How the cool-down from a passionate debate can be used for learning languages.
Monday, May 13, 2024
Saturday, May 11, 2024
What comes down must go up.
Sermon for the Sunday in the octave of the Ascension
Ten days.
We now have ten days wait
after the Ascension
until the Birthday of the Church
when the Holy Ghost descends
and causes order
from chaos.
What were the Apostles doing
for those ten days?
Were they sitting
drawing up blueprints
for the Church,
putting together
codes of Canon Law,
and making sure that
the priests will wear
the right colour
in the right liturgical season?
No. That's not what they do.
They meet together,
pray,
and wrestle with what they
understand of the memories
of Jesus.
But they don't build a church.
They have realised that
building a Church is a
top-down activity.
[PAUSE]
If you think about it,
it's an odd way to build.
Can we really
build a church
starting with the spire
and building down
to the floor?
Well, we can't do that.
We're subject to
all the limitations of gravity.
But we need
to realise these limitations.
The Day of Pentecost
is not yet with us
and the Day of Pentecost
is the undoing
of the tower of Babel.
It's in these ten days
before Pentecost
that we witness
the deconstruction of Babel
and the safest way
to deconstruct a tower
is from the top down.
The building of the Church
starts with the demolition
of all that opposes it.
The crooked has
to be made straight
and the rough places plain
for the Gospel to be preached.
This demolition
is a form of repentance.
These ten days of prayer
and preparation
in which the Apostles are silent
are a form of repentance.
Of course,
you remember that
repentance is not just
turning away from sin:
it is a turning towards Christ.
If we turn to Christ
then we necessarily
turn away from sin.
The Apostles reflect
upon the Ascension
and what it means
and thus they turn their minds
to Christ.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord's Ascension
proves to us
that He has descended
from Heaven.
It strengthens our minds
that, truly, Jesus is the Son of God,
fully human and fully divine.
The Apostles see
exactly how Our Lord is the Way.
In ascending,
He has punched
a human-shaped hole
in the veil
that separates us from God
and it is through this gap
that we see the Glory of God
and the joys of Heaven.
This shows them how
they are to build top-down.
[PAUSE]
When we try to build
bottom-up,
the result is confusion
because we can only bring
earthly things
into the building.
If we try to build a church
based on human ideas
of justice and mercy
all we will get is
confusion, conflict and
consternation.
But,
to reach into the heavens
through Christ's Way
we build something
that comes down from Heaven
to us.
This Church
separates Christians
from the World
and sanctifies their lives
because it is built
from the top down.
A building
that does not separate
from the World
bur rather blurs the
distinction between
the Church and the World.
It allows sin into
the sanctuary
and thus the sanctuary
loses its sanctity.
[PAUSE]
That which is built
from the bottom up
falls down.
That which is built
from the top down
falls up.
Just as Christ descends
for our Salvation
so He must ascend
so that we may too.
What comes down
must go up.
Monday, May 06, 2024
Sunday, May 05, 2024
Trouble Praying
Sermons for the fifth Sunday after Easter
Why don't we pray
for no tribulation?
If we ask in Jesus' Name
then God will give it.
What's gone wrong?
[PAUSE]
Isn't it a bit rich of Our Lord
to tell His disciples
that their prayers in His Name
will be answered
and then to tell them
that they will suffer tribulation?
If God wants our joy to be complete
why put us through the mill?
Why not hear our prayer
and prevent us from pain?
[PAUSE]
This is a hard question
and one that many will use
as a reason for leaving Christianity
or for not taking it seriously.
It's a question that will
never really be answered,
not in this life.
There are two points
to consider
which give us some clue
as to what Our Lord means.
First,
we are to ask
in the Name of Our Lord.
How often do we pray
in the Name of Our Lord.
Just tacking on
"in Jesus' Name"
to our prayer
doesn't make it a prayer
in His Name.
It needs to be a prayer
that He would want
to put His Name to.
It needs to be a prayer
that we make in dialogue
with Him,
a prayer in keeping
with His character
and not ours alone.
It needs to be a prayer
that is part of our ongoing
conversation with Our Lord
that seeks His glory
and our happiness.
Indeed, His glory is our happiness.
This brings us to the second point.
[PAUSE]
Our prayers will be granted
so that our joy may be complete.
But our joy will not be complete
not in this life.
Our lot as human beings
is to die.
We are only happy
for a short space of time
before we fall I'll
get hurt
or die.
Our joy is never complete
in this world.
Our joy is not
in this world.
Our joy is complete
only after we have passed
from this life
into the next.
Let's be clear,
God loves us now
and will answer our prayers
that we need now
but the purpose of our prayer
must be directed
to our joy in Heaven
and what is Heaven
if not to see
the glory of God Himself?
St Philip asks Our Lord
to show him the Father
but Jesus says
that the disciples have seen the Father
in Jesus Himself.
Their joy will not be complete
when they see Our Lord
bleeding and gasping
upon the wood of the cross.
It will not be complete
when they see Him standing with them
but they do get a foretaste
of the joy that they are promised.
[PAUSE]
We will not see our prayers
not so suffer answered in this life.
They will be answered
in the next
where all our pain, sorrow and suffering
will be given context,
explanation if we need it,
and sanctification
as proof of Love.
Our prayer cannot
be a simple set of instructions
for God to fulfill
like a genie on Checkatrade.
For then we will be
disappointed.
If our relationship with God
is purely based on
transaction
or wish-fulfillment
then we cannot expect
our faith to grow
and we are in danger of losing it.
Our prayer must be
our continued contact with God
seeking His presence
His will
His glory
His love for everyone.
Our relationship with God
must be rooted deeply in Him
and that means accepting
the mystery of His fathomlessness
and of our own.
It means accepting pain
as our lives are bent
back into shape
by the growing awareness
of the presence of God in us.
But there are things
that God will always give us
if we ask for them now
in our continued conversation
with Him
- faith, hope love.
There is always
a plenteous supply of those
for us.
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