Tying up loose ends

Before the sermon, a little something for St Cecilia's Day

Sermon for the Sunday next before Advent

Is Sunday the first day of the week or the last? 

Either way it has its place in the weekend in the same way that a piece of string has two ends: one of those ends is a beginning.

Sunday is always about Resurrection. It is the centre of our Faith and the beginning of a new week. It is the first day of Creation; it is the first day of the Church Militant; it is the first day of the liturgical year.

Today, however, is a last Sunday. How can a last ever be a first?

[PAUSE]

In our experience, life falls into cycles and circles: as we orbit the sun, we see the seasons come and go; as the planet spins, we see day become night and night become day; we see birth and death and we think they are different.

But there are cycles we don't see because we don't live long enough. Ice ages have come and gone; there have been mass extinctions as the planet has changed and new species have risen to take their place. Our whole solar system orbits the galaxy every two hundred million years. 

It seems everything happens in cycles. Ends and beginnings get tied together.

But the Incarnation of Our Lord, His Life, His Work, His Death, His Resurrection, aren't these just a one-off? These aren't repeated. And neither are we. We don't go round again, do we?

[PAUSE]

Sunday gives us the answer: the first day of Creation, the day of Resurrection. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself ties our creation to our resurrection. We die because we sin and we sin because we die as St Paul tells the Romans. Death and sin are tied together. In being made Man, God gives us someone for us to tie ourselves to. Our births and our deaths become united in Him and we are raised to a new life with Him.

But we cannot be tied to Christ and to sin. A string only has two ends and we need both our ends to be tied to Christ. 

[PAUSE]

As our liturgical year ends, so we are reminded that the cycle begins again in order to help us untie ourselves from sin and unite ourselves to Christ. Now is the time to reflect on the year that is gone and prepare for the year that is coming. Now is the time to see Christ ascend into Heaven and prepare to see Him in the manger. Now is the time to allow the cycles of the Church year to tie our loose ends together more tightly in Christ.

In tying ourselves to Christ we tie ourselves to Eternity and to joy.

Exclusive Inclusivity and the Church

Sermon for the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity

Have you ever been forced to do something you didn't want to do through sheer peer pressure?

[PAUSE]

The way that a human society holds itself together is by making the idea of being an outcast very unpalatable. These days, being inclusive is something that we strive for: everyone must belong to our society as a valued part. It's very reasonable and well-intentioned. We Christians know full well that every single human being is a precious child of God.

These days we would not exclude people from society for being blind. We involve them in playing an active part and give them access to the same opportunities that are available to everyone. The fact that they are blind does not pose a barrier to being included in our society.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with the man born blind of whom St John is speaking in his gospel. This man is excluded precisely because he can't see: he can't work or contribute or participate in the temple; he probably looks different too if his eyes are not properly formed. The assumption that society makes is that he is blind because he has sinned and therefore he ought to be avoided by polite society. 

To an extent the Church agrees with that. Both St Peter and St Paul say that unrepentant sinners are to be put out of the Church until they do repent: those who seek to sin damage the community and that's not on.

But the blind man hasn't sinned. There's no sin here. There's no reason for his exclusion. What there is is incompleteness.

[PAUSE]

And so, God in Christ - He who formed Man in His own image from the dust of the earth - He takes the dust of the earth and completes the man's eyes Himself.

This is direct evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

The man acknowledges his blindness and receives sight. And, just because he is healed by Our Lord, he is cast once more from polite society because he dares to tell the truth. He is cast out because he bears witness to Our Lord.

The sad thing is his parents do not stand by him. 

Oh yes, the world must hear of this wonderful healing from the lips of one who was blind but now sees, but his parents sell him short. They do not stand with him. They want to remain part of polite society and will not tell the truth so they don't get thrown out.

[PAUSE]

No society can be truly inclusive. Groucho Marx says that he would never join a society that would have him as a member. There is always some rule of conduct.

The Church is no different. The Church enjoys communion with God in Christ. Those who sin separate themselves from God therefore they separate themselves from the Church. But God gives a way back - repentance. Until we repent of sin, we remain apart from the Church. And only God can say what sin is because sin depends on what God is not.

[PAUSE]

Jesus seeks to bring the once-blind man back into society from which he should never have been excluded. And, thankfully, we have learned from this that the blind are to be included in our society to the fullest. If, however, a blind man tries to drive a car then he is acting unlawfully. Even in an "inclusive" society there are things in which it is for everyone's good to exclude the blind. It isn't cruel to do so nor diminishing but acknowledging the truth. 

[PAUSE]

The same is true for each of us. Human nature is broken and imperfect. It is true and honest to recognise and accept our imperfections and limitations. There are things which we cannot do without sinning. It is true and honest to recognise that we are tempted to go beyond our limitations and so fall into sin. It is true and honest to see where we have sinned and turn back.

[PAUSE]

As for the once-blind man, he is excluded from society for telling the truth. Our Lord shows that it is worth being excluded from such a society. The Church seeks the Truth because the Church seeks Christ. How can the Church embrace the falsehoods that Society wants us to hold?

It is better to be excluded from falsehood and included in the Truth for there is Christ and there is God. If you offend Society by telling the truth then Society will cut you off as Our Lord predicts. If you seek the Truth, however, then you are very much welcome in the Church.

Unreal Idols and Real Ikons

Sermon for the twenty-second Sunday after Trinity

What a strange way to end a letter! No "yours sincerely", no "all my love", no "warm regards". St John's first letter ends simply with

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen."

It's possible that we lost the rest of the letter. If we did, then that's a shame but it cannot have contributed to our understanding and relationship with God. If this is it then it seems a very abrupt way to end a letter.

[PAUSE]

Clearly St John wishes us to impress upon us that idolatry is a big problem and he has spent much of his letter telling us why: we are to worship the true and living God and not created things.

St John has spent much of his ministry in Ephesus and has seen the idolatry of the Greeks and Romans with their whole phone-book's worth of gods to worship: Artemis, Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon.... Since St John is Jewish, he is also aware in his culture that there are people who worship Baal, Ashtoreth and the disgusting Molech. In such an environment, how is anyone to know the true God?

[PAUSE]

St John begins his letter drawing us to the fact that he has seen God, hugged Him, even laid his head upon the divine breast. He knows Jesus: he knows God.

He knows that there can be only one God. Another St John - this time St John Damascene - says that if there were two true gods then one would limit what the other can do and God can do all that can be done. Thus there is only one true God that exists: Jesus bears witness to Him and the Holy Spirit bears witness to Him.

Further, the Apostle St John whose letter we are reading, says that on earth there are three witnesses that God is with us in Jesus: the witness of the Holy Spirit throughout His ministry, in His miracles and in His preaching; and in the witness of the blood and water which poured out of His side on the Cross. All this points to one truth, one reality: that God Himself became flesh and dwelt among us.

[PAUSE]

This is the truth. Any god that is not seen in Our Lord Jesus Christ is an idol - a thing of our own creation.These are shadows and phantoms without any substance and whose demands haven't the power even to save a flea.

St John is clear, our faith in God is expressed in our striving to lead sinless lives by which he means lives that seek God and stick to Him like glue. When we sin we must confess and repent and we will find ourselves back with Him. We cannot  say that we love God and then ignore Him and what He asks us to do for then we are worshipping a false God which looks like the real one but who agrees with our sinfulness: if God wants us to be joined with Him, why should He tolerate anything that separates us from Him.

[PAUSE]

Unrepentant Idolatry is a sin unto death because we refuse to let go of the god that we have created and who accepts what we do without question. The true God will show us our sins and bear them for us upon His Cross. His pain and suffering will bear witness to that. Will our struggle to know and fight against our sin bear witness to our love for Him?

Relics of the Unknown Saint

Sermon for the solemnity of All Saints

How many saints are there?

There are some who believe that there are only 144,000 people who are going to Heaven based on reading St John's words in the Book of Revelation. Yet, a careful reading of this shows us very clearly that this number is formed from twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. If we are going to be literal about the number then we have to be literal about the people we are counting. If the Book of Revelation is being literal in its truth, then the only people going to Heaven will be Jewish. That rather contradicts the Gospel proclaimed to the Gentiles, doesn't it?

Yet, St John is clear. The communion of Saints is innumerable. We cannot count the number of the saints. Even looking at the collection of Saints in the Martyrology, we see so many saints that go unnamed, and whom history seems to have forgotten. 

The vast majority of saints go unnamed, without saints' days, without being recognised, without any earthly veneration.

Is this a tragedy, or is it a good thing?

[PAUSE]

Of these unknown saints, there is nothing left. "Some there be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them."

The World has forgotten them. Even the Church seems to have forgotten them. They appear nowhere in calendars or in reliquaries. Yet, perhaps these unknown saints bear witness to something more truly glorious.

[PAUSE]

Of course the Church has not forgotten them: they are the Church. They may not have magnificent tombs or people begging their prayers, but they bear witness to the sheer transitory nature of this life. Their bodies may have turned to the dust and been blown to the four winds. But, in time, this will be true of all of us. 

The fact is that our cathedrals will crumble; our books, discs, even our digital data in the cloud will decay and rot to nothing. Human civilization will evaporate as if it had never been. There will be a time when there will be no evidence for the existence of the Church whatsoever.

Depressed? Don't be. This is good news.

[PAUSE]

When the Church has disappeared from Earth, then its existence in Heaven will be complete. Earth forgets about Heaven but the Church does not.

Saints may disappear on earth. "Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore."

God does not forget, neither does the Church. When the world pronounces us insignificant, God remembers. When our work is disregarded, God remembers. When our suffering is ignored, God remembers.

[PAUSE]

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints. In remembering the saints we know, we venerate the saints we have forgotten because all saints stand together. We, too, will be saints forgotten by the world but that means we have ceased finally to be of the world.

We will be forgotten, but the Gospel that we preach will resound until there are no ears left to hear it, and then there will be nothing else to hear but the song of worship sung by the innumerable cloud of saints for Eternity.

The Kingdom of Truth

Sermon for the feast of Christ the King

Throughout the day, we have been standing with Our Lord Jesus as He stands before Pontius Pilate. We have spent today gazing upon this one scene looking at all the aspects of what it means to be king and it brings us back to this meeting of leaders. What we witness here is a struggle between kingdoms and yet only one is a real kingdom. 

This is a strange struggle, though, as we don't see soldiers fighting. Our Lord says that He has legions of angels at His command and yet He will not use them. The battle we are witnessing is not like anything we know. No cannons roaring or bullets flying; no swords nor spears; no skirmish or battle cry - at least none we recognise and yet, here, in the Roman Governor's office a battle is raging between kings.

[PAUSE]

Kingship involves imposing control somehow. Every king must face the struggle of exercising their will. Some do this by brute force; some do this by persuasion and diplomacy; some do this by careful manipulation.

How does Jesus rule?

[PAUSE]

God rules by the sheer act of creation. Things are as they are because He wills it. He says as much:

 Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

The truth is what really is. We owe our existence to God: only He makes things exist. More than that, God uses the very existence of things to communicate with us. We know that the Heavens are telling the glory of God. They have no speech or language and yet their sound has gone out into all lands. This is the truth that we hear and what we hear is the voice of God.

[PAUSE]

Kings exercise control in order to impose their will whatever the motivation behind that will may be. The truth of God's kingship is that it is motivated by goodness and love for us. His will is to love. He does not seek to dominate us. He does not seek to terrorise us or gain some pleasure by pitting us against each other. He does not play with our lives or seek some demeaning services from us. We are indeed to serve Him but in serving Him we find true joy.

We have a king who truly has our best interests at heart.

As He stands before Pilate, Our Lord is intent on proclaiming this truth that He is here to save us from evil and that, in a few hours time, He will do that on the Cross. That is His declaration of sincerity. It is His new covenant with us.

[PAUSE]

The rule of a king depends on those who accept his authority. The struggle is with those who do not accept it. Standing before Pilate, Our Lord is struggling. He struggles not against Pilate, nor against Pharisees, or Rome or the world: if He were then these would not stand. Christ fights against all the forces of Evil which have infected us since Adam and Eve.

He fights and His victory is our freedom. We are fully free to choose and that is God's victory on our behalf for true love allows the beloved to make a free choice. The truth will set us free. We could, like the Devil, choose to reject God and that distance from God will be ours for Eternity. 

Or we could accept the rule of Christ and see the truth. That truth will open our eyes to own selves and we shall behold His glory as the One Who sits upon the throne. His control over Creation gives us life and this life with Him will be Eternal.

The hysteria of the Antichrist

Sermon for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

In the film adaptation of The Name of the Rose, there is a darkly comedic scene in which a murder victim is found in the monastery with his legs poking out of a large jar of pig's blood. The monks immediately leap to the conclusion that the Antichrist is here and the end of the world is nigh and there is much wailing and fear. And Brother William of Baskerville, the Franciscan hero of the story, remains calm and rational. Yet, one thing is very clear, the Antichrist is present in that monastery: the murder is evidence of his presence. However, the murderer is not the Antichrist as Brother William demonstrates.

[PAUSE]

Lots of people get into hysterics about the Antichrist and yet don't quite know who he is. Some say he's the Devil; some say he or she is a human being born in an evil reflection of Our Lord's Holy Incarnation; some even identify him as being the Emperor Nero, Martin Luther or even the Pope. This is not what St John means.

The Antichrist is not like that. What many people understand by the Antichrist is a product of artistic licence brought about by religious hysteria.

[PAUSE]

St John is actually very clear on what Antichrist means. The clue is in the name: Antichrist means something that is "against Christ". St John says:

"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son."

Just as the Holy Ghost inspires men to call Jesus Lord and recognise the truth of His Love through His Incarnation, so the Antichrist is the spirit which inspires us to deny the reality of Jesus. There is an important difference.

For its plan to work, the Antichrist wants you to believe that it is at least God's Equal. You know this not to be true because, as St John tells you, you know the Father. If you know the Son, then you know the Father. You know God. And one thing you know about God is that He creates everything. This includes the very spirit that will rebel against Him of its own free will. The Antichrist is created by God, but it makes itself the Antichrist by going against God. This is true of all creatures who go against God. How can it be God's Equal? There can be only one Creator.

[PAUSE]

The only weapon of the Antichrist is lies. Lies cause doubt and confusion. Confusion causes hysteria, disruption and distrust. All of these cause a greater attention to the World with all its lusts and hatreds and distractions and, most importantly, forgetfulness of God.

When we forget God, we fall into sin. This is critical to understand. Most of us do not sin as part of some wilful desire to disobey God. Most of us sin because we have forgotten God. We sin because we have forgotten to put God first, to seek His righteousness and accept His rule. We put ourselves first with our own selfish desires to make us feel good. When we realise that we have sinned, we come scurrying back to Him in repentance. But we need to have that realisation in the first place. 

The Antichrist wants us not to realise that we have sinned precisely so that we don't repent. 

[PAUSE]

Rather than looking for the Antichrist in others, we need to look for the Antichrist in ourselves. When we sin we become antichrist because we fall from Him and oppose His rule. This makes self-examination and confession all the more necessary. We must examine ourselves in the light of Christ. The painful reality is that the better we know Christ, the better we know our sins and our failings and the more agonising this becomes. 

The pain of the realisation of our sins is so good for us because this is the pain of death to sin. Dying to sin is a painful business and it calls for God's strength to be with us and the Church standing with us. In the Church, we confess, turn to Christ and find true forgiveness. It hurts.

Of course, pain is not something we want in our lives and we are open to distraction from it. This is why the world is in hysteria with all its conflicting messages on television, in the news, on social media. While we are concentrating on things worldly, we are failing to look at our spiritual lives with God. 

The greater the pain of realising that we sin, the greater the distraction we need and hysteria produces precisely the confusion needed to distract us. Perhaps this is why the world is so noisy at the moment.

The best way of dealing with the pain of dying to sin is to focus on the eyes of Christ Who sees all. Christ suffers pain for us upon the Cross so that the pain of our dying is given a greater meaning than we imagine. The more we focus on Him, the more bearable the pain becomes and the closer we draw to Him

[PAUSE]

We are in pain because of what the Antichrist has done to us right from the start. Only Christ saves us and is doing so now.

Hear His words cut through the hysteria of the World and trust Him.

Sacramental Curtains

Sermon for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

If nobody had ever told you, would you believe that God exists? If there were no Church, no Bible, no Gospel, no people testifying, would you be a Christian?

[PAUSE]

Many people say that religion has been made up and the only reason that people are religious is because their parents, teachers and, indeed, people around them are religious. This is true to an extent. If all you hear are the teachings of a particular religion the more likely you are to believe that religion. There is something to be said for learning about what other religions say.

These religions exist because they give a language to the voice that we hear in us. They give words to the stirring of the spirit.

The trouble is, they might not be the right words.

[PAUSE]

St John writes his letter to us in order to help us to hear the truth. He does not begin with myths and legends. He does not start talking of fables or spiritual utterances. He starts with what he has personally experienced. He has seen God with his own eyes. He has touched Him, embraced Him, heard Him speak and teach. He has eaten with God, seen God asleep in the boat, watched God work miracles before his very eyes. He has seen God crucified, bleed and die. He has been given the care of God's mother. 

And he is not the only one.

We are told that five hundred people see Jesus after His resurrection. They recognise that He died and they recognise that He lives. 

Unlike other religions, Christianity has eye-witness testimony to its truth. The voice that we hear in our souls is given a language in the truth.

But we don't have eyes to see what St John sees. Our eyes are in the darkness of two thousand years of history.

[PAUSE]

We can't see God the Father: He stands outside Creation and our sinful little eyes are too separate from Him to stand His glory. We would burn up in an instant.

We can't see God the Son: His walk with us is too long ago for us to see.

We can't see God the Holy Ghost: He is like the wind and we can only see His effects.

And yet, God is Light. Our existence is like having the curtains closed on a sunny day. If we opened the curtains, the light is too much for us to bear. They protect us while we walk this earth. Somehow God has to reach us through the curtains. He gives us the eye-witnesses but He also gives us Himself in veiled form.

[PAUSE]

While He walks with us, God is veiled in our Human Nature. While He is ascended, He gives us Himself veiled in the sacraments. His invisible grace is rendered visible by the curtain of our small reality.

What the Church does is give a language to what we experience in ourselves through the Holy Scriptures, through teaching the Catholic Faith and through giving us God Himself in the sacraments. This is why we need to go to Church: we need to hear what our soul is saying in the language of the One True God Who has shown Himself to be part of our History not our myths and legends.

[PAUSE]

We see through the glass darkly. Once we have the language for it, we realise that what we glimpse through that dark glass is pure Love.

Armour amour.

Sermon for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

It is no coincidence that the handshake has the same origin as the salute. They are very old gestures that go back to ancient warfare. 

The salute is said to come from raising the visor of your helmet so that you can be recognised as a friend. The handshake demonstrates that your hand is free from weapons.

Both are gestures that render you vulnerable. In order to salute someone or to recognise them as a friend, you have to trust them and expose the chinks in your armour. To trust makes one vulnerable to attack.

[PAUSE]

Armour has changed greatly over the centuries. Breastplates have become bullet-proof vests. Helmets no longer have to be fastened over your head with screws or rivets. Kevlar has replaced iron.

What hasn't changed is the use of armour to defend yourself. Christians are no different.

[PAUSE]

St Paul acts as our armourer, showing us each piece of our armour and how it is to be used.

Our loins are to be girt with truth. Our most vulnerable parts are to be protected by being honest and recognising what is real. The Devil can wound us very easily with lies and falsehood. Knowing what the truth is stops us from being damaged from within and protects us from infection.

Our breastplate protects our heart. Together with truth, righteousness protects us from deep injury because we know right from wrong and that we seek to do the right thing. It stops the Devil trying to convince us to sin, for the wages of sin is death.

Even our feet need to be protected. We hear Isaiah say how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. We are bearers of good news and so our feet need to be protected from stumbling in order to help our brothers and sisters hear the Gospel.

Our first defence against the Devil is our shield of faith. We have good reason for believing in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. There will be times when our belief is challenged and so we need to wield our faith as our protection from the fiery darts of the Devil.

Our helmet is Salvation. Our minds can be clouded by all kinds of doctrine and false teaching but the truth is simple enough for any human being: salvation from Evil is ours for the taking at the hands of Our Lord Jesus Christ Who died on the Cross to obtain it and Who rose again to give it to us. 

Finally, our sword is the Holy Ghost. This is important. Our foe is not a physical being. Our real enemy is not any other human being: our foe is the Devil and he is a spirit along with his minions. The only true weapon that we have against such an imposing adversary is God Himself. The love that God has for us is that He is willing to be our sword and destroy the enemy.

Why do we need armour? Why doesn't God just keep us in an impregnable fortress?

[PAUSE]

The fact that we have armour shows that God expects us to fight Evil actively. We aren't to hide passively in a bunker. Our duty is to be soldiers for Christ out in the world for the good of those who do not yet believe, for the good of those who may never believe.

But we have to recognise the Enemy. 

The real Enemy is never another human being. We are expected to love those people whom we might call our enemies and to show no less charity to them than we show our friends. It is for their sake that we are not hidden in a bunker but seek to combat real Evil.

We are to do it with humility and not bluster or bravado. We are to do it with wisdom and faith and not with all guns blazing. We are to do it with care and generosity for the salvation of others and not seeing our brothers and sisters as anything other than the reason to fight.

[PAUSE]

 The attack on Evil has been made for us on the Cross. Our fight is to defend ourselves and each other from a dying enemy. Our whole armour is nothing less than that of true love.

The battle for the sexes

Sermon for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Catholic Church does not ordain women to the priesthood.

How misogynistic!

Clearly, the Catholic Church is wrong to stop women from taking roles of leadership within the Church. A woman is just as good as a man, isn't she? Whatever a man can do, a woman can do, right?

But then...

"A woman's place is in the home." "A real man doesn't show his feelings." "Don't be such a girl!"

[PAUSE]

Do you notice that in all of these statements, love is not mentioned once.

The Church has a bit of a chequered history when it comes to understanding the difference between men and women and how that difference is to be expressed.

There have been times that even members of the Church who should know better have seen women as inferior. They have seen wives as the possessions of their husbands. 

This is a pagan idea. It is most notably the idea of Aristotle who sees a woman as an incomplete man. His ideas have been hard to shake off. Look how recently it has been that women have been allowed to vote as if they don't have the brains to operate politically.

Does the Church really treat women as being inferior?

[PAUSE]

Certainly the Church believes that there is a difference between men and women. The priesthood always has been male from the beginning of the sacrificial system. That is how God arranges it. The differences between men and women go beyond the obvious arrangements of the body. They are written in every cell of the body. They are written in the hormones and other chemicals that make the body work. Medicines that work on men do not work as effectively on women and vice versa. These are scientific facts. Science says that men and women are different. Science also says that men and women are both human.

[PAUSE]

And then St Paul says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord."

Submit? How misogynistic! Women again being dominated by men!

Well here's the problem. Secular society reads St Paul's words as a question of power, of one sex having control and authority over the other, of one sex being a slave of the other.

And indeed that's how women have been treated, even by members of the Church.

But if that's how people understand St Paul, then they are not listening to him. What does he say?

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones."

The relationship is clear. It's nothing to do with power and domination. It's nothing to do with servanthood or slavery. It's to do with love, trust, responsibility and support.

If the man is the head of a woman as part of one flesh then what's the use of a head without a body? That question has been answered horribly by the guillotine.

The head cannot digest food. It cannot walk. It cannot pick things up or play the piano.

The body cannot see, hear, smell or taste. It cannot think or guide.

Heads and bodies are necessarily complementary: they cannot exist without each other. The head must use its faculties to care for the body so that the body can support the head. To talk of the head dominating the body is nonsense.

Holy Scripture is clear from the beginning when Eve is taken from Adam. Men and women have different capacities on which the other relies. If only men can be priests then women have to support that in order to receive the nourishing grace of God. But then, priests have to give that nourishing grace not as an example of power-play but for their own salvation.

[PAUSE]

Ideas of superiority and inferiority are pagan in origin. They arise as issues of power not of love. Only men can be priests and lead the liturgy and St Paul bids women to submit to that for the love of the Church. That is the way God has ordered things. On the other hand if a priest sees his position as one of power and domination over his flock then he is inperilling his soul gravely. If a priest cannot be a servant to his flock then his view of the priesthood is contemptible - even in the eyes of God who said that he who exalts himself shall be abased.

Misogyny is the hatred of women. There can be no greater hatred of women than for a Society to destroy what it means to be a woman by treating her as a man in issues where that difference is important. There can be no greater hatred of women than to force arbitrary expectations upon them in order to demonstrate that they are women.

 The Church sees the difference between men and women as important: there are things that men can be that women can't and vice versa. The key ingredient is not social conformity but nothing less than Love and obedience to God.

[PAUSE]

We are all to submit to Christ as our head for we are the Church. Our relationship with Him should be the pattern for our relationships with each other for that is how we know love.

There is no battle of the sexes in the Church. If there is then it is purely pagan!

Settling for lesser laws

Sermon for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Do you feel part of the Church? Do you feel part of Society? Can you be part of both?

The relationship between the Church and the secular world has been very rocky and it is perhaps not surprising that many people who say that they feel part of the Church feel marginalised or even outcasts from Society.

In Australia, one state is passing a law to try and force priests to report any instances of child abuse mentioned to them in the confessional.

Members of the Church are appalled.

Victims of abuse are relieved.

What do you think?

[PAUSE]

In many ways the government of this Australian state are trying hard to protect the vulnerable and so we should not blame their intentions.

Indeed, were certain priests following their calling and not their sinful ways, were certain bishops better at dealing with abusive priests, were certain establishments more willing to engage with the problem than sweep it under the carpet, the need for this law would not be necessary. 

However understandable this new law may be, it is not right. The seal of the Confessional must not be violated. Those who do so leave the Church completely and cut themselves off from God.

We have a choice: God's law or secular law.

[PAUSE]

St Paul is quite clear on the solution to this.

"walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks."

The Church has been given higher standards than the world. These standards tell us about God and what He is like. They tell us how we must behave in order to live out the life of Christ.

It is not illegal to commit adultery, but it is contrary to Christian living. Stealing is illegal but if we follow the commandment not to envy one another, we are less inclined to steal. The less we engage in filthy talk the less we will destroy the reputation of our neighbour.

The more we commit to the standards of Christian living the more irrelevant the laws of society become for us because we are committed to following God and not Man. Following God will usually mean obeying secular law and will always benefit Society. Where the law of God differs from the law of Man, we follow the former and take the consequences willingly as a sacrifice to God.

[PAUSE]

Of course we are not perfect. We have to accept the consequences of our sin, but the Church also believes in forgiveness. Forgiveness is the way we accept people back into the Church when they fall from God. Forgiveness is the way that the Church demonstrates its belief that human beings can be transformed into the likeness of God. The standards of Christian living do not change but human beings have to grow.

What must not happen is that the Church adopt the standards of the world. The standards of the world are motivated by power, pleasure and greed. The standard of the Church is Love and nothing less. Where members of the Church have followed Society as in the cases of slave trading, divorcing spouses or engaging in sexual immorality, that is where the Church is damaged in the eyes of the world. It is where St Paul's warning demonstrates its force.

[PAUSE]

The world will never love the Church and we must accept this. The moment that we prefer lower standards, the further we distance ourselves from God. The more we decline to forgive the more we will in turn be denied forgiveness.

We are the Church destined for a transformed world as people transformed into the likeness of God. Why settle for anything less?

Called to be one

Sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Many people present themselves to the Church claiming that they have have heard a call from God and that they are meant to be a priest in His Church.

Many people are told by the Church that they are not called to be a priest and go away bitter and resentful, blaming the Church for not hearing God's call that they have received.

Who gets to say who gets to be a priest? The person who receives a call or the Church which administers the sacrament of ordination?

[PAUSE]

Obviously the answer is God. God calls and we answer, and everyone is called by God. Indeed that's exactly what being in the Church means. The Greek word ecclesia means Church and we get the word ecclesiastical from it. Ecclesia literally means "those who have been called out". God calls everyone out from the world which refuses to recognise Him and into His marvellous light. We are called out from the world to be the Church.

We all have a vocation to be Christians. There are particular ministries within the Church but, for the most part, we are called to be the people God created and not the people whom the world expects us to be, nor the people the Devil tricks us in to believing we want to be.

The life of the Church is that of repentance towards God and away from falsehood.

So what about the call to the priesthood?

[PAUSE]

As St Paul says there are many ministries, many ways of doing things, but there is only one Church. All those ministries are for the good of the Church even at the cost of one's health. The priesthood is for the good of the Church, not for the person. There is only one true priest and that is Our Lord Jesus Christ Who offers Himself as a sacrifice upon the altar of the Cross. The priesthood we have consists of those men whom God calls to participate in His priesthood.

True, St Paul talks about the priesthood of all believers but he does not talk about the priesthood of every believer. This is the priesthood of the whole Church, the Catholic Church on behalf of all humanity. All Christians participate in the sacrifice of the Mass, but only Christ in the person of the priest can offer it. Only Christ in the person of the priest can give out the good Grace of God to keep the Church healthy and alive.

[PAUSE]

To be called to the priesthood means to work for the unity of the Church. It is for the Church to discern the call to the priesthood because it is for the Church that the priest must direct his efforts. Those who want the priesthood for themselves to do as they please do not want the Catholic priesthood but a priesthood of their own making, a priesthood of their own doctrine to suit themselves.

There are plenty who call themselves bishops and priests who are on it only for themselves, or for politics, or for social reasons or even for an expression of a confused understanding of what a priest is. There are those who want to wear fancy robes, call themselves doctors of Divinity and be seen to be clergymen. You can see that they are not working for the Church because they disregard what the priesthood of the Church has been since her beginning. The priesthood is a call to servitude and carries dire penalties for those who damages the Church family.

 There is only one Church and she stretches from the Incarnation of Our Lord, throughout all History - One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Priesthood. Anyone who makes a change to any of these damages the unity of the Church. No wonder the poet Danté foresees horrible punishments for priests who do damage their brothers and sisters inside or outside the Church.

[PAUSE]

There are many people who are disappointed in finding that they aren't called for the priesthood. Of course, that is painful but this doesn't mean that they are in any way shape or form less of a human being. Being told that you are not called to be a priest in the Catholic Church carries absolutely no shame at all. You are called to be what God wants you to be and, as you walk humbly with Him, you will find your happiness in his service.

It is God Who gives each one of us dignity - that is the calling of every human beings.

Faith working gracefully

Sermon for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

In the darkness of a sleepless night, your mind can go through many weird and wonderful questions.

What happens if nobody at all votes in an election?

If Time Travel were possible wouldn't we already know it?

Is there a place on earth where all the missing socks disappear to from the tumble dryer?

How do I know that I am going to Heaven?

Good point. How do you know?

[PAUSE]

St Paul writes to the Church in Ephesus reminding them that they are all part of God's family and that they are meant to be sons and daughters of God by adoption. It is by being members of this family that we will find ourselves eternally joined with God.

Yet, as Our Lord's parable of the Prodigal Son shows, we can separate ourselves from our family, especially from Our Father. St Paul reminds us that human beings were once slave to the "prince of the power of the air" - the spirit of disobedience to God. 

It is true that when we sin, we are lured away from God and that we don't always recognise it. We can be tempted even to call good evil and evil good, and when this happens, it is difficult ever to recognise God again. When we sin we are effectively dead because we are cut off from the One Who gives us life.

How can we ever come back? How can we ever hope to rise from the death that our sins cause?

For the Prodigal Son, there is a memory. There is the memory of a Father's love. This love always has been there and, for the Prodigal Son to return to the Father, he has to believe that his Father will take him back even as a slave. The Prodigal Son has to have faith in his Father and that faith comes from the Father's character. It is knowing that the Father loves the Prodigal Son that gives the son the strength to repent.

This is why St Paul says, " For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

The Prodigal Son is not saved from his life in the pig sty by demonstrating whose son he is. His parentage means nothing to those who take his inheritance away. Works of the Jewish Law do not mean anything to the prince of the power of the air. If we are separated from God, the Law does nothing for us. It just tells us that we are separated from God.

What saves us is God the Father who reaches out to us through the Son and gives us the Holy Ghost. We are saved by God's Grace which is His active presence in our lives. We are saved through Faith because God has reminded us of His love and we trust in Him to save us. We are saved with good works because we allow Christ to live in us and He does good. It is Christ who makes things right: He justifies.

This is how the Church becomes part of the God's plan to save us. Through Christ being the Head of the Church, the Church has God's grace to give to bring to all who repent and seek after God.

If we sin we separate ourselves from the Church and from God. If we repent then we return to the Church, to God's grace and to His Life. We return through the grace of our Baptism into the family of God. As members of the Church we need to hold out our hands in love so that those who do repent can cling on. 

[PAUSE]

We cannot presume to know that we are going to Heaven. However, we can trust in God's love for us and know that any love we have for Him will not be forgotten especially when that love for Him is expressed for our neighbours.

That is faith and through this faith we are saved by God.

Adopting the Church

Sermon for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity

In the UK, Credo Care has just celebrated its twentieth birthday.

It is a foster care agency that seeks to place disabled children with families who will care for them and meet their special needs. Although they are not an adoption agency, they allow for little ones who struggle with the basics of living to find a place to be and to grow. 

And St Paul would say that this is exactly what the Church is like, for he says that God has "predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

But often, we forget what this means.

[PAUSE]

There are those Christians who say that God did not want to form the Church, and that all we need to do is accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour in order to be saved. 

We do need to accept that Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Saviour but we need to do more than just say that He is. St Paul is clear: God intended that we should be adopted in Him through Jesus Christ. We are to belong to Him. This is what "church" means: that which belongs to the Lord. If we belong to the Lord, then we are part of the Church. We are meant to be adopted to God in Christ. That is God's will for us. It means that we are supposed to be part of a family of God. 

What we often get wrong is that we so get too focussed on Christ being in us that we forget to be in Christ. This means that we get obsessed with our personal salvation. We become a group of individuals, each with our own individual lives and individual relationships with Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not what God wants.

A family is not just a collection of people with the same surname. It is a group of people who are related by blood and who love each other because of that relationship even if they don't like each other very much at times. 

The Church is a family because we are all related by the Blood of Christ. We are related by His Name. We are related because we are commanded to love each other and it is that love that holds us together. 

We are not saved as individuals we are saved as a Church, as a family. That means working at those relationships, demonstrating our love for one another, not just for show but for creating a habit of love. We need to work at a clear change of heart from the selfishness of our individualism to seeing ourselves as part of one family.

[PAUSE]

But we are not part of that family by nature. While we are infected by sin, we are separated from God. This is why we need to be adopted, just as someone from outside the family becomes part of that family. This is the importance of Baptism because it is the means of God's grace whereby we become part of God's family.

This isn't just by a change of name but a true change in who we are whereby we live the life of Christ.

Of course, we all require special needs according to our weaknesses and frailties but that's what the Church is for. We are here to be together, receive God's promised grace together through His sacraments, heal together, live together, love together and be saved together.

[PAUSE]

We must give thanks to God for adoption agencies and foster care agencies, especially Credo Care which seeks to ensure that those who struggle with living find somewhere in which those struggles are met with love, warmth, tenderness and support.

And then we must remember that we are part of the Church and must seek to do exactly the same for our brothers and sisters.

A viper in the hand is worth two in the fire

Sermon for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity

There are a few churches in the United States where snake-handling has been part of worship services. The idea is that it is a test of one's faith in Christ.

These folk see the viper attach itself to St Paul's hand only for him to cast it into the fire with no ill-effect.

There is a big difference between the two situations which might not be appreciated. St Paul's attachment to the viper is caused by the viper. Any attachment of the viper to the hand of a snake-handling Christian is caused by the snake-handling Christian!

The fact is we are told specifically not to put the Lord our God to the test. Now under what circumstances have we heard those words before?

[PAUSE]

We see Our Lord standing at the very top of the temple and hear those words:

"If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."

Who says these words but the Devil, the very serpent who tempted Adam and Eve and caused them to fall from Grace? This is the snake that has fastened itself to the hand of all mankind with the intent of poisoning us to death. 

St Paul stands for all humanity in being bitten by the viper upon his hand. The barbarians say that St Paul must be a criminal to have been bitten. They have it the wrong way round. We humans have been bitten and thus we are poisoned by sin which infects us. We may not be born sinners, but we are born poisoned by sin which will manifest itself in our sinful activity in our lives.

Why does the viper not poison St Paul? 

[PAUSE]

St Paul will be the first to admit that he is a sinner and we have seen his sins and how serious they are. But surely we do love him dearly for his repentance and his desire to promote the Faith he once persecuted. 

The fact is that St Paul's sin has been forgiven by God. It is God who has drawn the venom out of St Paul's blood by His own blood shed for us upon the Cross and of which we partake from the chalice. God's blood contains the antidote to the viper's venom. Yes, St Paul still bears the wound of his sin, just as he bears the wound of the viper's bite, but he lives by the grace of God.

The same is true for us: we sin; we repent; God forgives; we are saved.

So why then do Christians think it's a good idea to handle snakes.

[PAUSE]

We have to beware of putting God to the test. This is like putting ourselves in danger deliberately so that God will save us. This shows a contempt for God. It is an attempt to force His hand for the benefit of our egos: it denies His Majesty by attempting to force Him into service.

Yes, Our Lord is the Servant-King but we are each to seek to be servants of one another. To force someone to serve us is an act of contempt, and this is the very venom that the Devil tries to inject into us. If we put ourselves in danger to show off our faith then there will be consequences that follow.

[PAUSE]

St Paul shakes the snake off into the fire. It's interesting to note that the snake tries to escape the fire in the first place. This is the fire that has been assigned to the Devil from the moment he rebelled against God and poisoned his creation.

The Devil's attempt to poison Man results in Man shaking him off back into the fire. Just as the viper perishes in the flames, so does Satan perish in Hell.

We have the opportunity to follow St Paul here to confess, repent and be saved. We can be freed from our sins in the same way and we can shake off the Devil into the fire. This can only happen through Christ and living in His ways.

[PAUSE]

Many people don't realise that they have a viper attached to their hands. Will they see it if we shake our vipers from our hands?

On the firm ground of a shipwreck

Sermon for the tenth Sunday after Trinity

We have a habit of comparing misfortunes with perilous journeys, don't we?

People say that 2020 was a car crash of a year or that the recession was a shipwreck of the economy. Sometimes we use these phrases too lightly, especially when we consider the lives of people who have been greatly affected by a car crash, a train derailment, or a shipwreck.

If we have not suffered from such devastating circumstances, do we have the right to describe difficult times as being a car crash?

[PAUSE]

St Paul is not on the boat with Our Lord and the Disciples when the storm hits. He is not there when Our Lord wakes up, calms the storm and rebukes the Disciples for their lack of faith. Nor is he present when the Lord walks on water during the storm and St Peter nearly sinks while trying to do the same. He is not there when the Lord asks why St Peter doubted, for his doubt caused him to sink.

St Paul may not have been there, but he has learned from his conversion on the Road to Damascus. He has learned from being taught by the Disciples of their experience. His faith has been growing since then and he has realised that, in times of trouble, to focus on Jesus.

[PAUSE]

From a scientific point of view, much of the impact of pain on our lives is emotional. People who are injured experience less pain when they are focused on something away from that pain. The same is true in all kinds of circumstances: the greater the emotion, the more we remember the discomfort and the greater our distress.

The lesson that the Apostles learn is how to have such a great focus on Jesus that the discomfort of their suffering is something they can deal with. Look at St Paul's behaviour in the ship. He has been in prison so long that his focus on Our Lord is pin-sharp. He hears the Lord's words about the turbulent voyage ahead. He encourages his fellows to eat by what seems very like celebrating Mass on the ship. He warns them that if they leave the ship and the focus, they will drown.

As the events and the waters swirl around them, the passengers and crew are saved because St Paul gives them a better focus away from the troubles. That focus is Our Lord. The ship that is being tossed about in the storm becomes a firm ground whereby people are protected from harm because Our Lord is with them. If St Paul really does celebrate Mass on that ship then He is truly present with them as much as He is present in that boat with the Disciples. 

[PAUSE]

If we call a situation a car crash then we are speaking about a sudden period of painful confusion after which things might not be the same again. The COVID outbreak has rendered 2020 a car crash of a year because its effects reach far into the future. It leaves us disoriented, in pain, mourning and distressed. 

Yet we have an opportunity to stand on the firm ground of this shipwreck by making Christ present through prayer and especially attending the Mass. We can alleviate the pain by making Christ the focus, remembering His pain and suffering and knowing that He takes ours with Him.

We must not let ourselves be ruled by emotion. Emotions do matter very much, but we should not allow them to be the focus of our experience. Often we make our emotions the idols to which we sacrifice our lives in order to feel better. We must feel them but keep our focus on the One Who is truly real and from Whom we get our reality.

[PAUSE]

No, this is not easy. This is why we pray and worship in times of peace and tranquillity when we learn at the feet of Jesus. Then when the storm hits, we will not go down with the ship.

The wolves behind

Sermon for the ninth Sunday after Trinity

When a clergyman leaves his post there is often great sadness. The good clergyman will be missed and he will receive many goodbyes from those who love him. It is also an occasion of concern: will his replacement be any good? The good clergyman will be concerned with who comes after him. Surely it's none of his business, though. He surely doesn't get a say in how the parish is run after he's gone, does he?

[PAUSE]

St Paul is leaving and will never see Asia again so he calls the priests and bishops of Ephesus together to bid them goodbye and to warn them. There are wolves coming.

The concern of the good clergyman is that his flock will cope with his departure. He knows that he must move on and that his flock must continue without him. He knows that his parish is not about him but must be directed towards God. His departure may be sad but it should not be devastating. 

[PAUSE]

The good clergyman will have prepared for his departure by being faithful to God in the exercise of his duty and teaching his flock in the Catholic Faith. The parish that is well-educated, seeks to love God and neighbour, and prays together will know God better. This means that they are protected from the wolves. What wolves?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord speaks of the ravening wolves that will attack the flock and St Paul remembers this. These are the fake bishops and priests. They may very well be validly ordained and have all kinds of qualifications; they will be very charismatic and charming; they will appear to be the real deal. They will have only their own interests at heart.

St Paul takes great pains to show that he has worked hard for the Church. He does not live off of charity but makes tents to sell and earn his living. He has been concerned with supporting the weak - those who are poor physically, and those who are poor spiritually.

By this, the Church can recognise a good clergyman. This is not the clergyman who vaunts himself, his clothes, his learning, his connections, or his authority. This is the clergyman who comes to serve, to give God's grace freely, to preach the Gospel and show how to live the Gospel.

In recent years, the good name of "bishop" and "priest" has been sullied by those who live off of those titles, who mislead to their own advantage and who have performed abominable acts on the innocent. The bishop who is not a chief servant is in danger of damaging the flock. Of such a bishop, the Lord says it would be better for a millstone to be tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.

[PAUSE]

No clergyman is a perfect human being. They are human and not one of them is infallible. The good clergyman will be as ready to confess his sins as those whom he teaches to confess their sins. The good clergyman will be aware always of the responsibility he bears to the Church and will beg for prayers that he may not turn into a wolf but rather serve it to his own detriment.

And he will teach the flock well so that, when his time comes to leave, they are prepared for the possibility of a wolf behind him. 

Dreaming of more than in Heaven and Earth

Sermon for the eighth Sunday after Trinity

What is a university for?

You might say that universities are places engaged in a search for knowledge and which impart this knowledge on those who would pay for it.

Yet it seems, at the moment, there are strong opinions on university education. Some see a good university as a place where they can develop their own theories and thus better understand the issues so that they can fight for what's right in Society.

Others see universities as wastes of taxpayers' money studying silly subjects which don't actually mean anything except the prospect of a better future just by having a degree. 

Certainly, Science is being sneered at by some because it is not providing answers to the Coronavirus problem. There seems to be different scientific advice as to whether masks should be worn, how long it will last and whether we will ever be able to stop the social distancing.

There are a lot of answers out there and a lot of squabbling as to who is right.

And into this Areopagus walks St Paul.

[PAUSE]

What does St Paul make of the university? He hears debates, lots of theories and lots of gods. He even sees people hedging their bets by making sure that the unknown god isn't forgotten, just in case.

St Paul points out that the god that everyone has forgotten is God Himself, the Creator of all things.

We hear him speak powerfully about God, of Jesus and about resurrection.

What's interesting is that the learned men aren't convinced. Some laugh, some would hear more, but St Paul is unsuccessful in bringing the Athenian academics to faith compared with his success in Macedonia. Of course, some believe, but there is no mass conversion of the Areopagus.

And that's a good thing. The academics are behaving wisely.

[PAUSE]

One of the main obstacles to know what's going on are conflicting reports. We see this all the time. On Social Media, we see news and fake-news; we see memes and video clips, and we are tempted to listen only to those views which support our beliefs and reject the views which don't as fake.

That's lazy and it leads to divisions.

The same is true for Christianity.

To often, we seek to divide ourselves on issues which may be of great importance. In order to make a better judgement, we have to listen to the other side carefully. Our Lord Himself warns us that we first have to cost out any project before we start.

If we don't think carefully then we can end up hating people from a knee-jerk reaction to what they say. That's not on. We can hate nobody - God says so. If what we hear and see on the news and social media makes us hate others, then there is something deeply wrong. We need to be critical, listen to opposing views and think about them properly, not just give in to who shouts the loudest.

[PAUSE]

When we preach the Gospel, we have to remember that we will not reach everyone straight away. Some people will resist to the bitter end. As Christians, we are part of God's university. We seek to know Him better. We seek to teach people about Him. We have no need for a university degree in order to do this from our hearts - the graduation to Heaven will be enough.

When the spirit of freedom stops the clock

Sermon for the seventh Sunday after Trinity

On our travels with St Paul, St Silas and St Luke, we meet three spirits. The first prevents them from spreading the Gospel in Asia. The second proclaims the Most High God. The third sends these saints to prison.

Only one of these spirits is not the Holy Ghost.

[PAUSE]

It's interesting that the spirit proclaiming the name of God is not the Holy Ghost but a spirit of divination. It is the Holy Ghost Who stops the saints from going into Asia and, by driving out this spirit of divination, has the saints thrown into prison.

It looks like the Holy Ghost is not a spirit of freedom.

[PAUSE]

At critical times in History, people have lifted their heads and said that there was something in the air. Major revolutions have followed with great turmoil and then sighs of relief. The crowd hails the new spirit of freedom; poems are written; statues are carved; pictures are painted. Until the next revolution, of course. Then a new spirit takes over; poems are censored; statues torn down; paintings are defaced.

And round and round we go.

And we Christians worship a Spirit Who constrains us, stops us from doing what we want,  and will even drive out spirits which mention His Name. Is our God not concerned with our freedom?

[PAUSE]

The girl is possessed by this spirit of divination. It might be speaking the truth but there is no way this poor girl is free. Human beings are not meant to be possessed. She is not free to be herself.

Too often we think that freedom means that we can do what we like. We think that freedom means that there is nothing holding us back from getting our desires. We think freedom means answering to no-one, eating what we want, sleeping with whom we want, and so on.

This is not what God wants. We cannot be free like this because God created us to be what He wants to be. And we don't want to be what He wants us to be.

[PAUSE]

We are like a clock - one of those old fashioned proper clockwork clocks with cogs and gears and hands and weights.

In that clock, there is a special device called the escapement. It regulates the clock and is responsible for the "tick-tock" sound. It consists of a wheel that is attached to the weights and a balance which is attached to the pendulum. The balance regulates the wheel: without it, the wheel would spin freely and the clock would be useless.

Without the wheel, the clock would be stuck.

And we are like the clock.

[PAUSE]

God has created us for His purpose, but we have damaged ourselves. Some of us struggle against God's law and are like a clock which throws out its balance. Our lives spin fast and free, but we cease to be what we are meant to be. We lose our very selves in our own pursuit of happiness.

Some of us become infected by evil spirits so that we become like the clock whose escapement wheel cannot turn. We are stuck, rigid, at the pleasure of the Devil. 

We need both the balance and the wheel in order to function for God and so find true freedom.

[PAUSE]

The balance of the Holy Ghost means that St Paul can't travel into Asia but must suffer imprisonment. As a result of his restrictions, a girl is saved from an evil spirit and a gaoler and his family are brought to Christ. The temporary loss of physical freedom is the tick which results in the tock of the spiritual freedom of others. 

In accepting regulation by the Holy Ghost we operate better as servants of God and find the freedom to do what we are meant to do, just as the clock is meant to tell the time.

[PAUSE]

Too often, what we think is freedom is anything but. False freedom leads to enslavement by our own short-sighted view of reality which leads us to reject God. True freedom accepts limitations so that we become what we are meant to be.

 And God alone tells us what we are meant to be. We are meant to be happy in Him.

Credit where credit is due

Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity

Your job as a waiter in a restaurant is going well. The customers are nice and the chef is just the right side of demanding. The food is good and the company genial.

Just before closing, you approach a man to settle his bill. He takes out his wallet and from it produces a shiny gold credit card. "I have this!" he says proudly, "it's accepted by all the best places!" Immediately, he gets up and tries to leave. 

Has the bill been paid?

[PAUSE]

Of course, you protest that you haven't put the bill onto the card and that just waving the card at you doesn't pay the bill. There has to be sufficient credit on the card in order to pay.

As you run his card through the machine, there is a beep and the card is declined. It doesn't matter how flashy the card is, if there is no credit on it, it is no good.

[PAUSE]

And that's the attitude that the Apostles are up against. They are faced with Jewish Christians saying that, in order to be saved, all men must be circumcised. This is why the very first Council of Jerusalem gets called by St James: how do gentiles become Christian?

St Paul tells us that circumcision availeth nothing and uncircumcision availeth nothing. Using a bodily scar as proof of your salvation is like the shiny credit card. It doesn't work if there is no credit. We cannot expect salvation without a change in our hearts. This is why St Paul tells us to circumcise our hearts.

[PAUSE]

The conclusion of the Council is that gentiles do not need to be circumcised but they do need to live lives of chastity and not eat food sacrificed to idols. For many gentiles in Jerusalem, this will be a big deal because it involves a change in lifestyle. It means turning away from sin and idolatry and towards Christ. These are painful and demanding changes that will put these gentile Christians directly at odds with their culture and their families. It is every bit a commitment to the church as circumcision is to the Jews.

[PAUSE]

It is only in Christ that we are saved from the debt of our sins. He is the credit on our cards: it doesn't matter if those cards are gold-plated or not. Nonetheless, we have to live lives of faith in order to recognise the value of this credit. We will not be saved by outward gimmickry but by knowing and loving God.

[PAUSE]

When the Day of Reckoning happens, will there be enough on your card? How do you know?

Gospel? What a riot!

Sermon for the fifth Sunday after Trinity

No good deed ever goes unpunished.

You've heard that saying and probably have first hand experience as to what it means. All you want to do is a little kind, noble and helpful act of generosity and you end up causing mayhem.

The Apostles certainly feel that way. All Paul and Barnabas want to do is preach the Good News and they manage to cause civil unrest in Iconium. All they want to do is heal the sick and they inadvertently whip up the people into a pagan frenzy. 

But then what would you want to happen? 

What has to happen for things to ran smoothly for once?

[PAUSE]

You approach a town that has never heard of Christ. You preach the Gospel. What then? What do you want to happen?

Ideally, we would want everyone to say, "I believe!" change their lives, build a church, find a priest, and start the business of preaching the Gospel themselves. 

That would be wonderful but it seems too easy. If people are so ready to drop their beliefs for Christianity, what will stop them from dropping Christianity for the next popular religion?

If anything it is the people who resist the most who will take Christianity most seriously. We see this in St Paul, himself. It may look as if St Peter, St James and St John turn to Christ at the drop of a hat, but they do struggle with Jesus' teaching and even abandon Him at His arrest in Gethsemane.

Christianity comes with a struggle.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord points out the reality of preaching in His parable of the sower. Some people just won't get the Gospel at all. Some people will treat it as a fashionable idea. Some people will only hold onto the Gospel for as long as it is convenient. Some will hold onto it, wrestle with it, question it, be hurt by it but will grow and grow and grow so that not only is the good news thoroughly received but will not be lost.

[PAUSE]

The Church has to expect resistance and allow for it. In times of civil unrest, the Church needs to be utterly uncompromising in preaching God's message even though it offends those who have not yet heard what is really being said. Even if preaching the Gospel becomes against the law, it will never be against God's Law provided that it is His Gospel that we preach. Thus even if we are commanded to keep silence, we must follow the Apostles' example and disobey in order to bring the Fact of Everlasting Life in Christ Jesus to a world that needs to hear it. If people see just how committed to the Gospel we are in the face of being countercultural, the more they will realise its importance and relevance.

[PAUSE]

If St Barnabas and St Paul cause riots just by telling people how much God loves them, should we not expect the same and give thanks for it?