What is mockery for?
Monday, August 11, 2025
Saturday, August 09, 2025
Future Tense?
Do you know
that the world
was supposed to end in 2012?
That's according to
an old Mayan calendar.
According to St Malachi
Pope Francis is supposed
to be the last.
Nostradamus
predicts an apocalyptic event
in 1999.
And perhaps you remember
Harold Camping
who very publicly
proclaims the end of the World.
When that doesn't happen
he says he's got his sums wrong
and gives another date.
When the world doesn't end
on that day either,
he says it is a spiritual apocalypse.
Prophets of doom
have an expiry date
when we know whether
they are truly foreseeing the future.
By the fruit of their prophecy
we will know them.
Until then,
we might laugh off
a prediction about the end of the world
but still keep an eye
on the calendar.
But we know that
not all prophets are
as easy to test.
The fruit of a prophet's testimony
always lies in the future.
[PAUSE]
The future is the place
where all our work is tested
and sometimes waiting to see
the outcome of our labours
is uncomfortable.
But it is the prophet of God
whose work will be
most rigorously tested
in the passage of Time.
And that makes it
uncomfortable for us
because we cannot see
whether this prophet is true
or false
for the foreseeable future.
A prophet
may do wonderful deeds now
but turn out to be
a damp squib.
For us with the benefit
of 20-20 hindsight
we can see clearly
that Our Lord's prophecy
is reliable
and that He truly is
the Son of God.
When we think
that His testimony
is snuffed out on the cross,
He rises again
not only proving Himself
to be the Son of God
but also proving the worth
of the Old Testament prophets
who said that He would.
He rises again
according to the Scriptures.
The prophets of the past
though dead
live again
and are proved to be truly
the messengers of God
which is why we,
in their future,
venerate their prophecy
in our Bible.
Our Lord Jesus
in His resurrection
binds up the past, present and future -
Jesus Christ
the same yesterday,
today
and forever.
[PAUSE]
This is important for us.
We are born in time,
haunted by the past
and worried about the future.
Around us are sheep
that have always looked like sheep
but who will be
unmasked by the future
as ravening wolves.
People and institutions
that we thought were good
may turn out to be far from good.
Do we have any way of knowing?
Is there anything
or anyone who can
give us confidence?
Such a one must be
the same yesterday, today
and forever.
[PAUSE]
We don't put our trust
in anyone but Christ.
Even the saints
receptive their trustworthiness
through Christ.
Even Our Lady,
the Queen of Heaven
can only be a true saint
because of her son,
Our Lord.
The Church can only ever be
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
if it is true to the One Lord Jesus Christ,
separated from the World
by His Holiness,
according to the sane Catholic Faith
proclaimed everywhere
by His faithful Apostles
and their successors.
In order to see the future,
we Christians
must hold onto the past,
but we only hold onto the past
in order to sanctify the future.
As Christians,
we embrace past, present and future
altogether.
We might not see the future
but we can be confident
in what is coming
by holding on to what
we have always been taught.
What we Christians see in the future
is the return of Christ,
the judgement of the world
by Him
and the exaltation of
all who believe in Him.
In the future,
we will see the union
of all Christians
because all Christians
will gather at the feet of Christ.
For this reason
we must see the sacraments
as passports to the future.
Our priests aren't ordained
just for now but for ever
after the order of Melchisedek;
our bishops are consecrated
in order to keep the Apostolic line going
for our brothers and sisters yet to come.
And the same is true
of all Christians.
Whatever we do,
we must do it for Christ and,
in doing what we do for Christ,
we are doing it also
for our brothers and sisters yet to come:
the Christians who aren't yet born,
the Christians who will live
long after we are dead and gone,
the Christians we will only meet
at the Resurrection of the Dead.
[PAUSE]
We Christians aren't meant
to live just for now.
Our behaviour shouldn't be
just for pleasures
that seem wonderful now
but are blown into oblivion
on the winds of Time.
Our lives are to be built on
the rock that is Christ
and this means
living faithfully to Him
despite what those winds of Time
blow at us.
We must live
as if we are building something
that we would expect
to be permanent
for God.
If we do,
then we should not find
the future a worry for us
but rather the arena
in which we will meet God
face to face.
Monday, August 04, 2025
Saturday, August 02, 2025
Fishfinger sandwiches
Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity
There is probably
nothing quite as
quintessentially English
as a fishfinger sandwich.
It's a delicacy that
has not really made it
across the Pond
to America
and yet, perhaps,
in a twisted imagination,
just perhaps,
Our Lord feeds the four thousand
with something like
fishfinger sandwiches.
Perhaps this is proof
that Our Lord
really is Anglican!
But then,
perhaps this is
a somewhat spurious
argument.
It does, however,
cause us to wonder
where the fish come
In Our Lord's miracle.
We always hear about bread:
the Bread of Life,
the breaking of bread
leavened and unleavened bread
and so on.
Our Lord consecrates bread
to become His body
in the Eucharist
and the parallels
between the Eucharist
and the feeding of the multitudes
is unmistakable.
But we always seem
to gloss over the fish.
Where do the fish fit in?
[PAUSE]
The multitude have followed
Our Lord into a wilderness
in the Decapolis region
which is not far
from the Sea of Galilee
where Peter, James and John
usually fish.
While bread is a food
that is shared across
so many different communities
and cultures,
fish are usually found
only in fishing communities.
Fish don't travel well
unless they are refrigerated
or dried out in the sun.
The fact that these fish
have survived a few days
in the wilderness
is a miracle in itself.
Yet, here too,
the fish are multiplied
for people to eat,
and they clearly eat well.
It is a food
that they are used to.
But still, the question remains:
If the feeding of the multitude
is supposed to be a clear pointer
of the Eucharist,
and if we have bread at the Eucharist,
why do we not have fish as well?
[PAUSE]
Put simply,
it's because
there were no fish
at the Passover.
And Our Lord
fulfils the Passover
when He offers us His Body and Blood
under the appearance
of bread and wine
which are associated
with the Passover,
Our Lord Himself being
the Paschal Lamb.
No fish.
So what does this detail
told to us by St Mark
tell us
that the multitude are fed with fish?
Why are the fish
important for us to know about?
[PAUSE]
In our Mass,
you will be aware
of the Offertory.
It's when the priest
takes the host
and the wine
and offers them up.
What else happens?
Isn't the collection
of money offered up too?
It's what we bring to Jesus
that gets offered up
and sanctified.
We do the same sort of thing
in our Harvest Festivals.
We bring our produce
to God to give thanks
and for that produce to be blessed.
And the fish are
the produce of Galilee.
They are offered to God
Who blesses them
and then magnifies them
to feed so many people.
It's what we bring to Christ
that matters.
We offer Him bread
and He makes it His body.
We offer Him wine
and He makes it His blood.
We offer Him fish
and four thousand people
are fed good food.
It's what we bring to Christ
that matters.
We only get anything out of the Mass
if we have put something in.
If we leave Church
feeling uninspired
or grumpy
or indifferent,
is it because we did not
bring anything with us
for Christ to sanctify?
Did we forget
to offer ourselves
to God
to be made Holy
to be distributed for
the good of all people?
We only get out of the Mass
what we are willing
to invest in it.
If we don't even bring ourselves
to be sanctified
then the Mass will be
just as much as a desert
but without the miracle.
We can receive
the Body and Blood of God
but if we only offer indifference
to Him,
we will only receive indifference
in abundance.
[PAUSE]
The fish represent
ourselves,
our situations,
our cultures,
our homes and families,
our daily lives.
If we offer these to God,
He will bless them and use them.
If He can consecrate
a fishfinger sandwich,
how much more
will He consecrate us
in His service
and in His love?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
