Paul's Reflections homily..28th Feb 2010 Second Sunday of Lent - C

28th Feb 2010      Second Sunday of Lent - C

 

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This weekend’s gospel of the Transfiguration of the Lord, is a wonderful reminder that God’s glory is around us all the time…   in the people and events of life…..  but it is not always as obvious as this moment that Jesus experienced… where his face shone like light….. 

 

We have all had highpoint moments…  when something special happens to us in our lives and its as thought the veil between this life and the next is parted and we glimpse heaven… and a tast of God’s wonder……   but then those moments are gone and we are back to the everyday events of life. But those highpoint moments are there to spur us on and to remind us that God’s glory is always present…. The spiritual writer Thomas Merton puts it this way…  “every one of us walks around the streets of this town shining like the sun….  if only we knew it…. “ If only we realised it……

 

There is a line in one of the scripture commentaries that I really like….  It says…   Jesus would never do anything without his Father’s approval…   This seems such an obvious statement, but it sparked something in me….   OF COURSE he would only ever do his Heavenly Father’s will… and would not do one thing that was not according to The Father’s plan…….   And these key moments of affirmation and confidence in him marked significant signs of the Father’s approval of all that he was doing and saying…. And that his vision was correct…

 

For us, too…    we always try, in our lives, to ensure that everything we do and say is according to God’s ways…..   and in our prayer and reflection time, it is vital that we stop and be still and reflect on our lives to try to ensure that our actions, our priorities and our attitudes are consistent with and according to God’s will…..    the difficult thing is, we won’t get thunder, lightning and cloud…. We won’t see a vision of the transfiguration……   but in our prayer and reflection and by walking around with our eyes open to what God is doing in our lives and in our town…   we should get a sense of what is consistent with God’s plans and what is not….   And we may even, from time to time, have one of these mountaintop affirmation experiences…  (nothing like Jesus’, but things that happen that empower us, encourage us, renew and affirm us in what we are doing…..)…  I believe that when we are doing what is consistent with God’s ways, things will fall into place and various things will affirm and confirm that we are on the right track…  but we have to watch and listen and discern .. and they may be subtle and simple things…  

 

 

There is another very interesting line in this reading today….  It says… the disciples saw his glory, because they had stayed awake…. 

 

In many ways.  We can walk through life like sleepwalkers… not awake to what is happening around us…  looking and looking, but not SEEING… // listening and listening… but not UNDERSTADING…. 

 

It is so important to stay awake to what is going on around us….  

 

And when we get a 25,000 volt experience that shows us reality in  a new light…  we have to be careful not to expect to keep living at 25,000 volts….   No one can live at that level… it has to be brought down to 240 volts for daily use….    And same with our spiritual life..  we can gratefully accept the special moments God gives us to encourage us and prompt us on…  but we must not try to stay at that…  and we may be ill advised if we keep trying to replicate the same ways of getting that special experience…. We must trust in God that God will give us what we need in due time and in the ways that God chooses….   We should not try to tell or expect God to act in a certain way, and keep acting in a certain way….    Its God who is in charge..  we are servants whose eye is on the hand of our master..  waiting for the slightest movement.. so that we might leap up and answer whatever is requested…

 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·          FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·          MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR C. BY MARK LINK S.J.

·          2010 – A BOOK OF GRACE-FILLED DAYS. BY ALICE CAMILLE.

·          THE DAILY STUDY BIBLE. GOSPEL OF LUKE. (REVISED EDITION). BY WILLIAM BARCLAY.

 

 

Paul's Reflections homily..First Sunday of Lent - C

First Sunday of Lent - C  .     21st February, 2010

From Fr Paul:

 

Jesus was truly tempted as he fasted and prayed in the desert. The point of this time is not how powerful Jesus’ willpower is. Sometimes, we focus too much on the fact that, ‘well of course he resisted temptation, he was God.”  Yes, Jesus is God, but he is also fully

human and he was truly tempted just as we all are. Because he knows what temptation is like and overcame it, he can empathise and help us in our temptation and YES, we too can overcome it. It is not the realm of God, it is an invitation to a new way of being for all of us.

 

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Every Lent, the archbishop sends a special message to be read out at all Masses. Here is the Lenten Message for 2010, of Archbishop John Bathersby.

 

THE ARCHBISHOP’S LENTEN MESSAGE:

THE season of Lent is a season for prayer and fasting.

It leads us into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ enabling us to focus on Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

Lent belongs to the spiritual rhythm of the Church, and year after year it leads us back to the very centre of our faith, Jesus Christ.

Knowing how short this life is for all Lent encourages us each year to enter into a closer relationship with Jesus in order to know Him better.

The key to such knowledge is prayer, and Lent this year is focussed in a special way on prayer that we will explore in a national gathering July 7-10 named, 'Pray 2010'.

The gathering will allow us to listen to a variety of speakers, men and women from Australia and different parts of the world, who are experts on prayer, and who will teach us its importance.

They will explain to us how Jesus prayed, how they pray, and how we can learn to pray by focussing on Jesus and listening to them.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is our absolute key to faith.

Faith without prayer is a contradiction in terms, and from the very beginning of creation prayer has changed both the world and ourselves.

As Paul the apostle explained in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "For everyone who is in Christ, the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here".

Jesus came to the old world as a helpless child in a manger, and then at the rather young age of 30 obeyed His Father's will that He preach good news to the world.

He completed that good news for our benefit not only by His words, but most importantly by His death and resurrection.

Each of us therefore is a new person because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The foundation of His good news always was prayer.

He prayed at His baptism in the Jordan, prayed over sick and suffering people during His mission, prayed for the success of His apostles, and on occasions even left sick and suffering people behind in order to pray. Prayer was the language of relationship with His Father.

Only through prayer was He able to understand the will of His Father and grasp the nature of His mission.

Towards the end of His earthly life He prayed also in the garden of Gethsemane, asking for the courage to do His Father's will.

Condemned to death, He prayed for those people ridiculing and tormenting Him, and for the criminals crucified with him.

In His very last breath He prayed to be with His Father knowing that He had fulfilled His Father's will.

However, His lifelong prayer which He shared with His apostles and us was prayer for a new world and a new people, including each and every one of us.

His prayer was answered by His Father with resurrection.

Today in our frantically busy world what we need above all is prayer, prayer that will help us understand the good news of Jesus, prayer that will give us a new world and a new creation, prayer that will make us new people, and finally prayer that will give us the courage of Jesus to take the good news of God out to all people, no matter what the cost.

As we well know, the season of Lent is a special time for prayer and fasting, so let us not neglect it.

However let us make an extra effort this Lent to participate in our great prayer of the Church, the Mass.

For those of us who are not able to do so let us seek moments when we can say simple prayers of gratitude and praise to our all loving God.

In Brisbane a small group of people meet regularly at the heart of the city simply to pray the prayer of Jesus - the Our Father.

Just by their simple prayers they do so much good that will only be realised when they meet God face to face.

If we try hard enough to pray, our entire lives will themselves become living prayers.

This year let us do all we can to participate, even if only in some small way, in our great gathering of "Pray 2010".

If we do so and listen to the speakers with open hearts and minds we will never regret it.

However, before we participate in this national gathering in July let us make sure that we have done all that is possible in this time of Lent to get ready for Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, and for the national gathering soon to follow.

Let this Lent become a magnificent preparation for our Archdiocesan gathering that will be held from July 7-10.

May Mary the Mother of Jesus and Blessed Mary MacKillop our patron, pray that God's Holy Spirit will make this Lent a spiritual powerhouse for all.

Let us become a praying Archdiocese filled with new people and a new Archdiocese, exactly as Jesus desired.
May God bless you all.

 

Paul's Reflections 6th Sunday of Year - C. 14th February, 2010

14th February, 2010      6th Sunday of Year - C

 

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There is a recurring line in the readings for this weekend….   “like a tree planted near flowing waters…..”   “that thrusts its roots into the stream”….//…  ‘when the heat comes.. it feels no alarm…  its foliage stays green.’ 

 

It’s a beautiful and restful image….

 

It is what we all are called to become..  centred on God…  drawing our life and meaning from God’s eternal stream…  and staying focused…   knowing what is lifegiving and what is a dead end!!!  And living in that knowledge…

 

The source of all life, all meaning and all lasting value…  is God’s life……   .., //.  all that is lasting…:   love, compassion and connection with God and one another… ; these things are entering into the life-giving stream that sustains us in good times and in bad…..

 

I was reading a quote from a person who wrote down thoughts about their life.. as they faced their final illness..  this writer, and American campaigner by the name of Lee Atwater..  died at a very early age from a brain tumour,,   he was a man who had amassed enormous wealth and power and prestige in his short life..  but admitted himself that he felt a deep inner restlessness..  and poverty of spirit…   ‘ he writes…” in my illness I discovered an insight into what was missing in society… and it was indeed missing in me too….  A little heart…. A lot of brotherhood……  we must speak to this ‘spiritual vacuum’ that lies at the heart of our society.”  …. 

 

It recalls another beautiful quote…  “The one who loses wealth, loses much….   But the one who loses the spirit, loses everything….”   We have to set our priorities and keep close to the source of lasting meaning…  God…. And God’s offer of eternal life and relationship… 

 

 

That beautiful second reading by St Paul..  again goes right to the heart of our faith….   We believe that Jesus is risen.. and because he is risen..  our hope of resurrection has dawned…  we believe that we have an eternal life with God….   A relationship that cannot be broken.. even by death…    recently someone gave me some old prayer books from their great-great grandmother.. and I put them with a lot of other beautiful things into our wonderful heritage room..  in the room behind the sanctuary here….  But some prayer cards for deceased friends and relatives fell out… I kept some of them and they are in my prayer books…   they look as brand new as a memorial prayer card printed yesterday…  but on the back.. names of people I don’t personally know.. but it says..  names such as George P Jordan, died 20^th May, 1963…aged 66  years…  in Dunfermline, Ireland….  Rest in Peace… //  that’s forty seven years ago…   /the mind boggles as I looked at names and dates and places  on countless paryer cards..   cards still worth looking at and praying over today.. as many do with their own families and friends prayer cards……   I wasn’t even born yet when these people passed into eternal life…  but.. their memory is as fresh in the mind of God.. and any surviving loved ones or friends….as today is….   We live on…   our hope and our faith continues in God… the source of our life…  it’s a beautiful thought…

 

The Gospel today saying ‘happy are those who are spiritual poor.. and oppressed’ and woe to those who are comfy and cosy…  this version of the gospel spells out that God means to turn standards and arrangements on their head…   the poor, the oppressed, the needy.. these are those who will come first in God’s values and God’s Kingdom…  so he is preparing us for a different way of thinking .. so we will engage in a different way of acting and living… 

 

What are some of the dead end roads we are tempted to drive down in our lives…..   what ‘things’do we put our energy and time into that are not life-giving and lasting like the waters of eternal life offered by Jesus and his values…

 

Let us be aware and prayerful about the things that give us lasting life and satisfaction.. and the things that sap our energy and leave us empty…

 

Jesus can show us how to put ourselves near the flowing waters… the renew and reconnect us to the true source of life…

 

 

 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·          FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·          Vision  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR Bc. BY MARK LINK S.J.

·          2010 – A BOOK OF GRACE-FILLED DAYS. BY ALICE CAMILLE.

·          THE DAILY STUDY BIBLE. GOSPEL OF LUKE. (REVISED EDITION). BY WILLIAM BARCLAY.

 

 

 

Paul's Reflections 5th Sunday of the Year - C.

7th February, 2010      5th Sunday of the Year - C

 

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All this weekend’s reading are about how “unworthy we feel in the presence of God”….//

 

This is natural….//. God is perfect…..// God is Love…. //  …..God is all things to all people….. //and we are …….human… //………………we are finite….. we are sinful…. We are weak……. //

 

In the face of God…our first reaction is, naurally, to say…  God… you are wonderful… but we are not worthy of you… we are flawed……   depart from us…   it’s a natural reaction…..

 

You know what stikes me about this weekend’s gospel….  St peter says to Jesus…  ‘depart from me, Lord, I am a sinful man….”    And Jesus seems to ignore this ….   But you know,  Peter was RIGHT…..   Peter later denies Jesus… not just once….. but THREE TIMES…..    so peter could very well have said to Jesus..  “I  TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!”

 

I TOLD YOU I was unworthy…  I ASKED you to depart from me, and you didn’t…. and here… I have PROVED that I was not worthy of you….. I denied you, not once, but three times….

 

But, here is the beautiful part…..  Jesus has the last say… Jesus always turns out to be correct……  Jesus KNEW the weakness and humanity of Peter….. he knew Peter’s strengths and weaknesses better than even Peter did….  He KNEW Peter was weak and imperfect…  but he STILL KNEW that Peter was perfect for his plans…. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves..  even if we don’t KNOW our potential… GOD DOES>>>

 

Jesus could very well reply to Peter…  Of COURSE I knew you would deny me, but I know you… and you are still the man I would choose….  I am the judge of what you can do…. Not you…..  trust in my call…….

 

This gospel is both beautiful and challenging…..  The disciples had fished all night and the ‘opportune’ time for fishing was now ended… but too often we give up, just short of the goal….  Here, Jesus’s keen eye sees more and Peter trusts in him… and says… ‘we have laboured all night, and the opportunity for fishing is now ended… but if YOU SAY SO>  I WILL put my nets out for a further catch… and what a catch it WAS…..   how often do we fail because we stop short of the goal…..

 

This gospel is really, really important.. because it find us in the everyday experience of our daily lives and actions…   in fact, ‘the gospel MUST be proclaimed on the basis of people’s daily lives. Apart from that experience, the proclamation of the gospel has no grasp on reality. “

 

Of course, we know ‘something’ about our own lives… but we must be willing to accept that God has a better view on the meaning and potential of our lives…  WE Are NOT the final judge of what we CAN or CANNOT do… of what we ARE and ARE NOT capable of. And ‘good for’ …. But God is….   God sees the same things as we do.. but God ‘makes meaning of those ‘same things’ quite differently.

 

Today’s readings are challenging for us…  they say to us…  if we are aware of our weakness and limitations.. that is no excuse to do nothing… rather… this is an invitation to do something  and to trust in God’s grace and love an achieve great things in union with Jesus and his message…

 

Jesus has left us the commandment of love.  If He were right in front of us, telling us that a particular action needs to be done, we would all surely obey Him.  But because normally Jesus does not appear that way in our lives, we can find ourselves being less than diligent in seeking His will and less than faithful in doing it. 

 

We can pray in the spirit of Saint Paul in today\'s second reading that God\'s grace will be effective in us, that no matter how often we are unfaithful that we may recognize God\'s faithfulness to us.  Let us give thanks for the graces given to us each day and may we deepen in our faithfulness to God\'s gifts. 

 

The More we trust Him, the more He can do through us.

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·          FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·          2010 – A BOOK OF GRACE-FILLED DAYS. BY ALICE CAMILLE.

·          SUNDAYS AND HOLY DAY LITURGIES. YEAR C. FLOR MCCARTHY S.D.B.

·          SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR. GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ.

·          THE DAILY STUDY BIBLE. GOSPEL OF LUKE. (REVISED EDITION). BY WILLIAM BARCLAY.

·          MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT. ABBOT’S HOMILY.