Obliterating our sin on Good Friday

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Jesus died without sin. Even in the brutality of his passion he refused to sin. Even in the horrific provocation of those crucifying him, he refused to sin.

This is important because Jesus didn’t do this for himself, but for you and I. This means that you and I are going to die without sin if Jesus bestows his “dying without sin” on us. He overlays our lives with his life, so to speak, obliterating our sin. This is the gift that Jesus bestows on those who come to him – who repent.

This in turn is important because sin cannot enter Heaven. It must be purged first, or removed, or whatever word you want to use. If sin is allowed to enter Heaven intact (this is impossible but let us just imagine it is possible) Heaven and Hell are one. Sin cannot enter Heaven. Likewise the soul in sin cannot enter Heaven.

The only way sin can be removed is for it to be absorbed and overcome. Sin always involves hurt and absorbing hurt means pain. That’s what Jesus is doing today, absorbing human sinfulness, overcoming it, and still pouring out his love on humanity. All that Heaven requires in return is our love.

Thus, Heaven looks to earth today to find anybody who acknowledges this, appreciates this. Those who do not acknowledge it or appreciate it leave an impression of deep sadness in the heart of God (“what more can I do for them?” Jesus wonders) but our pausing today to remember Jesus mitigates so much of this suffering and consoles the heart of God.

Perfectly positioned to see the glory of God

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Jesus’ circle of friends – disciples, whatever you want to call them – are invested in Jesus. They love him.

Thus today, Holy Saturday – the time between his burial yesterday (Good Friday) and tomorrow (Easter Sunday) – must have been a dark, dark time for them. They’d pinned so much on him… hopes… dreams…

Now, what I want you to see is that because they’re invested in him, because they love him, the two Marys (“Mary of Magdala and the other Mary”) are up early – “towards dawn” – and heading to the tomb. Because they love him they’re staying close to him even in death.

When the Easter events are unfolding they’re not somewhere else, they’re not at work, or on a short break, or immersed in some recreational activity, they’re not off somewhere pampering themselves, they’re not “down the local!”

No, they love him so they’re present, or at least nearby, critically they’re caught up in it all. They’re undoubtedly crushed, devastated, questioning, recalling stuff he said, trying to make sense of it all, but they’re perfectly positioned to be gifted something extraordinary, to receive so much from God.

They will see the glory of God because they are present and they are present because they love Jesus.

This love or the absence of it explains everything.

There’s a whole world going on around the two Marys and the disciples that cares little about Jesus or what’s happened to him.

They will not see or experience Jesus’ resurrection because they are not there. They are elsewhere; fishing, farming, down the pub, otherwise occupied – his life and death just doesn’t matter enough to them, they didn’t get caught up in him.

And so it is today. There is no great mystery about it all. In terms of responding to Jesus Christ humanity is exactly as it was back then…

Celebrating Holy Thursday – storing up treasure in Heaven

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Tonight I want to thank you for being here.

I’m not really thanking you on behalf of Fr. Tom, Fr. Billy and myself. Not even on behalf of Bishop Ger!

No, I’m thanking you on behalf of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

My mother always said that she’d kill me if she ever heard me thank people for attending Mass! She’d say shaking her head in disbelief; “imagine thanking people for attending Mass.” Rather, she believed people should be thanking God for the privilege of attending Mass.

But tonight, I’m more interested in thanking you on behalf of the Holy Trinity – for being here.

On the night before he died – that is tonight – Jesus took bread and wine and celebrated the first Mass directing us to “do this in memory of me.”

Do you think our “doing this” tonight matters in Heaven?

Do you think that not doing it tonight matters in Heaven?

If it doesn’t matter why did Jesus do it? Why did he take bread and wine at all?

Do you think that when tomorrow comes remembering or not remembering his passion and death matters in Heaven?

The fact that many will live this day as any other – without acknowledging Jesus and all that he requested us to do, just not taking Jesus seriously – is a source of deep sorrow 🙁 in Heaven.

But the fact that you are here tonight remembering what happened on that first Holy Thursday night – doing as he requested – means that you are bringing great consolation and joy to the heart of the Holy Trinity.

It’s treasure you’ve now stored up in Heaven.

Lazarus is dead because Jesus wasn’t present.

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Fifth Sunday of Lent.

Martha says to Jesus: “If you had been here my brother would not have died.”

Martha is deep into Jesus.

Being deep into him – sunk into him – she’s grasped his identity.

She knows that Jesus could have – would have – prevented her brother’s death if he’d been there.

Lazarus is dead because Jesus wasn’t there. Jesus was absent.

Now after he’d received word that Lazarus was ill, Jesus delayed in going to Lazarus, deliberately it seems.

Jesus is using the physical event of Lazarus’ death to teach Martha and Mary – and us – about the bigger life and death, about eternal life and eternal death, Heaven and hell!

Here’s the teaching: When death arrives, if Jesus is absent, we remain dead. Full stop! 🛑

We become the weeds that are thrown on the fire rather than the wheat that is gathered into the barn.

Do you get it?

It’s Jesus presence that transforms death and it’s personal presence, it is intimate presence. It is Jesus presence inside us… in our souls.

We need to be into him and he needs to be into us – just like Martha – if we are to live again… rise…

Take a little time to read and re-read, to ponder Jesus teaching and notice how personal it is…

“I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

“I am the resurrection” (note the ‘I’) and “whoever lives and believes in me (note ‘lives… in me’) will never die.”

Spiritual experience and Christian spiritual experience are not quite the same!

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On the purely human level people discipline themselves to climb mountains and when they reach the mountain-top the views are magnificent, breathtaking, up there it is delight, enjoyment, peace, it is spiritual experience.

But it is not necessarily Christian spiritual experience, it is human spiritual experience.

Christian spiritual experience is something more, more than the views from the mountain-top and how that touches us.

In the Gospel today it is not the surrounding views that the disciples are caught up in, that’s not what is remembered. In fact there is no mention of it.

No, it is spiritual experience of a different kind that they remember. It is something more, something beyond purely human spiritual experience. It is Heaven thrown open and it is the presence of Jesus Christ that is opening Heaven up.

It is Heaven, grace, God, acting on human effort and taking human spiritual experience to another level altogether.

Getting it all so wrong!

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Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

John 1:29-34 “Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”

The primary purpose of the church is to provide access to Jesus Christ.

That Jesus may be born in individual hearts and from individual hearts have his way in human affairs.

After that the purpose of the church is not to be a moral compass 🧭 although many people think it is.

Rather, it is to say to the world as the Gospel says to us today: Look 👀, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Did you catch that? He seeks to take away the sins of the world.

The world wants to nail you to your sins. Nail me to my sins. Nail everybody. You must be held accountable.

But not Jesus. Jesus doesn’t want this to happen because accountability in eternity is too severe!

So out of love and to save us, Jesus seeks to be nailed for your sins, my sins, our sins.

Do you see it? Accountability doesn’t disappear 🫥

He seeks to take responsibility, to be held accountable on your behalf. What love is this?

“I did not die on the Cross for you to bear the burden of your sins.”

And once he takes responsibility, you’re set free, cleansed, washed clean in the blood of Christ, redeemed.

And when he does this for you he acquires you…

And when this really happens for you… you’ll love ❤️ him to bits!

The mission of the church is not primarily about being a moral compass. It’s about salvation.

It’s about saving us all from God’s Justice.

Human imperceptibility – the sign of God’s greatness

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John expects… anticipates…

For John what is about to unfold – God in Jesus – is decisive.

John’s Jesus clearly carries a threat.

“Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming?”

“Even now the axe is laid to the tree so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.”🔥

“His winnowing fan is in his hand, he will clear his threshing floor…”

So how did this threat unfold in real life back then?

How did this “retribution” as John calls it unfold?

How was the tree cut down and thrown on the fire? Bearing in mind that we’re not really talking about a tree but about real people whom the tree represents – a people to be cut down and thrown on the fire.

How was the wheat separated from the chaff in the lived experience of the people back then? In their history?

I’d say they hardly noticed it happening or that it had happened… and that’s my point!

So, while the language and the images are strong, at times scathing, the threat unfolded in the lives of the people very gently, almost imperceptibly.

In fact it was so gentle that many probably didn’t even realize that it had happened!

This human imperceptibility is one of the signs of God’s greatness.

What happened was that they missed the significance of Jesus… they didn’t connect with him… they didn’t grasp his identity. He went over their heads so to speak.

They just went on doing what they had always been doing.

And in so many places… spaces… hearts and minds… the same pattern will reemerge this coming Christmas.

But God will have been and gone!

Indeed, the kingdom of God is always close at hand.

Finally… empty pews and empty churches – a sign of the death of religion or a people being cut down and thrown on the fire?

Do you really think that God is no longer active?

There’s only one response to that 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Wild super-abundance; the mark of God

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Thirty-first Sunday

Lk 19: 1-10 Zacchaeus

The mark of God is super-abundance.

Call it mercy if you like, but it’s an outrageous and wild super-abundance.

God is not mean and the person truly touched by God is not mean because to be touched by God is to be touched by wild super-abundance.

So when Zacchaeus is touched by God he cannot help but respond super-abundantly… if he’s cheated anybody he commits to paying him back four times the amount. Four times!

This wild super-abundance is the sign of God’s presence, the guarantee that where God was once absent from Zacchaeus’ life, he is most definitely now present.

Is there any sign of this wild super-abundance in our lives?

Pray without losing heart!

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Twenty-ninth Sunday

Lk 18: 1-8 The unscrupulous judge and the importunate widow

Whatever we receive from God is received in prayer 🙏

This is is also true of Mary the Mother of God, whatever Mary receives from God she receives through prayer.*

It is impossible to receive from God in any other way.

The more prayer, the more we receive which in turn nourishes the heart’s desire to pray and prevents us “losing heart”

Not losing heart seems critical… because if we lose heart we’re likely to give up prayer and this leads to the death of faith; “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?”

We can conclude that prayer is the life of faith and the absence of prayer is the death of faith.

*Whatever Mary seeks and receives from God will always be for us, for humanity.

Perverting the holy – an ever present danger ⚠️

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Thirtieth Sunday

Luke 18:9-14 The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified

We are privy to the pharisees inner world and so we’re able to see him as God sees him.

He’s using other people, people whom he views as beneath him, to make himself feel good but – and this is what makes it so much worse – he’s doing it by using the holy, by using the Ten Commandments, by using God.

So the ego remains unconverted and in fact the ego is converting (perverting) the holy to suit itself.

From the very beginning this perversion of the holy has been an ever present danger ⚠️ within Christianity – and too often a very real one.

And in the sight of God what he’s doing amounts to abusing the holy, abusing the Commandments and abusing God.