Category Archives: Religion

Obliterating our sin on Good Friday

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.

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.

Jesus says we over-estimate our faith and goodness – with a nod to Peter Kreeft

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Twenty-seventh Sunday

Luke 17:5-10

What are we to make of that?

Two things.

Even though the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith they’re still over-estimating the size of the faith that they do have. They think they have faith but Jesus raises the bar, he raises the standard; “were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.” Jesus is telling them that their faith is not even the size of a mustard seed!

In the second piece they’re over estimating their goodness. So Jesus tells the story of the servant who having worked hard all day in the fields is then expected to make himself tidy, lay his master’s supper and wait on him before he eats himself… and he is then required to say; no big deal, I’m merely a servant. Again he’s raising the standard… it feels like injustice.

All this means:

If we stroll up to Heaven thinking that we’ve both faith and goodness “to beat the band” we’ll be in trouble because God’s standard is so much higher.

If we approach Heaven humbly, relying on Gods mercy rather than our sense of our faith and goodness – which is almost always inflated and an expression of the human ego – we’ll have a much better chance of gaining entry.

Put dishonesty in Heaven and you’re creating Hell!

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Twenty-fifth Sunday

Luke 16:10-12

Again, the teaching of Jesus is profoundly simple.

If you cannot be trusted in little things how can you be trusted in great things?

The little things mean the stuff of this world like money… all the stuff that you and I think is our life!

The great things mean Heaven and the things of Heaven.

If you give Heaven – even the tiniest piece of Heaven and the powers of Heaven – to a dishonest man, you’re creating a demon.

If you put a dishonest man in Heaven he’ll begin turning it into Hell.

So, dishonesty doesn’t – cannot, just cannot – enter Heaven, it’s impossible.

It has to be purged first, burned out of the person (soul) before entry.

Simple.

Pentecost: Making things a little too black and white!

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This is so simple.

It’s nearly too simple for many of us. I suspect it’s much too black and white!

The Spirit arrives into our lives in a very ordered way – remember it’s the Spirit that brings us into intimacy with God.

There are ordered steps and each step builds on the previous step.

If you love me – that’s the first step; if you love ❤️ me… look how he’s phrased it; if…

If you love me, then the second step; you’ll keep my commandments. So the second step is keeping his commandments but you’ll never have one without the other.

Then Jesus repeats himself, making the same point but in a slightly different way.

And then to really push the point home he states that the reverse is true: “Those who do not love me do not keep my words.” Few of us are comfortable with this, typically we’d say; much too black and white!

So, the Spirit does not enter every life, only the lives of those who love Jesus (God), and keep his commandments, his Word.

So we’re given a reason for lack of intimacy with God.

Finally we’re told something of what the Spirit’s presence does; it causes us to remember Jesus teaching, his teaching becomes part of who we are, my identity, your identity, our identity.

Confirmation Session 5: Avoid offending God and when we have offended God, apologize

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There’s stuff that we do – being dishonest, unfaithful, selfish… stealing – that offends and hurts God.

Stuff that hurts God is called sin.

When we offend God it’s like offending any other person.

Imagine loving the person who has offended or hurt you…

We don’t usually do that. We’re much more likely to avoid that person, to back away.

Can you imagine God backing away in much the same way?

So let’s try to imagine that instead of backing away you walk toward the person and hug them, forgive them. Do you think that’s difficult to do?

This is how it is for God too but for God it’s on a much bigger scale.

Imagine hugging human offence on a global scale… imagine the cost!

5.1 Jesus taught us to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek, to lend without any hope of return, and lots more difficult stuff too.

He was really just saying: Be like God.

Check it out: Luke 6:27-38 but read it as a description of God.

If we lived like this, as Jesus taught us, as God-like, it’d take every bit of us, we might say it’d crucify us!

This is how God loves us and we see the cost of it in Jesus Christ crucified.

Imagine always seeking to love the person hurting you, offending you, always seeking to love your enemy and enemies, always turning the other cheek, always lending* without any hope of return, imagine the cost!

For God it’s crucifixion and lasts until the end of time or for as long as God loves us, as long as God is merciful.

When we offend God we’re causing this suffering.

When we apologize, tell God we’re sorry… we’re easing this suffering.

Simple as that.

So, when you offend God, apologize, and commit to live like him.

5.2 But also – and this is very important – if we’re dishonest, unfaithful, selfish, then God can’t give his gifts to us because God’s gifts are really little bits of Heaven and if God gives Heaven (or even a tiny piece of Heaven) to a dishonest or unfaithful or selfish person he’s actually creating hell, turning Heaven into hell.

It’s a bit like a business owner promoting a dishonest employee… disaster, the business will be lucky to survive.

So, the bottom line here is if you’re offending God you just can’t receive Heaven or God’s gifts 🎁

No, you must change your ways first.

Repent!

*God lends life without any hope of return, always, until the end of time.