15th Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matthew 13:1-23) A sower went out to sow

Do you ever wonder why it is that some people believe in God and take the practice of their faith seriously and others don’t? How is it that some people are converted and others are not? Why did I come back to my faith at 19 and many of my friends did not? Why did so many people listen to Jesus when he preached? Nobody knew who he was and he had no education to boast about and yet he gathered a huge following of people wherever he went. I am sure it was because he was preaching the truth and people’s spirits recognized this.

In 1917 at Fatima, 70,000 people saw the miracle of the sun, where it appeared to come crashing towards the earth. It was also lashing rain all morning, but after the miracle everyone and everything was bone dry. Yet people dismiss that as just being a strange event in the past. In Medjugorje today, many people have seen all kinds of miracles and yet so many people are skeptical and dismissive. Think of the miraculous image of Guadalupe, which is literally a living miracle, the many Eucharistic miracles and yet those who accept these things always seem to be in the minority.

Jesus continually spoke to the people in parables and one of the things that tells us is just how much God respects our intelligence and free will. You will only understand a parable if you are looking for the truth in it. God doesn’t just shove information down our throat, so to speak, rather, He invites us to search for the truth. If you are looking for it, you will find it, but it is up to each of us whether we choose to look for it or not and continue to look for it. A man said to me one time, “That whole story in Genesis about Adam and Eve taking an apple is ridiculous. Why would you believe that?” It is ridiculous if you take it literally and don’t search for the truth in it. In fact there are many profound truths there if you are willing to search and pray and ask God to show you.

The Word of God, the Scriptures, are filled with hidden treasures; all kinds of teachings to help and guide us, but we will only discover them if we are willing to search. God respects our free will and intelligence. God wants to show us so many things, but we will never see them unless we are interested and open. In St. John’s Gospel, Jesus said to the Apostles, ‘I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will teach you everything’ (Jn 16:12). There were many things Jesus would have liked to show the Apostles, but the knowledge would have been too much for them. ‘But when the Spirit of truth comes…’ The Holy Spirit is now with us and will continue to show us things if we remain open. Keep asking the Lord to show you and teach you and you will be amazed what you will begin to see.

It makes me sad when I see so many people dismissive of religion, or they just don’t have time for it, but ‘they are good people in themselves.’ They may well be good people, but they are saying that God doesn’t matter, as if God were an optional extra. God is not an optional extra; we are. We would not be here except that God created us and holds us in existence. We ignore God at our own peril.

For some, opening themselves up to God may not be convenient, because there are so many other things to be doing: the seed that fell on the path. They see it at a distance, but are dismissive of it. Unfortunately there are a lot of people in that category in our world right now.

Religion can be interesting too, until it becomes an inconvenience to our lifestyle, or we are asked to make sacrifices, as the Lord asks us to: that is the seed that fell on rocky ground with little soil. It has no roots. You won’t survive without roots.

Our faith offers us great hope and helps us to understand not only what our life is about, but that God is also among us and interested in us in the most ordinary things. But if you remain focused on the world instead of God, then you will get choked by the worries and glamour of the world. If our main source of information is the news, the tv and the internet, then we can easily be swamped by the things of the world and overcome by fear of the things we see going on: the seed that fell among thorns.

But if we are open to seeing what God wants to show us, we will see it, because God wants to show us so many things. ‘Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you’ (Matt 7:7).

Rich soil only comes about with hard work and a lot of care; preparing the ground, getting rid of the weeds and stones. If the word of God is to grow in us, we have to make some effort to be ready for it and help it to grow. We are not going to grow in faith just by watching television. Jesus says, ‘Try to enter by the narrow gate. For the road that leads to hell is wide and spacious, but the road that leads to life is narrow.’ It may not be the most attractive road, but it is the most worthwhile one. If we want our relationship with God to grow, we must make it happen, by taking time to develop our faith, through prayer, reading the Scriptures, listening to God. It won’t happen without giving it time, a certain amount of time every day and there is always time, because we always give time to what is important to us. Would you expect a relationship with someone to grow without giving it any time? Of course not, and faith is no different.

I think we also have to be careful that we don’t come to the church with the mindset of ‘What will they have on for us today?’ Our coming to the mass each week is a combination of worshipping God, as God commands us to and trying to hear what God is saying to us. Ultimately, we get to receive the Body and Blood of Christ reminding us of how close the Lord wants to be to us.

Every so often when I want to go to confession I have found myself before a priest who I don’t particularly like, but I have no other option unless I want to put it off for another time. But that is when I try to remind myself that it is God’s grace and mercy I am seeking, even if the particular priest I find myself with is not who I would choose. I think that is also a good approach to the mass. It is important that we find ourselves a church which helps us to grow, but we also need to remind ourselves what it is we come for. It is not a form of religious entertainment, but our coming before God. It is better to go to a church that helps you to grow, even if it is not your own parish.

"Whoever has ears ought to hear."

14th Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30) Come to me all you who are overburdened

Kennedy's Art Shop, Dublin

My grandfather, Kenneth Kennedy, used to have a brush-factory in Dublin, which later turned into an art shop and gallery, which is still going. At one stage he employed a man as a kind of messenger boy and general dog’s body (gofer). He was a very simple man and was probably more of a burden from a business point of view, than anything else. Once, another friend of my grandfather’s was visiting the shop and he said to him, ‘Kenneth, why are you still holding on to that guy?’ And my grandfather just said, ‘Ah, shur I can’t throw him out. He has nowhere else to go.’ The other guy said, ‘Kenneth, you’ll never make a good business man’ and he was probably right.

Most people I know have to work pretty hard to make a living and most businesses I know—and I worked for several before I became a priest—can be quite ruthless when it comes to letting people go if they feel they could make more money without them. Recently the CEO of one of the big pharmaceutical companies said, ‘We are not in the business of helping people. We are in the business of making money for our shareholders.’ And a few years ago a director who had been hired to make one of the big auto companies in France more efficient said that those they didn’t need would either leave through the door or the window, referring to suicide. In order to force people to quit many employees had been given humiliating tasks in the company. The result of all this is that it causes a lot of stress at work. Financial pressure is one of the biggest burdens people carry. It is also one of the biggest causes of marriage problems.

Where do you turn to when you feel that you can not keep going?  Who do you turn to for compassion and support? In the readings today Jesus is telling us to turn to him, because He knows the pressures we are under. God is well aware of how difficult it can be and He offers to help us. We find our strength and peace in him.

Jesus used the image of the ‘yoke’. The yoke was the wooden brace that linked two animals together around the neck, in order to split the load between them. The Lord is telling us that He wants to help us carry the load, to take some of the burden, but we also have to allow him to do this. It can be tempting to leave God to Sundays, or to ‘religious things’, but from all that God teaches us through the Bible, one thing that is very clear is that He is very interested in everything we do, down to the most ordinary things. God is well aware of the burdens we carry and He is telling us that we need to keep coming back to him to replenish our strength regularly, just like you have to do with your car. He is saying, ‘Let me give you the peace and hope that you need, so that you are able to get up and go on a bit farther,’ but we must keep coming back to him regularly to receive that strength and peace.

One of the great tragedies of our time is the high number of suicides, especially among our young people. Like everything else there are probably many reasons for it, but I have no doubt that one of the biggest reasons is because people have lost faith and they don’t know what to turn to. How do you keep going when everything seems impossible? We need a source of strength, something, or someone we can continually turn to, in order to give us renewed strength and purpose. If we believe that this life is just passing and that there is something wonderful waiting for us in the next life, then this gives us strength to keep going during difficult times. What we suffer here is only temporary, so we are prepared to put up with a lot, but if you don’t have any faith, what do you turn to?

Jesus says, ‘No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ If you have faith in God—and being here would suggest you do—it is because Jesus has chosen to reveal the Father to you. Jesus decided to make the Father known to you, which is why you are drawn here. You didn’t just stumble upon God, Jesus revealed himself specifically to you. Even if you were brought up Catholic, just because you learnt about the faith, doesn’t mean that you have faith. It still has to be revealed to you in some way. Otherwise it is just another subject.

Remember when Jesus asked the Apostles who people thought He was and Peter said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus then said to Peter, ‘You are blessed, because you didn’t come to this conclusion by yourself. God the Father revealed it to you’ (Matt 16:17). Jesus chose to reveal the Father to you and He will continue to reveal more and more of himself to you if you remain open. The more our faith grows, the more we will make sense of what our life on earth is about. Then as our faith grows, we pass it on to others by bearing witness to what we believe in, by the way we live.

Three things in particular that God has given us to help us are the Word of God, to guide and direct us; confession, so that we can get up again as often as we fall; and above all, the Eucharist where we can receive Jesus himself, every day if we wish. Do you want to know what God has to say to you? Read the Scriptures, because that is one of the primary ways that God speaks to us. Think of all the information you take in each day: advertising, news programs, chat shows, social media. What could possibly be more important than to listen to what God has to say to us. What do you fill your mind with? Think also of the opportunity Jesus gives us to receive him each day. What could possibly be more important than this? What greater strength could we receive than Jesus himself in the Eucharist.

The burdens that we are faced with each day, can be difficult, but the Lord assures us that He is with us and wants to share the load with us, if only we will allow him to. They are his words in Scripture.

‘Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.’

13th Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matt 10: 37-42) Focus on Jesus, not on the storm

At this time we continue to see disturbing things happening in our country. During the week one celebrity said that crucifixes should be taken down, because they portray Jesus as a white man, which is a form of white supremacy. Evil, twisted thinking and make no mistake about it, what is behind this is evil. During the week in Los Angeles, a statue of St. Junipero Serra was torn down, because he was associated with colonization, even though he dedicated his life to helping and protecting indigenous people. When people get into a mindset of rebellion, they lash out in all directions and that is what is happening.

These things are upsetting, but don’t be surprised at it. For the first 300 years of Christianity there was open persecution against the Christians and it is never far away. During the Mexican revolution of 1910, many priests were killed. That’s only a hundred years ago and not far from here.

Because of the scandals in the Church caused by a minority of priests, we all got blamed and hated for it. It is the same with the police right now. Because of a few who are corrupt, they are all getting blamed, which is wrong and we must support our police. It is a frightening time for them, and they have a dangerous enough job as it is. Remember that one out of twelve of the Apostles betrayed Jesus to death. That is a very high percentage.

I always find myself getting angry when I meet hostility towards me as a priest. It is upsetting and yet Jesus told us this is exactly what would happen. ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first’… ‘A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also’ (John 15: 18, 20), so I shouldn’t be surprised.

How should we respond to these things? We look to the master. How did Jesus respond to the persecution and resistance that he met? He gave himself completely to the Father. He prayed continually and trusted in the Father’s providence and in his justice. Before he was arrested, Jesus was afraid and in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed to the Father for courage and strength. He was full of human fear, just as anyone would be. In situations of danger, it is normal to feel fear, but we trust in God because we belong completely to him.

Now is the time to stay close to the Lord and completely focused on him. That’s what the Apostles did for the rest of their lives. Nearly all of them were killed, but they were able to keep going because they entrusted themselves completely to God. They weren’t afraid of what happened around them. They remained focused on God. Wherever they went and met other Christians, they celebrated the Eucharist together. That is what we do too. The Eucharist is not just a nice reminder of Jesus, it really is Jesus. It is the greatest treasure that we have and no one will ever take it away from us.

In Ireland, during what were called the Penal Times, in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, which was a time of open persecution against Catholics, they had to celebrate the mass in secret. So they had mass out in the fields, with people on guard. Hopefully we will never have to do that, but no matter what happens, the greatest treasure we have is the mass, because in the mass we receive Jesus himself. I was very inspired to see so many people coming to receive the Eucharist when we had to close the doors of the church. Nothing will stop us from having the mass, even if we have to do it in secret.

In St. John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the analogy of the vine and branches. ‘I am the vine, you are the branches… Cut off from me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). In difficult times we must come closer to Jesus more than ever, because He is our life and our strength. Only in him does our life mean anything.

Our churches, crucifixes and other symbols are important to us, but remember they are not the church. We, God’s people, are the Church and the Lord is with us no matter what happens. Please God things will settle down and we will be able to continue practicing our faith as normal, but we must also remember what is truly important; that we stay close to the Lord.

With regard to what is happening around us, remember how St. Paul described it, because it is the exact same:

For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil authorities and rulers of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12).

Real evil is behind what we are seeing. Evil turns people against people and that is what is happening. How do we fight that kind of evil, with the weapons that the Lord has given us: prayer, the Eucharist, the Scriptures and the support of other like-minded people. In other words, by remaining close to Jesus at all times, because our strength and life is only in him. ‘Do not be afraid.’

12th Sunday of Year A (Gospel: Matthew 10:26-33) Fear no one

Kinvara, Co. Galway, Ireland

The first line in today’s Gospel has only three words, but it says an awful lot: ‘Fear no one’. God never wants us to be afraid. Three hundred and sixty-six times in the Bible are the words ‘Do not be afraid.’ God is constantly reassuring us that He is there and He only has plans for our happiness.

At this time we are seeing many people living in fear for all kinds of reasons: the unrest in our country, the virus, plagues in different parts of the world. What is happening? For one thing, I think God is telling us to wake up. When people feel their life is in danger—such as with the virus—they begin to think in a different way. It is interesting to see in hospitals how open people are to me as a priest. Many people will talk to me there, who wouldn’t normally and the reason is because their focus has changed. They are suddenly seeing what is really important: themselves, or their loved ones, in danger of death. Times like that make us focus on eternal things and that is good. My life on earth may be suddenly about to end. What happens now?

Think of all the time and effort we put into training for a career, often tens of thousands of dollars and years of study and yet that career will probably end in forty or fifty years and then it’s over. Sooner or later our time on earth will be over and we will go into the next world, which is for all eternity. How much time do we spend preparing for that one, which is eternal?

It makes me sad when I hear young parents say that they aren’t going to teach their children about God, because they want them to be free to choose when they get older. So they won’t have their children’s minds formed in the ways of God, but they will be formed by the violence in video games and the immorality on tv, because one way or another, their children’s minds will be formed.

In this Gospel passage, Jesus says: ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy body and soul in Gehenna.’ Don’t be afraid of what can happen to us while on earth. Be aware of what can happen to you after you die. Fear God and be aware that everything is in his hands. He is the One who has the ultimate say in everything. To ‘fear’ God in that sense, means to have respect and awe for who God is and to recognize that all things belong to him and are subject to him. If times of turmoil help people to wake up to God’s presence and how small we are, then that is a good thing.

God does not want us to be afraid and if we have a relationship with him, we know that we have nothing to be afraid of. If we are focused on God, then even when events around us are disturbing, or even frightening, we can have a quiet confidence. Whenever our own death comes, we will go to be with the God, whom we have hopefully made part of our lives on earth. People who have ignored God for years are the ones who will panic, because they have nothing to turn to. Even if they know they should turn to God, they don’t know who God is.

Jesus says, ‘It is not those who will say “Lord, Lord”, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven’ (Matt 7:21). People say they don’t need to go to church. They practice their faith in their own way. Each must decide, but are they just doing their will, or God’s will, because Jesus tells us we must do the will of the Father, not just our will, even if we speak of God.

During the Superbowl half-time show this year, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira put on a performance that they said was ‘empowering for women’. It caused quite a reaction, because anyone who saw it realized that it was completely degrading for women. But before they want on stage to do that performance, they gathered around to say a prayer to ask the Lord to bless them and keep them save. Their prayer may well have been sincere and it is not for me to judge, but if we are to love the Lord we must also do what He asks us to do. I know there are fortune tellers who will begin by praying the Our Father, or Hail Mary. Yet what they are doing is forbidden in the Scriptures. ‘It is not those who will say “Lord, Lord”, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven’. The Lord asks us to do his will, not just to use his name, because one without the other is meaningless.

Baptizing your children and making no effort to bring them up to know God is hypocrisy, because at Baptism you make a promise to God to raise them in the faith. If you’re children have had their children baptized, but are not teaching them about their faith, you can remind them of that. They made a promise to God. ‘Oh, God doesn’t mind.’ Jesus says that God does mind!

‘Fear no one’ (Matt 10:26). We will meet many situations in this world which may be frightening, but they are all short-lived. In the first reading Jeremiah knows that the people are plotting against him and he is afraid, but he also has confidence in God, that God will rescue him, whether in this life or the next. Jesus was terrified in the Garden of Gethsemane, because He knew what was about to happen. Yet He had total confidence in the Father and trusted all things to him. Human fear is a normal reaction to danger. But fear of God is something completely different. It is the fear, awe, or loving fright, that helps us to be in the right relationship with God. You can love God and still be in awe and reverence of who God is. That is part of what we learn when we come close to God. What we also have to be careful of is that we are never casual in our approach to God.

You hear me reminding you often of the respect and reverence we need to show when we receive the Eucharist. It is very easy to become casual and we need to be so careful of that. That is why I keep saying, ‘Don’t walk away with the Host, don’t reach out to take it. Put it in your mouth as soon as you receive it.’ Remind yourself who it is you are receiving. If I believe this is really the body of Christ in my hand, I am not going to walk anywhere with it. I will stop and place it in my mouth; not ‘flick’ it in my mouth, but place it in my mouth. In the same way, how we dress also says a lot about the reverence we have for God. The church is a holy place and we should dress appropriately. How would you dress if you were going to meet the pope? Well, here you are coming to meet and touch Jesus.

The more our love for God grows, the more reverence we will have for him. One naturally follows the other. Remember the words of John the Baptist referring to Jesus: ‘He must grow greater. I must grow smaller.’ Before God there is nothing to do but bow down and worship, with love and awe.

‘Fear no one… Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy body and soul in Gehenna.’

Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

Today the bishop has asked us to speak about the problem of racism. So, I would like to share some thoughts with you.

 Moses said to the people: I charged your judges at the time, “Listen to complaints among your kinsmen and administer true justice to both parties even if one of them is an alien. In rendering judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the great alike, fearing no man, for judgment is God’s” (Deut 1:16-17)

Recently we have seen the ugly head of racism again, with the appalling death of George Floyd. Sadly, it never seems to be far away. In the outrage and protests that followed, it was good to see that there were people of all color protesting. People recognize how wrong it is. Even though there will probably always be a certain amount of it, the more people are made aware of it the better. Children are not racist or prejudiced. They learn it from their parents and others.

During ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland, where there was so much hatred between Catholics and Protestants, there were also many people who worked hard for peace and reconciliation. I remember several times after someone had been shot dead because they were Catholic or Protestant, family members saying that they wanted no retaliation and even that they forgave the killers. How were they able to do that? Because they had faith in God. Faith changes everything.

A priest friend of mine from the North of Ireland told me that sometimes he was invited into Protestant schools to help build bridges and for them to see that he was just a normal human being. He said that when he went into the classes of the young children, he had to take off his shoes and socks to show them that he didn’t have hooves. Their parents had told them that priests were the devil and that they had hooves. They were being taught to hate.

Jesus teaches us the opposite. ‘Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you’ (Matt 5:43). We try to acknowledge the dignity of each person, whether we like them or not, whether we agree with them or not. It is striking how Jesus treated all the different people he met from different faith and cultural backgrounds: the Samaritan woman (Jews despised the Samaritans); Roman soldiers (the occupying force; equally hated), and several others who were not Jewish.

The death of George Floyd was truly shocking and it is good that it caused such a reaction, but racism and discrimination can be much more subtle than that. How do I treat people from any country? Maybe I think they shouldn’t be here. Maybe I feel threatened by them and yet all of our ancestors came from other countries and were probably discriminated against when they got here first. I think of that infamous sign from the early 1900s which said, ‘Irish need not apply.’ They were despised at the time. If your children went to live in another country, how would you want them to be treated?

^“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (Lev 19:33-34)

There is an English author and historian called Tom Holland, who is also an atheist. He says that in studying the ancient world he realized how cruel it was. The Spartans routinely murdered ‘imperfect’ children. Slaves were often used as things of pleasure. Monogamy was common and the poor and weak had no rights. What changed all that? Christianity. Christ helped us to see that each person has unique value and each person has the same dignity. No one life is of more value than another. I always cringe when I hear that expression ‘saving American lives,’ because it seems to imply that people who are not American are less important, or of less value. Is my life of less value because I am a foreigner?

All of us grow up with a certain amount of prejudice, though we don’t see most of it. What we think of as normal, is often prejudiced. That is why we have to keep going back to the teachings of Christ, to help us to see as He sees. What does He tell us? What does his life tell us? His death was for all people, regardless of what they believe, or where they come from. If we are followers of Christ, we must try and see others as human beings before anything else. If we were able to take away all categories from everyone we meet, we would just see another person like ourselves. That is what the Lord did and that is what He is asking us to do too.

We may not like certain cultures, or religions, but that is irrelevant. We all have things we do and don’t like. That doesn’t matter. Every one of us has the same value and will come before God in the same way when we die. When we mistreat or disrespect another person, we are disrespecting Jesus. We are offending God. Remember what Jesus said to St. Paul when He appeared to him? ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ (Acts 9:4). Saul was persecuting the Christians, but by persecuting them, he was persecuting Jesus. 'Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me' (Mat 25:40).

After the Resurrection of Jesus, it took the Apostles a while to realize that they were being sent to all people, not just the Jewish people and this surprised them at first. God doesn’t discriminate.

To be able to remain neutral is not easy, but staying close to the Lord is the key to doing that. I often think of Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta. Most of the people she brought in off the street were Hindu and Muslim. She didn’t try to convert them. She just cleaned them up and allowed them to die with dignity. That told people more about God than anything else. She was able to do that because of her faith in God. It helped her to move beyond cultures and faiths. She just saw human beings.

Moses said to the people: I charged your judges at the time, “Listen to complaints among your kinsmen and administer true justice to both parties even if one of them is an alien. In rendering judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the great alike, fearing no man, for judgment is God’s” (Deut 1:16-17).

Feast of the Holy Trinity (Gospel: John 3:16-18) Created for happiness

One thing that all of us have in common, is the search for happiness. Everyone wants to find happiness. We may have very different ideas as to what happiness is, but all of us are searching for it. God shows us exactly where to find it and how to get there, but we are not always convinced. If I asked how many of you here want to be rich, probably everyone would say yes, because we have become convinced that we will have happiness if we have enough money. Our problems will go away. They won’t. In fact, Jesus says ‘How hard it is for the rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ The kingdom of heaven is where we will find happiness and ironically wealth, often becomes an obstacle to it, because it distracts us and holds us back.

Many times I have heard people who have worked in third world countries say, that it is always in the poorest countries that people have the greatest joy, even where there is terrible in justice. It is in first world countries where you will find the greatest anger, depression and despair. Why is that? Because in the poorest countries they don’t get distracted by wealth and they realize that they will only find happiness in God, beginning in this life and fulfilled in the next. We will only find happiness in God. When Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes in 1858, she said to her ‘I cannot promise you happiness in this life, but in the next.’ If we understand this, we will begin to find peace, because we won’t be expecting to find complete happiness here. We will only have complete fulfillment in the world to come.

The wonderful thing is that God has created us for happiness. God created us to be happy. The Holy Trinity was perfectly fulfilled in every way before He created us, but God wanted to share that happiness with us. So, God created us to be able to enjoy that happiness and total fulfillment, which we will, if we remain open to God. Think of times in your life when you were happy: birthdays, weddings, the birth of a child, graduations. Our instinct is to share it, to celebrate it with others. So we invite others to share in our happiness and we have a party. That is why God created us, because He wanted us to share in his happiness. And that is what awaits us unless we reject it. Why would someone reject it? Because we think we know better and refuse to listen to what God teaches us and commands us to do. The death and resurrection of Jesus was so that we could reach that happiness. He reopened the possibility of heaven for us, after we had lost it through Original Sin. Now it is offered to us, but we still have to choose it.

How is it that nearly all of us want peace and happiness, but our world is full of war and hatred? We want equality, but we are continually faced with discrimination. The reason is because there is a war going on that we can’t see, but it is mentioned in Scripture many times. Satan rejected God and hates God’s creation us. He wants to take everything away from God, especially us, his children.

In the book of Genesis, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God said,

I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. She will crush your head, and you will strike her heel (Gen 3:15).

And it says in the book of Revelation:

And the dragon was enraged at the woman and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.’ (Rev 12:17).

The woman is Our Lady, the Mother of all God’s children. At the crucifixion, Jesus said to saint John—who is the model disciple and represents all of us who follow God— ‘Behold your mother.’ And to Mary, ‘Behold your son’ (John 19:25). He gave us his mother as our spiritual and heavenly mother.

If you think of evil people in the world. If they want to cause pain to someone, they will try and harm their children, the ones they hold dearest in the world. What is abortion, except that? Satan destroys God’s children from its beginning. That is what is behind abortion. Satan has convinced us that it is a good thing, so that we needn’t be inconvenienced. But think of the words of consecration at the mass: ‘This is my Body, which will be given up for you.’ Think of what abortion says: ‘This is my body and it will not be given up for you.’ It is the opposite of the mass. That’s how you know what is behind it. There is no species on the planet that kills its own young.

So we are in the middle of a war, a spiritual war, where Satan wants to take us away from God in any way possible. St. Paul puts it this way:

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12).

How did he know that? Because Jesus taught them all these things. I have no doubt that between the time of the resurrection and the ascension into heaven, these were some of the things that God was teaching the Apostles and later for St. Paul. Jesus was piecing it all together for them. That is why God inspired them to write it down and why we have it in the Scriptures, the word of God.

What is the casting out of demons, except taking back God’s children? How do you destroy an enemy: turn them against each other? Look at what is happening in our world right now. We are turned against each other and killing each other, often for no particular reason. It is because we are in the middle of a much bigger war than we can see. When people turn their back on God and on God’s teachings, they lose their way and are open to every kind of suggestion. That is what we see happening.

But as always, God gives us all the tools we need to fight back. He shows us that living the Commandments and the teachings of Christ is what keeps us safe. If we listen to what God says to us, then we will not get distracted from the path to our happiness. If we live by the word of God, then we will remember what is important and we will see through the lies that we are constantly being told: ‘Abortion and Euthanasia are good for society. You don't need to listen to God. You should be able to do whatever you want.’ That was the lie told to Adam and Eve, which they fell for. 

God has created us to share in his happiness, but He will not force us to accept it. I’m often amazed at the amount of parents who tell me in great distress about one of their children who has rejected them. They cannot understand why. They did everything they could for their children and then their children turned their back on them. Sadly, it happens quite often. We also do this with God. God offers us everything and gives us everything, but we can still reject him and people do.

I think one of the most difficult sufferings in the life of Jesus must have been knowing that some people would still reject him in spite of the terrible sufferings he was going to go through for them. His death and resurrection re-opened the way to heaven for us, but we can still reject it.

We are created for happiness and that’s what awaits us unless we reject it.

God so loved the world that He gave his only Son,

So that all who believe in him might not perish,

but might have eternal life (John 3:16).

The Feast of Pentecost. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.

In 1999, in preparation for the second millennium, Pope John Paul II invited representatives from 54 different groups around the world to come to Rome. These groups were started over the last several decades and were all started by lay people, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. To give you an example, some of the groups were, the Focolare movement, Marriage Encounter, Cenacolo, Charismatic Renewal, Cursillo. All of these different movements within the Church have been started by lay people and are really about different ways of living out the Gospel in daily life. These movements have been so fruitful, that most of them have spread all over the world. For that meeting in Rome, there were 400,000 people present representing these 54 different movements. This event was a celebration of what God is doing all over the world. 

It is good to hear about these things every so often, because it would be easy to get the impression that the Church is dying, or that religion is on its way out. We won’t hear about this sort of thing on the TV, or in the papers, but it is happening all around us.

Just to give you an example closer to home of the power of God’s Spirit working among us. For many years I was part of a prayer group of young people in Galway, started by a young lay woman. From that group there are currently four people in religious life (two contemplative sisters and two priests), and there are about twenty married couples, but more importantly it has helped many people come back to their faith and grow in their faith. Most of the group are now in their 50s but they are people who are really trying to live out the Gospel in their daily lives. It was thanks to that group that I came back to my own faith, because I had also drifted away, and then later I became a priest. That is the power of God’s Holy Spirit at work, and praise God for it.

God doesn’t wait until we are ready. God acts when the time is right. He doesn’t wait for the hierarchy of his Church to decide what to do. I don’t mean that they are not important, but think of the times that Peter and Paul came to pray with people and before they had even started, the Holy Spirit came down on them. The Lord sends his Spirit to inspire and move people to step out in faith and live the Gospel, and they in turn move others, until soon the people are alive with faith again. In the Gospels Jesus says to the Pharisees, ‘The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit’ (Matthew 21:43). God doesn’t wait until we are ready. God inspires people to act when the time is right and that’s why new movements and religious orders keep springing up.

One time when I was working in a hospital in Ireland, I came into one area where I was going to visit patients who were newly admitted. One of the nurses told me that a man had been admitted who had taken an overdose of poison and was going to die. She said that he probably wouldn’t be too receptive to me. I decided to visit him anyway and prayed to God for guidance. When I got to the door of his room, which was open, I could see a young man by his bedside, who turned out to be his son. I stood at the door and I just said, ‘I heard what happened and I’m sorry. Do you regret it?’ The man said that he did regret it. As soon as he said that, I felt this strong prompting inside me saying, ‘That is a confession, so don’t ask for one.’ I really felt that was the Spirit speaking to me. I asked the man if he would like to talk, but he emphatically said that he did not want to make a confession. I told him that he didn’t have to. I spoke to him for a few minutes and he told me that on the spur of the moment he had taken a drink of a weed killer called Paraquot. The doctors told me that they could do nothing and that this would just burn through his insides and kill him. He now had to face his family. I asked him if he would like me to anoint him. Again he said that he didn’t want to make a confession. I told him that it wasn’t necessary and that the anointing included the forgiveness of his sins. And so I anointed him and left. He died a few days later.

Some weeks later a friend of mine was talking about a man in hospital who had taken an overdose of poison. He had refused to see two priests, but eventually he did see a priest, was anointed and died peacefully. It was the same man, but my friend didn’t realise I was the third priest. If I had known that he had refused to see two other priests, I probably would not have gone to him. But the Lord sent me to that man, he made his peace with God and died reconciled. That was the power of the Holy Spirit guiding me to him, just as we read of the Apostles being guided to different people.

Another time I was in one of the hospitals here in Fort Myers. While I was in the elevator a young woman asked me if I was a priest. Then she asked me how I could get a priest to come and visit her husband. I offered to go right way and we went to his room. He had fallen and broken his back and was still unconscious. I asked her if she would like me to give him the sacrament of the sick (anointing). She awkwardly told me that they were not married in the Church. I told her that this wasn’t the time to worry about that and I anointed him. She was in tears and then asked me to bless her and her children which I did. That showed her that God was with her and looking out for her. What a privilege it is for me to be that instrument that God uses and this happens to me all the time.

Do you know what God’s Spirit is doing in the Church all over the world over the last few years? He is stripping it down so that it can become beautiful once again. Because of the scandals, He is removing all the prestige, power and respectability which we had come to depend on. We had become too powerful, too prestigious and it was causing us to wander away from what the Gospel is really about. The scandals have brought us to our knees and that is not a bad thing. God is, ironically, forcing us to turn back to depend on his Word and his Spirit and to get away from what we don’t need. God is rebuilding his Church because He loves us. When someone is sick with cancer, you remove the cancer so that the person becomes well again. When the Spirit’s work is finished the Church will be beautiful again. The Spirit is removing the cancer of sin and corruption, so that God’s Church can bear fruit again and God does this because He loves his Church.

Before he ascended into heaven Jesus told us that the Father would send us the ‘Helper’, who would be with us forever, and who would teach us everything. He knew that we would need help and so He sent us the best help that we could have, his own Spirit, to guide us and teach us. And He does teach us constantly, through the example of people He inspires, through the Word of God, through prayer when we are open to him, in fact, through many ways we will never even be aware of.  But the Spirit is very gentle and that is why we don’t notice him sometimes.

Think of this: in each mass, nothing would happen when the priest prays over the bread and wine, if the Spirit didn’t come down and transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ. Sins would not be forgiven through the priests if the Spirit didn’t act, because it is the Spirit to takes way the sin, through the instrument of the priest. Baptism and Confirmation would be meaningless if the Spirit didn’t anoint the person receiving the sacrament; marriage and ordination would mean nothing, if the Holy Spirit didn’t act. Because of the presence of the Spirit, when a couple get married in the Church, God becomes involved in that marriage. It is no longer just the couple, but the couple with God helping them and blessing what they do. We wouldn’t know how to pray, or even feel the desire to pray except that the Spirit is prompting us continually. Our preaching would have no effect if the Spirit did not anoint the words we speak.

Here is something that happens to me quite often. I preach a homily that I feel disappointed with, or that I thought I did not do well. Afterwards people come up and thank me for such a powerful message. That is the Holy Spirit and it is also God reminding me that it is his work, not mine. I do my part and prepare as best I can, but ultimately it is the power of God at work through me. That is also why it is so important for me to pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the words I speak. God will speak to your heart if you are open. I think it is always good to ask God to help us to hear what He wants us to hear, every time you read the Scriptures, or listen to them at mass. God has plenty to say to us if we are willing to listen.

The gift of God’s own Spirit is really the greatest thing God can give to us after life itself, because when we have the Holy Spirit we have everything. It is also good to remember that the anointing of the Spirit does not depend on how brilliant, or learned we are. It simply depends on us being open to the Spirit. If you look at so many of the characters God used in the Bible, most of them were very insignificant people. God seems to delight in using ordinary and indeed ‘useless’ people, according to the world’s thinking; the kind of people the world casts aside as being irrelevant.

In the first book of Samuel, it says that Samuel was sent to Jesse’s house to anoint God’s chosen instrument who would be the next king of Israel. God tells Samuel He will show him whom to anoint. Samuel comes to Jesse’s house where there are seven sons. He looks at everyone in the household, starting with the eldest, but God did not choose any of them. Having seen all of the sons in the house, Samuel asks if there is anyone else. They tell him there is just the youngest who is out minding the sheep. He is the least important, who was not even considered, but he is the one God anoints and he turns out to be one of the greatest kings of Israel, king David. That tells us something. We don’t have to be great for God to use us, just open. The more we root ourselves in God’s life, through his Word and through the Eucharist, the more the Lord will use us.

Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your faithful people,

send forth your Spirit and we will be created,

and you will renew the face of the earth.