great Healer

that He has shown Himself to be,

if He is the Messiah

that she believes Him to be,

if He is the Son of God

that He claims to be

then He can never be made unclean.

She has complete faith in Him.

But she is scared 

nonetheless.

It's scary having

your faith tested!

The devil likes to put

his little grain of doubt

in your mind.

But Jesus Himself says

that a grain of faith

can grow bigger than anything

and she has that grain of faith

enough to dare to touch Him

and be healed.

She lets go

of the grip of the Jewish Law

with its restrictions

on clean and unclean

and allows the cleanness

of her faith

to bring her to the One 

Who, not only can heal,

but Who wants to heal.

And, to strengthen this point

He goes to a girl

whom everyone says is dead

and who laugh at Him

when He says she isn't.

And this dead girl

he touches

and the Jewish Law cries,

"Unclean!"

But the girl revives

and is alive 

and cannot now be unclean.

Where has the uncleanness gone?

In Christ

it is nullified

- made nothing.

The only uncleanness

is the scorn

that pours out of

unbelieving,

unkind,

unfaithful hearts.

It is not what goes into a man

that makes him unclean

but what comes out of his heart.

[PAUSE]

Our faith in Christ

is the beginning of our healing

and comes from the same grace

that God gives to everyone.

We cannot make Christ unclean 

with our presence,

we cannot contaminate His Grace

with our sin.

We can never despair

of the mercy of Christ

Who will forgive the sins,

no matter how great,

that we present to Him

in repentance and humility.

While we are contaminated

by the sins of those

around us,

while our sins can

and do contaminate

those around us,

they are blotted out

through the Love of God.

Our baptism

has made us clean

and started the process

of justification,

sanctification

and glorification

in us

which will continue

for as long as we turn to Christ.

Benedictine Hallowe'en?

 

Why all Benedictine saints and souls?