It’s quite a few years since I actually spoke about vocations to the priesthood on this day. There have been a variety of reasons for this, not least of which was the fact there are so many things I could say on a subject which has been so central to my whole life since the age of twelve and about which I have so many thoughts that I could never have done them justice in one homily. This year, however, I would like to say something, a decision that grew out of the retreat I gave last week to a group of nuns in South Wales.
They were sisters of St Joseph of Annecy, and what makes them significant for me is that I first met them fifty years ago this year when, at the unbelievably tender age of twelve, instead of coming here to St Joseph’s Academy, where I would have met some of you, I went to Blairs College, the then National Junior Seminary near Aberdeen. How all that came about is another story, but in Blairs I met the Sisters of St Joseph who did all the domestic work in the college. Even now, I squirm at the thought of it. They were just skivvies who, among other things, polished the priests’ shoes. I remember one particular nun who spent fifty years in Blairs peeling potatoes every day to feed around 200 boys and fifteen or so priests. And so being with these sisters stirs all kinds of memories for me.
That was particularly true last Wednesday, however, during the final Mass of the retreat. As we came to the moment of the Consecration I was suddenly back at the 5th of September 1957, sitting in the corner of a train compartment in the old Buchanan Street railway station in Glasgow. It was 2.10. in the afternoon as the train moved slowly away and I watched my Mum and Dad disappear into the distance. It was an important and traumatic moment in my life, but, as the memories flooded back, the years just flashed before me and I was filled with a sense of amazement at all that had happened to that little boy in the fifty years since; how much I have changed, how good God has been and how much I have learned about priests and priesthood. And it was then that I knew I had to say something about vocations this weekend.
When I arrived in Blairs in 1957, priests, of whom I had only known two in my life, were almost like supernatural beings to me. I remember being both amazed and horrified by the way the other boys referred to the staff by their nicknames. The idea of calling any priest by his first name, let alone old baldy or big cheesie, shocked me. I was sure it was at least a mortal sin and for months after arriving was afraid to do it myself in case one of the priests would hear me and I would be expelled. Since then, of course, I have called priests all kinds of things and have got well-used to picking up the paper and reading all kinds of stories, some true and some untrue. One of my fellow-students in Blairs in 1957 was Gerry Nugent, the priest who has figured in the trial of the man accused of killing the polish girl in Glasgow. Who knows how he got to where he is today, but he was a good lad when I knew him and whatever has happened over the years could only be explained by someone able to understand the long-term effects that that experience had on some individuals.
And it was the same with the Church. As a child the Church was beyond all reproach in my mind. It was the fountain of all truth and all goodness, an illusion which laster longer than the one I had about priests being perfect beings. But it, too, fell apart over the years, as I was gradually initiated into the reality of Church life and saw close at hand what actually goes on. There are things about the Church that I hate and detest. Some of the things I have witnesed over the years have horrified me and continue to do so. There are times when I wonder why I remain part of such a dysfunctional organisation. And yet at no time over the years has there been even the remotest chance of my not doing so. And I heard another priest recently give an explanation for this. He is parish priest of St Charles Borromeo parish in Madrid and has been in the News recently, even over here. The parish has, for years now, been deeply involved with the poor of Madrid; drug addicts, prostitutes, immigrants, asylum seekers and so on. Recently, however, someone has reported them to the Vatican for not saying Mass properly. The priests among other things apparently, don’t wear vestments. And so the Archbishop of Madrid has been under pressure to close the parish down. And on Spanish TV a couple of weeks ago I saw an interview with the parish priest who was asked by a journalist why he didn’t leave the Church, as so many other people in Spain are doing. And his reply was so simple. He looked at her and said very gently; ‘I am a Spaniard. Many things go on in Spain that I don’t like. But I don’t stop being a Spaniard.’
Many things have happened to me, too, since 1957 when I first met those sisters I was with last week. Some of it has not been good, and yet, in the end, I would not change any of it. Overall, being a priest in the Catholic Church has been and remains for me the most wonderful experience of God’s goodness and power at work in the midst of human weakness, and on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the priesthood I have no difficulty in recommending it. Having said that, I would want to be careful. As with any other walk of life, not least marriage, there are many things that can go wrong. To survive in the Church today, whether as a committed lay person or a priest, you need to be free of the kind of naivety which very quickly leads to loss of faith when it confronts the harsh reality of what the Church and those in it can be like. There is no place here for fantasy or illusion. To survive as a priest in the Church today a person would need a faith that is robust and virtually unshockable, but if you are such a person or know somebody who is – provided, of course, you are male and single – go for it.
It has been very good to me.
BIDDING PRAYERS
We begin today by praying for all the priests in our own diocese, that God will fill them with joy and enthusiasm for their ministry. We pray in a particular way for those who struggle to cope with the realities of life in the Church at this moment in its history. We ask God to stir in them a profound sense of hope for the future, a hope which others will see in them and which will help them in their turn to be men and women of faith at this sometimes difficult time……………………….….Lord hear us
As the number of priests in our diocese continues to fall, more and more parishes are being left without a resident priest. Here in Kilmarnock, it is only a matter of time – and possibly a very short time - before we, too, will have to come to terms with this reality. And so we pray that, as this happens, we will respond to the challenge and finally begin to implement the Second Vatican Council’s vison of a Church filled with mature, committed and active lay men and women………………...Lord hear us
We pray, too, on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood that God will raise up among us men, young and not so young, who will give serious consideration to the possibility of entering a seminary and perhaps becoming priests in a few years time. We pray, too, for those who have already done this and are currently in the process of training and formation, that God will give them the grace they need to discern his will for them………………….………………....Lord hear us
Over the years, many good priests have, for all kinds of reasons, chosen to leave the priesthood. And so we pray for them today, that, whatever path they have chosen to follow, it will lead them to God. We pray in a very special way, however, for those who, in the process of leaving were often deeply hurt and have, as a consequence, lost contact with the people they served, sometimes for many years….…Lord hear us
There are many questions surrounding the way the Church thinks of priesthood today. Many people argue for a married priesthood. Others campaign for the ordination of women. And so we ask God to give the whole Church at this moment in its long history the wisdom it needs to develop an understanding of priesthood fit for the age in which we live………………..Lord hear us
Every single one of us, of course, shares in the priesthood of Jesus through baptism. We are a priestly people, called to reach out to the world. And so we pray for the wisdom and openness we need to understand this and the courage to implement it for the sake of the men and women of our time, leaving behind the internal politics and petty disputes, so often rooted in jealousy, which we heard about in the first reading and which bedevil the Church in every age………………………………Lord hear us
.
Saturday, 28 April 2007
4th Sunday of Easter. (Vocations Sunday)
We begin today by praying for all the priests in our own diocese, that God will fill them with joy and enthusiasm for their ministry. We pray in a particular way for those who struggle to cope with the realities of life in the Church at this moment in its history. We ask God to stir in them a profound sense of hope for the future, a hope which others will see in them and which will help them in their turn to be men and women of faith at this sometimes difficult time……………………….….Lord hear us
As the number of priests in our diocese continues to fall, more and more parishes are being left without a resident priest. Here in Kilmarnock, it is only a matter of time – and possibly a very short time - before we, too, will have to come to terms with this reality. And so we pray that, as this happens, we will respond to the challenge and finally begin to implement the Second Vatican Council’s vison of a Church filled with mature, committed and active lay men and women………………...Lord hear us
We pray, too, on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood that God will raise up among us men, young and not so young, who will give serious consideration to the possibility of entering a seminary and perhaps becoming priests in a few years time. We pray, too, for those who have already done this and are currently in the process of training and formation, that God will give them the grace they need to discern his will for them………………….………………....Lord hear us
Over the years, many good priests have, for all kinds of reasons, chosen to leave the priesthood. And so we pray for them today, that, whatever path they have chosen to follow, it will lead them to God. We pray in a very special way, however, for those who, in the process of leaving were often deeply hurt and have, as a consequence, lost contact with the people they served, sometimes for many years….…Lord hear us
There are many questions surrounding the way the Church thinks of priesthood today. Many people argue for a married priesthood. Others campaign for the ordination of women. And so we ask God to give the whole Church at this moment in its long history the wisdom it needs to develop an understanding of priesthood fit for the age in which we live…………………………………………………………..Lord hear us
Every single one of us, of course, shares in the priesthood of Jesus through baptism. We are a priestly people, called to reach out to the world. And so we pray for the wisdom and openness we need to understand this and the courage to implement it for the sake of the men and women of our time, leaving behind the internal politics and petty disputes, so often rooted in jealousy, which we heard about in the first reading and which bedevil the Church in every age………………………………Lord hear us
Now let us be silent for a few moments……………………….
.
As the number of priests in our diocese continues to fall, more and more parishes are being left without a resident priest. Here in Kilmarnock, it is only a matter of time – and possibly a very short time - before we, too, will have to come to terms with this reality. And so we pray that, as this happens, we will respond to the challenge and finally begin to implement the Second Vatican Council’s vison of a Church filled with mature, committed and active lay men and women………………...Lord hear us
We pray, too, on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood that God will raise up among us men, young and not so young, who will give serious consideration to the possibility of entering a seminary and perhaps becoming priests in a few years time. We pray, too, for those who have already done this and are currently in the process of training and formation, that God will give them the grace they need to discern his will for them………………….………………....Lord hear us
Over the years, many good priests have, for all kinds of reasons, chosen to leave the priesthood. And so we pray for them today, that, whatever path they have chosen to follow, it will lead them to God. We pray in a very special way, however, for those who, in the process of leaving were often deeply hurt and have, as a consequence, lost contact with the people they served, sometimes for many years….…Lord hear us
There are many questions surrounding the way the Church thinks of priesthood today. Many people argue for a married priesthood. Others campaign for the ordination of women. And so we ask God to give the whole Church at this moment in its long history the wisdom it needs to develop an understanding of priesthood fit for the age in which we live…………………………………………………………..Lord hear us
Every single one of us, of course, shares in the priesthood of Jesus through baptism. We are a priestly people, called to reach out to the world. And so we pray for the wisdom and openness we need to understand this and the courage to implement it for the sake of the men and women of our time, leaving behind the internal politics and petty disputes, so often rooted in jealousy, which we heard about in the first reading and which bedevil the Church in every age………………………………Lord hear us
Now let us be silent for a few moments……………………….
.
Saturday, 14 April 2007
Second Sunday of Easter 2007
With his demand for scientific, verifiable, hands-on evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection – unless I can see the holes that the nails made and can put my finger into the holes they made – the Thomas we meet in today’s Gospel is every inch the modern man. In his 21st century form he is a product of what historians call The Enlightenment, and unless we can begin to understand what that means we will never appreciate the nature of the challenge facing people of faith in the world today. Last Tuesday I gave a short retreat to the students in Scotus College, the national seminary, and at the end of it one of the students, Philip Kitchen, gave me a book by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canturbury, entitled Why Study the Past? And his answer, not suroprisingly, is that, unless we do so, we will never understand the present, something that concerns many of us today as young people study less and less history at school. So what is The Enlightenment. what does it have to do with Thomas and how does knowing the answer to these two questions help us today?
Well, The Enlightenment, is an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries which emphasized reason over and against what its exponents saw, not unreasonably, as the irrationality and superstition of previous ages. It was part of the new scientific revolution going on at the time and, with its emphasis on reason, one of the things it did was bring many thinking individuals into conflict with the traditional religious ideas which had dominated Europe for centuries. It was heavily influenced by people like Descartes of I think therefore I am fame and Sir Isaac Newton on whose head the apple had fallen, one of its main exponents being the well known Scotsman, Adam Smith, along with people like Voltaire, Immanuel Kant and Jean Jacques Rousseau. And like all philosophers, their thinking has deeply influenced us without our realising it. My friend Eddie, for example will often say to me ‘There’s a scientific explanation for everything, Squire,’ making him, whether he realises it or not, the classic enlightenment man.
At the time, of course, many of the philosophers concerned were religious people, but gradually, as time passed, the new science came more and more into conflict with the Churches. Largely, this was because people in the Churches did what people in Churches always seem to do. They resisted the new ideas, thinking they were dangerous and would undermine the faith of ordinary people. There was, in fact, no need to do this. The very opposite was the case, the classic example being the reaction of some Church-going people later to the discoveries of Darwin. What Darwin and others were saying was not in conflict with faith - only with a limited and very often false understanding of it - but those who could see this were not listened to and the result in our day has been the perceived but actually non-existant conflict between science and faith which has led to mass-atheism. Like Thomas, millions today demand proof. Unless they can see the holes that the nails made and can put their fingers into the hole, then they refuse to believe. They see faith as a continuation of the irrationality and superstition which preceded the Enlightenment and it is our job to engage with them and help them move beyond this limited understanding of history into yet another new age, the Age of Mysticism.
Several times over Lent and Easter I quoted the Irish Jesuit, William Johnston, a man who has spent many years working in Japan exploring the links between the spiritualities of East and West. And speaking of the Church today, he says: ‘We must give the people mysticism or die,’ words which sum up my own deepest conviction after nearly forty years as a priest. Faced with The Enlightenment, the Churches failed the men and women of that time. We must not do the same now. Science and reason along with the technology they have given birth to are God’s gifts and they have brought great benefits to humanity. But they have brought problems, too; like global warming and the threat of nuclear destruction. And so we need a new way of thinking, a new form of knowledge which enables us to move beyond the limits and shortcomings of this latest in a long line of Ages. That new way is mature, adult faith and the way to reach is through mysticism. And on a day when we are quoting philosophers I’ll quote one more. He is the french mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal who, as I have mentioned many times before, wrote about faith as the highest form of knowledge available to humanity. Reason can go so far. It has achieved much and will continue to do so, but, since it is our reasoning and we are, by nature, limited, the fullness of truth will always be beyond it. Only through faith, the highest form of knowledge, can we leap beyond the limits of our own understanding and begin to see truths otherwise unknowable by us. And we do this through mysticism which is nothing more complicated than an openness to the truth that God reveals to us directly, not through our reason, but through moments of clarity and insight either in prayer or. as is more often the case, at times when we least expect it in daily life.
When this happens, it is to know God rather have have just heard about him. It is a deep interior knowledge which, unlike the knowledge that comes through reasoning, cannot be communicated directly to others. Each of us has to go to the well of our own life-experience and look for it and wait for it there. And the person who has done so, who knows God through personal experience and has met the Risen Jesus in the midst of daily life, in good times and in bad, no longer has any need to see the holes that the nails made. The knowledge they have now is of a much deeper kind than that. It lives, not in our heads, but in a much much deeper part of ourselves. It belongs to that place where our very deepest convictions lie, the place where we know things to be true in a way that goes far beyond reason, and I invite each one of you to visit that place this weekend and see what answer you find there to the question facing us this morning. Is Jesus risen or not? ……. And if your answer is ‘yes,’ then it is not flesh and blood that has revealed this to you but your Father in heaven.
BIDDING PRAYERS
Our world today is filled with signs that the men and women of our time are longing for the dawn of a new age. We can see that something is wrong with the world, that things need to change, and yet we either don’t know what to do about it or are unwilling to face the sacrifices that would be involved. And so we pray for the grace we need to be open to all that God is struggling to do in the world at this difficult moment in its history……...Lord hear us
Reason and intelligence are God’s great gifts to humanity, signs that we are indeed created in his own image and likeness. But we are also free and, as a result, have not always used well the things we have made. We are a very advanced society technologically and yet, like children playing with dangerous toys, we are in danger of destroying ourselves. And so we pray for the world of our time that it will have the maturity it needs to live with the fruits of its own inventiveness…………Lord hear us
As we stand on the threshold of a new age of mysticism, God is at work far beyond the limits of the traditional churches. We can discern his hand at work in what we call nowadays The New Age Movement, and many of us grew up in a pop culture which held out the promise of the Age of Aquarius, a time when all things would come together in harmony and peace. Many of these things are pagan in their origin, but we can discern the movement of God’s Spirit even there and pray that those involved will come to see that Jesus is the real answer to these longings…..Lord hear us
The longing for something new is part of our drug problem today. Disillusioned with a world trapped in the limitations of reason, many people experience a sense of despair from which drugs seem to offer an escape. But it is an illusion and the drugs only make things worse, pushing their victims into even more self-destruction. And so we pray for all who are caught in this trap that, with God’s help, they may escape from it…….Lord hear us
Even among Christians today faith in the Resurrection is under threat. Unable to see the holes that the nails made and touch the holes they made, many, like Thomas, doubt, a situation that is often complicated by serious misunderstandings of the what it is Christians actually believe. And so we ask God to lead us into an understanding of the Resurrection fit for our time….Lord hear us
We are all called to be mystics. Mysticism is not something reserved to a few saints living in monasteries and convents. God longs to reveal himself to each one of us in a deep and personal way. And so we pray for the openness we need to make ourselves available to him through prayer and regular reflection on whatever is going on in our lives……………….Lord hear us
Well, The Enlightenment, is an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries which emphasized reason over and against what its exponents saw, not unreasonably, as the irrationality and superstition of previous ages. It was part of the new scientific revolution going on at the time and, with its emphasis on reason, one of the things it did was bring many thinking individuals into conflict with the traditional religious ideas which had dominated Europe for centuries. It was heavily influenced by people like Descartes of I think therefore I am fame and Sir Isaac Newton on whose head the apple had fallen, one of its main exponents being the well known Scotsman, Adam Smith, along with people like Voltaire, Immanuel Kant and Jean Jacques Rousseau. And like all philosophers, their thinking has deeply influenced us without our realising it. My friend Eddie, for example will often say to me ‘There’s a scientific explanation for everything, Squire,’ making him, whether he realises it or not, the classic enlightenment man.
At the time, of course, many of the philosophers concerned were religious people, but gradually, as time passed, the new science came more and more into conflict with the Churches. Largely, this was because people in the Churches did what people in Churches always seem to do. They resisted the new ideas, thinking they were dangerous and would undermine the faith of ordinary people. There was, in fact, no need to do this. The very opposite was the case, the classic example being the reaction of some Church-going people later to the discoveries of Darwin. What Darwin and others were saying was not in conflict with faith - only with a limited and very often false understanding of it - but those who could see this were not listened to and the result in our day has been the perceived but actually non-existant conflict between science and faith which has led to mass-atheism. Like Thomas, millions today demand proof. Unless they can see the holes that the nails made and can put their fingers into the hole, then they refuse to believe. They see faith as a continuation of the irrationality and superstition which preceded the Enlightenment and it is our job to engage with them and help them move beyond this limited understanding of history into yet another new age, the Age of Mysticism.
Several times over Lent and Easter I quoted the Irish Jesuit, William Johnston, a man who has spent many years working in Japan exploring the links between the spiritualities of East and West. And speaking of the Church today, he says: ‘We must give the people mysticism or die,’ words which sum up my own deepest conviction after nearly forty years as a priest. Faced with The Enlightenment, the Churches failed the men and women of that time. We must not do the same now. Science and reason along with the technology they have given birth to are God’s gifts and they have brought great benefits to humanity. But they have brought problems, too; like global warming and the threat of nuclear destruction. And so we need a new way of thinking, a new form of knowledge which enables us to move beyond the limits and shortcomings of this latest in a long line of Ages. That new way is mature, adult faith and the way to reach is through mysticism. And on a day when we are quoting philosophers I’ll quote one more. He is the french mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal who, as I have mentioned many times before, wrote about faith as the highest form of knowledge available to humanity. Reason can go so far. It has achieved much and will continue to do so, but, since it is our reasoning and we are, by nature, limited, the fullness of truth will always be beyond it. Only through faith, the highest form of knowledge, can we leap beyond the limits of our own understanding and begin to see truths otherwise unknowable by us. And we do this through mysticism which is nothing more complicated than an openness to the truth that God reveals to us directly, not through our reason, but through moments of clarity and insight either in prayer or. as is more often the case, at times when we least expect it in daily life.
When this happens, it is to know God rather have have just heard about him. It is a deep interior knowledge which, unlike the knowledge that comes through reasoning, cannot be communicated directly to others. Each of us has to go to the well of our own life-experience and look for it and wait for it there. And the person who has done so, who knows God through personal experience and has met the Risen Jesus in the midst of daily life, in good times and in bad, no longer has any need to see the holes that the nails made. The knowledge they have now is of a much deeper kind than that. It lives, not in our heads, but in a much much deeper part of ourselves. It belongs to that place where our very deepest convictions lie, the place where we know things to be true in a way that goes far beyond reason, and I invite each one of you to visit that place this weekend and see what answer you find there to the question facing us this morning. Is Jesus risen or not? ……. And if your answer is ‘yes,’ then it is not flesh and blood that has revealed this to you but your Father in heaven.
BIDDING PRAYERS
Our world today is filled with signs that the men and women of our time are longing for the dawn of a new age. We can see that something is wrong with the world, that things need to change, and yet we either don’t know what to do about it or are unwilling to face the sacrifices that would be involved. And so we pray for the grace we need to be open to all that God is struggling to do in the world at this difficult moment in its history……...Lord hear us
Reason and intelligence are God’s great gifts to humanity, signs that we are indeed created in his own image and likeness. But we are also free and, as a result, have not always used well the things we have made. We are a very advanced society technologically and yet, like children playing with dangerous toys, we are in danger of destroying ourselves. And so we pray for the world of our time that it will have the maturity it needs to live with the fruits of its own inventiveness…………Lord hear us
As we stand on the threshold of a new age of mysticism, God is at work far beyond the limits of the traditional churches. We can discern his hand at work in what we call nowadays The New Age Movement, and many of us grew up in a pop culture which held out the promise of the Age of Aquarius, a time when all things would come together in harmony and peace. Many of these things are pagan in their origin, but we can discern the movement of God’s Spirit even there and pray that those involved will come to see that Jesus is the real answer to these longings…..Lord hear us
The longing for something new is part of our drug problem today. Disillusioned with a world trapped in the limitations of reason, many people experience a sense of despair from which drugs seem to offer an escape. But it is an illusion and the drugs only make things worse, pushing their victims into even more self-destruction. And so we pray for all who are caught in this trap that, with God’s help, they may escape from it…….Lord hear us
Even among Christians today faith in the Resurrection is under threat. Unable to see the holes that the nails made and touch the holes they made, many, like Thomas, doubt, a situation that is often complicated by serious misunderstandings of the what it is Christians actually believe. And so we ask God to lead us into an understanding of the Resurrection fit for our time….Lord hear us
We are all called to be mystics. Mysticism is not something reserved to a few saints living in monasteries and convents. God longs to reveal himself to each one of us in a deep and personal way. And so we pray for the openness we need to make ourselves available to him through prayer and regular reflection on whatever is going on in our lives……………….Lord hear us
Sunday, 8 April 2007
Easter Sunday April 2007
The role of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in the christian life has been our theme all through Lent and Holy Week and it’s also the key to understanding Easter. The Resurrection is not just about Jesus rising from the dead. It’s also about the new life we ourselves are called to live as a result of the Resurrection. The second reading last night talked about us being dead to sin and alive to God. Today’s reading talked about making ourselves into a completely new batch of bread and getting rid of the old yeast of evil and wickedness. But what does all this mean? It’s one thing to say that we are an Easter people, but what’s that? How would you recognize such a people and how do we know we are one? Well, the answer lies in evidence that our prayer, fasting and almsgiving are bearing fruit in our lives. So what is this fruit?
Well, the prayer we talked about was not the prayer that asks for things; intercessory prayer as it is called. It was contemplative prayer, the prayer that transforms us from within and so transfigures the way we see the world and everything in it. It’s the prayer that leads us beyond the superficial into the depths of things and there are certain infallible signs of its presence in a person’s life. And the first of these is gratitude. There is no more certain sign of the presence of God in our lives than gratitude. A person moved by the Spirit of the Risen Jesus is one who is grateful for so many things. He or she is grateful for life itself and for the gift of creation. All kinds of things will happen over the years, some joyful and some sad, but through it all there will be a deep sense of gratitude to God for his presence in everything and a firm conviction that, in the end, even if it were possible to do so, we would not change any of it. Not for such a person the pessimism, bitterness and resentment which blight so many lives and spoil the one chance at living each of us has been given by God. And from this fundamental position of gratitude flows the other great sign of the Resurrection, joy. And so the question facing us this Easter is whether we can see in ourselves evidence of this gratitude and this joy. They are not the kind that lie on the surface but are rooted instead on a deep conviction that, when seen through the transfiguring eyes of faith, life is good, the world is good and people are good. So is that how we see it or are we still trapped in the darkness of the tomb, unable to see the goodness in all things that God saw in the story of creation, heard by millions all over the world last night at the Easter Vigil.
And then there was fasting, penance, self-denial or whatever name you like to give it. We saw how it was designed to deal with a conflict that goes on inside every human being and expressed so powerfully by St Paul when he struggles to understand why he keeps doing the things he doesn’t want to do and not doing the things he does want to do. This is the never-ending tug-of-war between what is best in ourselves and what is worst. As human beings we are capable of great good and great evil, and one of the signs of the Resurrection at work in us is that the good in us, or, more accurately, the God in us, is winning that battle. When we were baptized, St Paul told us last night at the Easter Vigil, we went into the tomb with Jesus so that, as he rose from the dead, we might live a new life in him. That new life is the way of the Gospel and it involves a huge revolution in the way we think. It means moving beyond human logic and human ways of thinking and learning, through the Spirit, to live according to the teaching of Jesus. And so the question facing us more starkly today than on any other day is whether we believe in the Gospel or not. We know what it says. We know that it’s about loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us and so on. We have heard it all a thousand times. But do we believe it? Has it taken root in our hearts? Is it what we desire and long for? Or, when the crunch comes, do we live our lives by another set of standards entirely? On the answer to that question hangs our whole lives.
And so we came to almsgiving, shorthand for the openness and generosity of heart which will characterise anyone who is being moved by the Spirit of the Risen Jesus. We saw signs of it in the second reading, in the words Peter speaks to Cornelius and his household in chapter ten of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter was a Jew, trapped in the limitations of Jewish thinking. But in chapter ten of Acts he has a vision which blows his mind. St Luke, the author of Acts, tells how the law forbade a Jew to mix with people of another race but how Peter, his whole view of the world now transfigured by the vision, reaches out to Cornelius and his family. And so it will be for any man or woman of the Resurrection. Led by the Spirit, our hearts will open up and expand to welcome and embrace every human being on the face of the earth. Like the early Church reaching out into the pagan world, we will reach beyond the barriers which separate human beings one from another. The Church itself, present in every continent and in every country, is a sign of this and each local christian community, like our own, is called to be a sign of it too in its local area. And so to be an Easter people is to be an open people, a welcoming people, a generous people, a people with its arms extended to embrace the world and love it the way God loves it.
Grateful; joyful; revolutionary; faith-filled; open; generous; welcoming; universal; these are the qualities we will find in any individual or community filled with the Spirit of the Risen Jesus. This is what it means to be an Easter People, a people of the Resurrection. It doesn’t come easily. Resurrection is only possible after death as we die to what is not of God in us so that something new can be born. What gives me joy this Easter and makes me feel grateful is that I believe we are engaged in that struggle.
The death and Resurrection of Jesus is either the most important event in human history or the greatest lie ever told. There is no middle way. If it is not true, then we are wasting our time here. But if it is true, it is the key to understanding everything that happens in the world. And so we pray for the grace we need to confront this choice openly and honestly this Easter and decide where we stand on it.……..Lord hear us
The process of death and resurrection is the most basic law of creation. The cosmos itself is in a constant process of death and new life. And so we ask God to open our minds to recognize how this same process has been at work in our individual lives and to stir in us a deep sense of gratitude for the presence of God in everything that has happened to us since the day and hour we were born……………… ..Lord hear us
The best in us is very very good and the worst in us very very bad. To be men and women of the Resurrection is to be people deeply engaged in the process of dying to what is bad and being born every day to what is good. This means doing what Jesus did throughout his Passion, which was to live out of the deeper part of himself and move beyond his more superficial feelings and desires. And so we pray for the courage and commitment we need to do this……………………………..Lord hear us
Throughout the world this Easter many thousands of people are being baptized or, in the case of those already baptized in another christian denomination, received into full communion with the Church. And so we pray for them, especially those here in our own diocese. We pray that we will be a Church worthy of them where their faith can deepen and grow and that they will learn to live with our many faults and failings.……Lord hear us
Jesus came into the world so that we should have life and have it to the full. This means entering deeply into whatever experiences life brings and finding God in them. Some will be happy, some sad. There will be a time for laughter and a time for tears. But we pray that, in the very deepest part of ourselves, in good times and in bad, we will experience gratitude and joy rooted in Easter and the Resurrection ……………………….Lord hear us
For millions in today’s world, Easter means nothing. It is no more than a time for going on holiday or eating chocolate. And so we pray for the men and women of our time, that they will rediscover the meaning of this great feast through their contact with individuals and communities of faith. We pray that we will not fail them by the lukewarm nature of our faith and our failure to live authentic christian lives based on the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels………………………………………Lord hear us
Well, the prayer we talked about was not the prayer that asks for things; intercessory prayer as it is called. It was contemplative prayer, the prayer that transforms us from within and so transfigures the way we see the world and everything in it. It’s the prayer that leads us beyond the superficial into the depths of things and there are certain infallible signs of its presence in a person’s life. And the first of these is gratitude. There is no more certain sign of the presence of God in our lives than gratitude. A person moved by the Spirit of the Risen Jesus is one who is grateful for so many things. He or she is grateful for life itself and for the gift of creation. All kinds of things will happen over the years, some joyful and some sad, but through it all there will be a deep sense of gratitude to God for his presence in everything and a firm conviction that, in the end, even if it were possible to do so, we would not change any of it. Not for such a person the pessimism, bitterness and resentment which blight so many lives and spoil the one chance at living each of us has been given by God. And from this fundamental position of gratitude flows the other great sign of the Resurrection, joy. And so the question facing us this Easter is whether we can see in ourselves evidence of this gratitude and this joy. They are not the kind that lie on the surface but are rooted instead on a deep conviction that, when seen through the transfiguring eyes of faith, life is good, the world is good and people are good. So is that how we see it or are we still trapped in the darkness of the tomb, unable to see the goodness in all things that God saw in the story of creation, heard by millions all over the world last night at the Easter Vigil.
And then there was fasting, penance, self-denial or whatever name you like to give it. We saw how it was designed to deal with a conflict that goes on inside every human being and expressed so powerfully by St Paul when he struggles to understand why he keeps doing the things he doesn’t want to do and not doing the things he does want to do. This is the never-ending tug-of-war between what is best in ourselves and what is worst. As human beings we are capable of great good and great evil, and one of the signs of the Resurrection at work in us is that the good in us, or, more accurately, the God in us, is winning that battle. When we were baptized, St Paul told us last night at the Easter Vigil, we went into the tomb with Jesus so that, as he rose from the dead, we might live a new life in him. That new life is the way of the Gospel and it involves a huge revolution in the way we think. It means moving beyond human logic and human ways of thinking and learning, through the Spirit, to live according to the teaching of Jesus. And so the question facing us more starkly today than on any other day is whether we believe in the Gospel or not. We know what it says. We know that it’s about loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us and so on. We have heard it all a thousand times. But do we believe it? Has it taken root in our hearts? Is it what we desire and long for? Or, when the crunch comes, do we live our lives by another set of standards entirely? On the answer to that question hangs our whole lives.
And so we came to almsgiving, shorthand for the openness and generosity of heart which will characterise anyone who is being moved by the Spirit of the Risen Jesus. We saw signs of it in the second reading, in the words Peter speaks to Cornelius and his household in chapter ten of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter was a Jew, trapped in the limitations of Jewish thinking. But in chapter ten of Acts he has a vision which blows his mind. St Luke, the author of Acts, tells how the law forbade a Jew to mix with people of another race but how Peter, his whole view of the world now transfigured by the vision, reaches out to Cornelius and his family. And so it will be for any man or woman of the Resurrection. Led by the Spirit, our hearts will open up and expand to welcome and embrace every human being on the face of the earth. Like the early Church reaching out into the pagan world, we will reach beyond the barriers which separate human beings one from another. The Church itself, present in every continent and in every country, is a sign of this and each local christian community, like our own, is called to be a sign of it too in its local area. And so to be an Easter people is to be an open people, a welcoming people, a generous people, a people with its arms extended to embrace the world and love it the way God loves it.
Grateful; joyful; revolutionary; faith-filled; open; generous; welcoming; universal; these are the qualities we will find in any individual or community filled with the Spirit of the Risen Jesus. This is what it means to be an Easter People, a people of the Resurrection. It doesn’t come easily. Resurrection is only possible after death as we die to what is not of God in us so that something new can be born. What gives me joy this Easter and makes me feel grateful is that I believe we are engaged in that struggle.
The death and Resurrection of Jesus is either the most important event in human history or the greatest lie ever told. There is no middle way. If it is not true, then we are wasting our time here. But if it is true, it is the key to understanding everything that happens in the world. And so we pray for the grace we need to confront this choice openly and honestly this Easter and decide where we stand on it.……..Lord hear us
The process of death and resurrection is the most basic law of creation. The cosmos itself is in a constant process of death and new life. And so we ask God to open our minds to recognize how this same process has been at work in our individual lives and to stir in us a deep sense of gratitude for the presence of God in everything that has happened to us since the day and hour we were born……………… ..Lord hear us
The best in us is very very good and the worst in us very very bad. To be men and women of the Resurrection is to be people deeply engaged in the process of dying to what is bad and being born every day to what is good. This means doing what Jesus did throughout his Passion, which was to live out of the deeper part of himself and move beyond his more superficial feelings and desires. And so we pray for the courage and commitment we need to do this……………………………..Lord hear us
Throughout the world this Easter many thousands of people are being baptized or, in the case of those already baptized in another christian denomination, received into full communion with the Church. And so we pray for them, especially those here in our own diocese. We pray that we will be a Church worthy of them where their faith can deepen and grow and that they will learn to live with our many faults and failings.……Lord hear us
Jesus came into the world so that we should have life and have it to the full. This means entering deeply into whatever experiences life brings and finding God in them. Some will be happy, some sad. There will be a time for laughter and a time for tears. But we pray that, in the very deepest part of ourselves, in good times and in bad, we will experience gratitude and joy rooted in Easter and the Resurrection ……………………….Lord hear us
For millions in today’s world, Easter means nothing. It is no more than a time for going on holiday or eating chocolate. And so we pray for the men and women of our time, that they will rediscover the meaning of this great feast through their contact with individuals and communities of faith. We pray that we will not fail them by the lukewarm nature of our faith and our failure to live authentic christian lives based on the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels………………………………………Lord hear us
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