The Exaltation of the Cross (Gospel: John 3:13-17) God so loved the world that He gave his only Son.

 

Over the last few days I have met so many people who are so stressed and angry and even feeling hatred, because of the terrible events of the last few days. Almost everyone who came to confession expressed this.

We should be outraged at the assassination of Charlie Kirk and all these horrific school shootings and we should always work for justice whatever way we can and try to end all the gun violence. But then there comes a point where we need to decide where we will go next. If we immerse ourselves in all the social media and all the opinions, many of which are so toxic and so hateful, then we will become full of anger and hatred ourselves, which is exactly what the devil wants. He wants to get everyone to hate everyone else, to turn all of us against each other.

We can also turn to Jesus and the things of God and then we will become filled with light and we will be light in the darkness which is all around us. Our country and world doesn't need more people filled with hatred. It needs people filled with hope and who bring the light of Christ everywhere. Our faith gives us that hope and we need to bring that into our world. Turning to Jesus is not being naive about what is going on. I read and watch everything, but there comes a point where I need to turn away from the hatred that follows. Our country doesn't need more hate-filled people. It needs hope and faith-filled people. 

One of the summer jobs I had as a student was working in a car factory in Germany. There were a lot of Irish students working there. One of the other guys there—knowing that I was into my faith—said to me once, ‘That whole idea of being lost and saved is a load of rubbish,’ or words to that effect. I understood what he meant, but at the same time I believed that he was mistaken. ‘It’s probably a phrase that you associate with some of the charismatic tv evangelists who often talking about being saved. A lot of the problem comes down to language. Much of the language we use with regards to our faith sounds out of date, and as a result it is easy to think that faith is just something from an age gone by.

 

So if there is such a thing as being ‘lost’ or ‘saved’, what does this mean? What are we saved from, if we are saved? All through his teachings, Jesus, the Son of God, frequently mentions the need to choose for God. There is a choice to be made and that choice must be made by each person individually. No one can make that choice for anyone else, even if we want to. We are told that if we choose for God we are ‘saved,’ but what does this mean? It means we are saved from losing God forever. We are choosing the only thing that makes sense of what our life is about; that is, God. We are created by God and for God, created to be with God and that is the only place we will find happiness. If we choose God, we are saved from losing that possibility of the happiness we long for.

 

To be lost means to lose all that God offers us and consequently to lose what God wants to give us: happiness, fulfilment and being with our loved ones again. It is not just a religious notion; it is real and Jesus tells us again in this Gospel passage, that the whole purpose of his life, death and resurrection, was to save us, to save us from being separated from God forever. So the idea of being lost or saved is very real and it is a choice that we must make.

 

The title of this feast that we celebrate—the Triumph of the Cross—is a contradiction in itself. To be crucified in ancient times, was the ultimate mark of failure. They understood that anyone who died this way, was cursed by God. That was one of the reasons why they wanted Jesus killed by crucifixion specifically, since this would ‘prove’ that he was not God. It says in Deuteronomy (21:22) ‘Cursed be the man who hangs on a tree.’ And even when you look at the symbol of any cross, what could be more of a failure than this: total public humiliation, total helplessness, and death. Yet the bizarre thing is that through this event, through this terrible suffering and miscarriage of justice, everything changed. Through what seemed the ultimate act of human failure God brought about the greatest act of mercy for his people. The crucifixion is the bridge between God and humanity, lost through Original Sin, but now restored again through Jesus. That is why the cross is such an important symbol for us. That is also why the demons hate the symbol of the crucifix. It is also why we should have blessed crucifixes in our homes and wear them if possible.

 

Probably the greatest problem that any of us face is the problem of suffering: sickness and the death of people we love; injustice carried out against the innocent. We rebel against this, we get angry and we cry out to God, ‘How can you allow this to happen?’ Often during times of the greatest distress, God seems to stay infuriatingly silent. We want an answer to help us make sense of what is happening, but there does not seem to be any answer. And yet there is an answer that God gives us, though perhaps it is not the answer that we want to hear. God points us to the cross and reminds us that He allowed Jesus—the completely innocent one—to suffer the most horrific and shameful death. It reminds us that even though we do not understand suffering, that it does have a purpose and that God will make sense of it for us in the end and even more importantly that God can bring the greatest good out of situations of suffering. That is why when we are suffering we come and pray before the cross. We unite our suffering to his suffering. He understands our suffering because He has also experienced it. We ask God to help us not to despair, but to trust that everything will make sense in the end.

 

When we encounter the death of loved ones, especially in a way that is not natural, through violence, or when a person is young, we ask, ‘Where is God now? How could God allow this to happen?’ Yet, if you look at the crucifixion, I’m sure many people there said the same thing. ‘Where is God now? How could God allow such a man to be crucified?’ And yet God was there in the heart of it. It was that act of suffering that reopened the possibility of eternal life for us. To accept that is to be saved. To reject that is to be lost. That’s why it is so important that we pray for people who have lost their way in the world, turned their back on God by the way they are living.

 

The mercy of God is infinite and something we can’t grasp. The saint and mystic known as Padre Pio (1887-1968), said that if God’s mercy was only what we think it is, then we would all end up in hell. In other words, we have such a small and limited idea of that mercy. Jesus went to the ends of the earth, to make it possible to get to heaven when we die. If that is true, then what is there to be afraid of, so long as we make an effort to repent of our sinfulness. Getting to heaven does not depend on us becoming holy enough, rather on us abandoning ourselves to God’s mercy. What matters is that we try to live as God asks us to. Effort is what matters.

 

So often people come to me, afraid that God will not forgive them because of things they have done. Yet, the whole purpose of the sacrifice of Christ was to forgive those very things that we are ashamed of and which cause us to be afraid of losing heaven, being lost. It also implies that we are thinking we must merit heaven, in some way; be good enough for heaven.

 

‘It is owing to his favor that salvation is yours through faith. This is not your own doing, it is God’s gift. Neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it. (Eph 2:8-9)

 

This is a reminder again that it doesn’t depend on us being good enough, since we can’t be, but accepting this gift that God offers us, the gift of eternal life. That is what God gave us in the first place and still wants for us.

 

Imagine that you went to great lengths to get an incredible gift for someone you love. You want them to receive that gift. You want them to realize what an incredible gift it is, so that it will bring them all the more happiness. You would hate for them not to receive it, since you went to such lengths to get it for them. That is what God’s giving us eternal life is about. God wants us to have this gift and it is a gift. God offers us that gift of eternal life with him. We just have to accept it and we accept it by the choices we make throughout our life.

 

Imagine if eternal life was not real? How would we face the death of our loved ones. But this gift is what gives us such great hope. We can be with our loved ones again if we choose for God.

 

Jesus also said there is one sin which is unforgivable. ‘Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.’ (Matt 12:21). What does that mean? The Holy Spirit is the love between God the Father and the Son. To blaspheme against the love of God is to reject it, which is to reject God. If we curse God and reject God, we have lost God, because God will never force us to love him. That doesn’t come down to one time saying something that is blasphemous. It is a continual state of mind that rejects, or curses God.

 

Christianity is probably the only religion that does not try to escape, or avoid suffering. God tells us that through suffering we are transformed. It is part of our journey to heaven, even though none of us want it. It is part of what forms us as human beings. You have probably encountered people who have suffered a lot, they are often the most compassionate.

 

No one wants to have to face the cross, but it also has its place. It is part of our path to heaven. 

‘It is owing to his favor that salvation is yours through faith. This is not your own doing, it is God’s gift. Neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it. (Eph 2:8-9)

23rd Sunday, Year C (Gospel: Luke 14:25-33) St. Carlo Acutis - world wide saint

St. Carlo Acutis (May 3, 91 - Oct 12, 2006)

All down through the ages, God continually raises up holy men and women to inspire others and help them come closer to him. Different saints often have different charisms, which are particularly suited to their time. One such saint is Carlo Acutis who is being canonized a saint this Sunday Sept, 6^th, 2025, along with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24.

I just want to share with you a little of the life of Carlo Acutis as his life is so much part of our time.

Blessed Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London, England, into a wealthy Italian business family to Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, members of wealthy Italian families. His father's family worked in the Italian insurance industry and his mother's ran a publishing company. They moved to Italy soon after his birth and he was cared for by Irish and Polish nannies.

Acutis’ mother, Antonia, says she doesn’t know how he came to love Jesus. He had been baptized as a baby, but the family didn’t practice the faith. Perhaps it was their Polish nanny who told Carlo about Jesus. Regardless of the source, Carlo had a deep love for Jesus even as a preschooler, asking his bemused mother if they could stop in to see Jesus when they walked past churches in their Milan neighborhood — and even insisting on taking flowers to place at the feet of the Blessed Mother.

Antonia wasn’t sure what to do with this piety in her young son, and she wasn’t prepared to answer his many questions. But as he asked, she began to wonder as well. His curiosity eventually prompted her to take theology classes; beyond just being back at Mass, Antonia was diving into her faith, and all because of Carlo. “He was like a little savior for me,” she said in an interview published in 2019.

Carlo’s longing for the Eucharist drove him to ask permission to receive earlier than was customary. At 7, Carlo received his first Communion and never missed Mass again. Not just Sunday Mass, either. Every day of his life, Carlo went to Mass. Every day, he stole a few minutes to pray in silence before the tabernacle. And while his parents sometimes went with him, Carlo often went alone. When they traveled, Carlo’s first order of business was to find a church and figure out Mass times. Whether or not his parents joined him, Carlo would be there. Every day.

And they traveled quite a bit. Carlo’s deep love of Mary (whom he called “the only woman in my life”) led the family to Marian apparition sites all over Europe. But their pilgrimages became more intentional when Carlo was 11 and got an idea.

After receiving his first Communion, Carlo had begun to lament the many, many people who don’t go to Mass. “They’ll stand in line for hours to go to a concert,” he would say, “but won’t stay even a moment before the tabernacle.” Eager to do something to draw souls to Jesus, young Carlo began to research Eucharistic miracles.

He was convinced that people wouldn’t be able to stay away from the holy Mass if they knew about the miracles of Lanciano and Poznan and the dozens of others recognized by the church. So Carlo began to research, dragging his parents from one shrine to another in order to take pictures for the website he was building.

Born the year of the launch of the worldwide web, Carlo was also something of a child prodigy when it came to computer skills. He was able to read and write at the age of 4. By age 9 he was reading books meant for the faculty of computer engineers at the University of Milan, referred to as La Statale, which is a renowned research facility.  His mother said he knew the importance of the internet from the beginning, not for a career purpose for himself, but for the importance of the evangelization of his faith.

He was asked to set up a web page for his parish and in high school began to set up a website on the cataloging of Eucharist Miracles and Marian Apparitions used by the Vatican. He launched it in 2004 and worked on it for two and a half years. He created a portable display along with the website cataloging 187 Eucharistic Miracles.

For all his technological skills, Carlo was a friendly, outgoing kid. He was so friendly that his family was reluctant to go on walks with him; Carlo knew everybody, it seemed and couldn’t help but stop to talk to every person he passed. He had a sensitive heart and was always looking out for those who were suffering: classmates whose parents were going through a divorce, kids who were being bullied.

Carlo’s approach was always friendship. And through that friendship, people were always drawn to Jesus. As pure and as pious as he was, nobody felt judged by the young saint. His uncle says that being with Carlo filled your heart and that joy left people seeking and wondering, as Carlo’s mother had years before. A young Hindu man who worked for Carlo’s family was baptized as a direct result of his friendship with Carlo, while many others returned to the faith.

Carlo was particularly close to the homeless people in his neighborhood, packing up food most days to take out to his friends on the street. Though his family was wealthy, Carlo had no patience for excess. He saved up his pocket money to buy a sleeping bag for a homeless friend, and when his mother suggested they buy Carlo such “luxuries” as a second pair of shoes, he revolted. Technology, though, wasn’t a luxury. It was an important part of his apostolate, and Carlo had no qualms about using three computers when building his website.

Through all this, every day: mass, the rosary, silent time before the tabernacle. Carlo insisted that holiness was impossible otherwise. “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven,” he would say, and nothing could get between him and his daily appointment with the Lord. “The more we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus,” Carlo said.

How did he have the time? In between teaching himself computer skills, playing soccer, riding his bike around Milan to visit the poor, teaching himself the saxophone, patiently explaining technology to his older relatives and making one movie after another? According to his mother, Carlo didn’t waste time on useless things. He limited himself to an hour a week of video games (because, he said, he didn’t want to become a slave to them) and focused the rest of his time on things that were valuable. But that didn’t exclude silly animations or videos of his dogs — Carlo knew that something doesn’t need to be catechetical to be valuable, and he enjoyed leisure all the more because its greatest value was in being fun.

Carlo hungered for heaven. “We have always been awaited in heaven,” he said, and throughout his life his eyes were fixed on eternity. So when, at 15, he went to the hospital with the flu and was diagnosed instead with an acute and untreatable leukemia, Carlo wasn’t upset. He was ready to go home. “I can die happy,” he told his mother, “because I haven’t wasted even a minute on things that aren’t pleasing to God.”

Within three days, Carlo Acutis was dead.

He was a remarkable young man, but he was an ordinary man. He had no visions. He didn’t levitate when he prayed. He just lived like heaven was real. He was completely himself, video games and computer programming and all, but entirely Christ’s.

 

Two Miracles

Part of the process of being made a saint, is to have two miracles attributed to the intercession of that person. The first miracle involved a boy from Brazil named Mattheus being healed from a serious birth defect called an annular pancreas after he and his mother asked Acutis to pray for his healing.

Mattheus was born in 2009 with a serious condition that caused him difficulty eating and serious abdominal pain. He was unable to keep any food in his stomach and vomited constantly.

By the time Mattheus was nearly four years old, he weighed only 20 pounds, and lived on a vitamin and protein shake, one of the few things his body could tolerate. He was not expected to live long.

His mother, Luciana Vianna, had spent years praying for his healing.

At the same time, a priest friend of the family, Fr. Marcelo Tenorio, learned online about the life of Carlo Acutis, and began praying for his beatification. In 2013 he obtained a relic from Carlo’s mother, and he invited Catholics to a Mass and prayer service in his parish, encouraging them to ask Acutis’ intercession for whatever healing they might need.

Mattheus’ mother heard about the prayer service. She decided she would ask Acutis to intercede for her son. In fact, in the days before the prayer service, Vianna made a novena for Acutis’ intercession, and explained to her son that they could ask Acutis to pray for his healing.

On the day of the prayer service, she took Mattheus and other family members to the parish.

Fr. Nicola Gori, the priest responsible for promoting Acutis’ sainthood cause, told Italian media what happened next:

“On October 12, 2013, seven years after Carlo’s death, a child, affected by a congenital malformation (annular pancreas), when it was his turn to touch the picture of the future blessed, expressed a singular wish, like a prayer: ‘I wish I could stop vomiting so much.’ Healing began immediately, to the point that the physiology of the organ in question changed,” Fr. Gori said.

On the way home from the Mass, Mattheus told his mother that he was already cured. At home, he asked for French fries, rice, beans, and steak – the favorite foods of his brothers.

He ate everything on his plate. He didn’t vomit. He ate normally the next day, and the next. Vianna took Mattheus to physicians, who were mystified by Mattheus’ healing.

 

On Feb. 22, 2020, Pope Francis approved the miracle paving the way for his beatification.

In May 2024, Pope Francis approved a second miracle attributed to Carlo: the unlikely recovery in 2022 of a Costa Rican woman who suffered a traumatic head injury in a bicycle accident while studying at a university in Florence, Italy. That miracle cleared the path to his canonization.

On his website, Carlo wrote a list of instructions for becoming holy, encouraging people to go to Mass daily and confession weekly. But his very first rule for becoming holy was this: “You must want it with all your heart.”

This is the legacy of Saint Carlo Acutis: an ordinary, modern kid who watched cartoons and used the internet and wanted holiness with all his heart. This is why the world loves him. Because he shows us that holiness is possible for every one of us even if you have an Instagram account even if you’re a gamer.

In his own words: ‘Holiness is possible for you, right now, but you have to want it.’

 

22nd Sunday Year C (Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14) Talking to God

 

All through our life we are continually in relationships. It’s what we are about. Different relationships can have different demands, but ultimately it is meant to be a two way thing. Can you imagine having a relationship with someone who eventually only came to you when they were in need of something, but no other time? I guess we would hardly even call it a relationship. Relationships also require work. If we don’t work at a relationship it breaks down.

 

The way we relate to each other and the way we relate to God is very similar. If we don’t communicate with God, there will be no relationship and the way we communicate with him is through prayer. Just like a relationship with another person, it isn’t just limited to certain times or places and it takes as many different forms as any relationship. We speak to God, we listen, we ask favors, we do things that God asks us to do because we love him, we spend time in his presence.

 

How do I speak to God, you might ask? the same way you would speak to anyone else. Through devotional prayers, like the rosary, the divine mercy chaplet and similar prayers, through reading Scripture. What often surprises people is that when we begin to communicate with God, God also communicates with us. God is in fact communicating with us all the time, but we often don’t hear it, because we are not listening, but as soon as we begin to pray, we start to notice it much more.

 

The best way to learn about prayer is to look to the Scriptures and see how the people of the Bible prayed. It says that God spoke to Moses face to face as a person talks to his friend. As well as talking to God directly, Moses continually interceded for the people when God was angry with them. Then he also defended God’s actions when the people were rebelling against God. Moses continually stepped into the breech between God and the people. He interceded for both sides. We are also called to intercede for the people around us and indeed for so many different needs in the world. I think we often underestimate the importance of our praying for other people.

 

Every so often we have a bad encounter with someone, who is just nasty, or hateful, or evil and it can be upsetting. I have found the Lord saying to me, ‘Now that they have your attention, pray for them.’ If someone is full of anger and hatred, they need spiritual help. Maybe the upsetting encounter we have had with people is also a sign to us to pray for that person. You may be the only one who does pray for them. This is where it is good to remember that God has us exactly where He wants us, at this exact time in history and the people we interact with are meant to be there.

 

Another form of prayer that we see very often in the Bible and it’s one we don’t usually think of, is prayer of praise, where people simply acknowledge, praise and thank God, for all that He does for us. One of the most beautiful examples is the Magnificat, where Our Lady meeting Elizabeth gives thanks for all that has happened:

‘My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior.’

 

When we speak to God, we don’t usually begin by praising and thanking God, but that’s what all the great figures of the Bible did, even in desperate situations.

 

Daniel

In the prophet Daniel, when God reveals to Daniel the answer that the king is looking for, his first reaction is to praise God:

May the name of God be blessed for ever and ever,

since wisdom and power are his alone...

To you, God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise

for having given me wisdom and strength (Dan 2:20, 23).

 

The three men in the furnace

In the same book, Daniel and two others refuse to worship a statue of the king. As a result they are thrown into a fire to be burnt alive.  As they begin to pray to God to help them, Azariah begins:

May you be blessed and revered, Lord, God of our ancestors,

may your name be held glorious for ever. (Dan 3:26)

 

Then the other men begin to sing as well:

May you be blessed, Lord, God of our ancestors,

be praised and extolled for ever.

Blessed be your glorious and holy name... (Dan 3:52)

 

The message to us is to praise God no matter what and not just for what suits us, which is what we are inclined to do. 

 

 

Tobit’s prayer when he goes blind

When Tobit goes blind, he prays to God to restore his sight to him, but notice how he begins the prayer:

You are just, O Lord, and just are all your works.

All your ways are grace and truth,

and you are the Judge of the world.

Therefore Lord, remember me... (Tobit 3:2-3)

 

Sarah cries out to God in her distress

You are blessed, O God of mercy!

May your name be blessed for ever,

and may all things you have made

bless you everlastingly.

And now I turn my face

and I raise my eyes to you...  (Tobit 3:11-12)

 

Tobias and Sarah pray on their wedding night

You are blessed, O God of our fathers;

blessed too is your name

for ever and ever.

Let the heavens bless you

and all things you have made for evermore (Tobit 8:5b)

 

‘In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thes 5:18)

 

In Ireland people always talk about the weather because it is constantly changing. People tend to say, ‘It’s a beautiful day, thank God.’ But if it’s a rainy dark day, people tend to just say that, ‘What an awful day.’ I like to add, ‘Yes. Thank God.’ People look at me surprised. But why should we only thank God when things suit us? God should be praised in all circumstances, no matter what.

 

Our Father

When the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, He gave them the Our Father. But notice that they didn’t ask Jesus to teach them a prayer, but how to pray. So the Our Father isn’t just a prayer, but it is a structure of how to pray and if you think about it, the first half of the Our Father is all about acknowledging God’s greatness and holiness. Only in the second half do we ask for our needs and this is what Jesus taught them when they asked how to pray. So the Lord is telling us always to acknowledge and praise God first.

 

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

If you think of the Sunday mass, the first thing we do after acknowledging our sins is to glorify God: ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you…’ Only after praising God and then listening to God’s word and then stating what we believe, then we ask for our needs.

The greatest prayer we have is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There is nothing greater than this. You may not even think of it as a prayer, rather as something you just go to. But there is nothing else like it, because it is the offering of God the Son, to God the Father, at Calvary. In each mass time stands still and we are present at Calvary with Jesus being offered to the Father. That’s why it is so powerful and that’s why we pray for everything and everyone in each mass. Then we also receive Jesus himself in the Eucharist. There is no more intimate meeting with God than this. His body is united with our body.

 

As well as reading the Scriptures, which are the living and inspired Word of God, there is also praying in silence, or just being still in God’s presence. It is just the same as a couple being together without needing to talk. We are not used to silence and often not comfortable with it, but this is where it can be a great help to learn some method to help you be still in prayer.

 

I know it is tempting to say that we don’t have time, there are just too many demands on us in daily life, but if you think about it, no matter how busy we are we never stop sleeping or eating, because we know they are essential for our bodies. Prayer is essential for our spirit, which is just as real and which is the part of us that will live on after our bodies die. We will be with God for all eternity, God willing, and now is the time to begin that relationship.

 

One of our difficulties when it comes to praying is that we are not so good at relating to or believing in the world of the spirit. In the western world we tend to be much more at home with the material world. In the east, they are actually more at home with the spiritual world.

 

If you feel that you can’t pray, or don’t want to pray, just ask yourself this: would you really expect to have a relationship with someone without speaking to them at all, or only asking them for your needs? Do you really expect to have a relationship with God without communicating with him at all?

 

‘In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thes 5:18)

 

 

 

21st Sunday Year C (Gospel: Luke 13:22-30) Try your best to enter by the narrow door

 

 

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” St. Pope John Paul II

 

All of us are looking for happiness and Jesus reminds us that we will only find that happiness and fulfillment in him. Things of earth will never fulfill us, no matter how wonderful they may seem. Not even the person we love most in the whole world is capable of completely fulfilling us, but once we realize that, it makes it easier, because then we are not expecting earthly things to fulfill us and in fact then we will be able to enjoy our world and our loved ones even more, because we are not asking the impossible from them. God has given us a beautiful world and many wonderful things to enjoy. Have fun. He wants us to.

 

Jesus also says that the path that leads us to him, to our fulfillment, is not an easy one. Why is that?

 

Child prodigy Akim Camara plays with Andre Rieu

Great athletes, or musicians, are not that way when they are born. They are born with gifts in those areas, but it is only after years of training and guidance that they reach their full potential, even extraordinary people like Mozart. He still had to learn how to play the piano and how to write music.

 

God sees our full potential as human beings and He wants us to reach our full potential, because we will give him the greatest glory by becoming our best selves. ‘The glory of God is man fully alive.’ – St. Irenaeus. The more we develop our gifts and talents, the more glory we give to God, because we are then reflecting God’s goodness. But as with any great artist or musician, it takes years of training, in fact a lifetime of training and that is a big part of what our life on earth is about. The daily trials we go through are the main part of our training, of our being formed and that’s why Jesus says it is a narrow winding path.

 

Being faithful to God’s Commandments in the middle of things going wrong, family members becoming sick, or dying at a young age, marriage breakdown, being attacked or exploited by other people. Each time we are faced with difficulties we have a choice as to how to respond to them. We can seek revenge and turn to evil, or we can try and sort it out justly, with the least damage all round. We always have the choice to bless or to curse. Each time we are willing to keep going, without wishing evil, or seeking revenge, we grow another bit.

 

When we become demoralized by our own weaknesses, we have the choice to give up, or to get up again and again and again. That is the narrow winding path. Being faithful and persevering is one of the biggest challenges. Being faithful to God’s Commandments and teachings when the world around us calls us to take the easier way, that is the narrow winding path.

 

What we see as things going wrong in our life, are part of the narrow winding path. They play a crucial part in how we are formed. We don’t see that at the time, but that is what is happening.

 

You may remember the story of Roy Shoeman, a Harvard professor and atheist who became a Catholic. We had him here to give his testimony. He grew up in a practicing Jewish family, but after going through college he lost his faith. At the age of 29 he had become a Harvard professor and reached the top of his career, but then he began to fall into a deep depression. He felt he had achieved all he could, but that he didn’t have any purpose. One day when he was out walking in nature, God granted him an extraordinary experience and pulled back the veil between heaven and earth, allowing him to see the whole spiritual world. He saw his whole life and how God had been with him through everything. He saw how every part of his life played its part, especially the most difficult times. He saw that God was with him through everything and that his purpose was primarily to serve and worship God, as it is for all of us. Needless to mention this experience brought about his conversion. But I thought it was interesting how God showed him that the times of suffering he went through were some of the most important times in his journey. We tend to see them as failures, or things not working out. From God’s perspective they play a vital part in our journey. The most difficult experiences we go through, are the ones where we have the potential to grow the most. That was one of the things that God showed him.

 

Roy Shoeman, Harvard atheist become Catholic 

Our relationship with Jesus, is what gives us the strength to keep going on the winding path that leads us to heaven. We often think that we are on our own, but we are not. That is why it is so important that we keep coming back to the mass to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, to listen to his teachings, to repent of our sins through confession. Every time we do that, we are staying close to him, so that He can help us, which is all He wants to do.

 

Many people are afraid they won’t be good enough to get to heaven. I think it is a very normal fear. The truth is none of us are good enough by ourselves, but God isn’t asking us to follow this narrow winding path by ourselves. God is with us and even though we don’t always feel his presence, that doesn’t mean He is not there. If God really wasn’t with us, we would cease to exist. The sad thing is seeing so many people turning to everything except Jesus, to find happiness, but of course they don’t find happiness.

 

I have no doubt that one of the reasons why the suicide rate is so high, is because so many people have lost faith and so they don’t see any purpose to their life and they don’t know where to turn to when things go wrong, especially if they are going through times of struggle. If we have a sense of why we are here and what awaits us, that gives us the strength to follow the narrow winding path, which is the only one that leads to God.

 

In the Gospel Jesus says, ‘Not everyone is strong enough.’ The strength we need is the willingness to keep getting up each time we fall and that strength itself comes from God. It doesn’t matter if you fall six times, so long as you get up seven times.

 

Jesus also says here that not everyone will go to heaven. There is a point where the door will be closed and waiting to the last minute to put things right, is too late. ‘But I love God and I’m a good person.’ This is something you hear a lot, and what it implies is that that is enough. But Jesus says that is not enough. ‘It is not those who say ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven’ (Mt 7:21). To say I know God, or believe in God, is not enough. That is what Jesus is saying in this Gospel. We are called to do as God asks us, not just say that we know him. To love God is to keep his Commandments. ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’ (Jn 14:15).

 

Jesus says, ‘Strive to enter by the narrow door.’ He doesn’t say, ‘You must enter by the narrow door,’ but strive to, or ‘Try your best,’ in another translation. What is important is our effort, not our success. It is God himself who makes up the difference

 

The narrow winding path is not an easy one, but it is the only one worth while, because it is the one that leads to our happiness.

 

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted.” St. Pope John Paul II.

18th Sunday Yr C (Gospel: Luke 12:13-21) ‘This very night the demand will be made for your soul’

 

After the tsunami in Indonesia 2005

Whenever there is a natural, or human disaster, especially when it affects us directly, it makes us stop and think. In Feb 2018, in Parkland, Florida, there was the horrific school massacre, where seventeen students were shot dead. One minute they were just at school as normal, the next minute they were dead. Think of any one of those teenagers who died. One moment they were just getting on with their school day, then suddenly they were before God in another world, knowing what their whole life was about. That could be any of us.

In hurricane Ian in 2022, 160 lost their lives. One minute they are just preparing for the hurricane, not expecting anything other than a normal hurricane. The next minute they find themselves before God for their judgement.

C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘God shouts to us [in our] pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’

If you were suddenly told, as in the Gospel, ‘This very night the demand will be made for your soul,’ What would you focus on for the rest of the day? Would I be worried about paying bills, or loans, or focusing on a new car I had just bought? I doubt it. I’d imagine my focus would turn to the people I love and also to wondering how I have lived my life so far.

 At the moment, many people in our society—including Christians—are living as though there is no after-life, as though our life on earth is everything. At funerals I often hear people talking about the dead person as though that were it. Their existence is over. You hear people say, ‘I will never be able to speak to them again, or see them again.’ If that were so, then we might as well grab all we can and make our life as comfortable as possible, because we only have one chance. 

But our faith tells us something completely different. Perhaps the most important thing it tells us, is that we will not find full happiness in this life, but in the next, if we choose God. Complete happiness is not to be found in this life. We will have moments of great happiness, and hopefully we will find overall contentment, but that’s about as good as it gets. Once we realize that, it makes things easier as we won’t be expecting to find complete fulfilment here. St. Paul wrote: ‘If our faith in Christ is for this world only, then of all people we are the most to be pitied.’ (1 Cor 15:19).

The grotto in Lourdes where Our Lady appeared in 1858

When Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes in 1858, one of the things she said to her was, ‘I cannot promise you happiness in this life, but in the next’ and in Fatima she said, ‘If people knew what heaven was like, they would do everything to change their ways.’ The point of that message and of the teachings of Jesus, is to remind us not to ‘miss the bus,’ so to speak. It is important that we don’t forget what our life is really about. We are only on this earth for a short time. It is a time of preparation for the world to come. Use it well.

Jesus used various parables addressing this. The parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30). A man going on a journey entrusts his property to three servants. To the first he gave ten talents, which actually meant money. To the second five talents and to the third, one, each according to his ability. The first two invested what they had and made more. They used the gifts God had given them, as God expects us to do with whatever gifts, talents, money He has entrusted to us. The third man didn’t invest it. He just buried it and then gave it back to his master as he received it. He was condemned for not doing anything. The Lord is telling us that He expects us to make good use of what He has given us, whether a great amount or very little. God holds us accountable and we should take it seriously. It is not something we should be afraid of, but responsible for. It is interesting that in the Bible people who love God are referred to as God-fearing people, not God-loving. There is a certain loving-fear, you might call it, when our faith grows.

There is also the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt 25:31-46), where those who lived righteously—the sheep—are commended by God for how they lived. Jesus says, ‘When I was hungry you fed me, sick and you visited me, naked and you clothed me.’ They ask, ‘Lord when did we feed you, or come to your aid when you were in need?’ Jesus says, ‘Whatever you did for the least of my brothers you did for me.’

Then the other group—the goats—who did not take care of those around them are condemned. They say, ‘Lord when did we not feed you, or clothe you, or sick and in prison and visit you?’ And Jesus says, ‘Whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me.’ And it finishes by saying they went off to eternal punishment and the others to eternal life.’ God holds us accountable. It’s interesting that one of the satanic symbols is the goat.

In Jesus’ time greed for money was just as much a problem as it is now and it will probably always be that way. When this man said to Jesus, ‘Tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance,’ Jesus pointed out to the disciples the danger of this desire. He said, ‘Watch out for this.’ ‘A person’s life is not made secure by what he owns.’ The problem is that our society tells us the opposite. We are all the time being told that if we have enough of everything, we will be happy, but that is not what the Lord teaches us. That’s not where our happiness comes from.

There was a priest called Benedict Groeschel who founded the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in the Bronx in New York. He was a great preacher and he tells the story of a man he knew, an extremely wealthy man. At a particular function this man spoke to Fr. Groeschel, and he said, ‘You know Father, I have more money than I could ever spend, or use and I would really like to be able to put it to good use.’ Fr. Groeschel suggested that he could make a donation to one of the orphanages they run, or something similar. But by the end of the evening, the man had not agreed to part with one cent of his money. He was possessed by his wealth. He knew he had way more than he could use, but he was still unable to part with it. Jesus said, ‘How hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt 19:23)

 In confession I have heard so many heart-breaking stories of families divided over inheritance. It is so sad, because it is not important. Naturally, it is not good when someone in a family is left out of their fair share of what is coming to them, but sooner or later we will leave it all behind anyway. ‘There is no hitch on the hearse,’ as they say! Is it really worth causing such division in a family for this? I suppose it is a sign again that we believe we will find happiness if we have enough of everything materially. Our spirit can never be content with just material things and that is why there is always this deeper longing in us for ‘something,’ although we’re often not quite sure what that something is.

God has made us in such a way that we can only be fulfilled in him. It’s interesting that the third most popular areas of sales in bookstores to do with the spiritual, which is basically the search for God. Everyone is searching, even if we are searching in the wrong place.

A man told me one time that he had worked hard to make as much money as he could for his family and he did. But in the process he alienated himself from his family. Now he had plenty of money, but no family.

Wealth, fame and earthly honors are good and we should use our talents to the best of our ability, but they are not what counts when we come before God for our judgement. We will be judged by how we have lived, how we have loved and how we have honored God.

There is nothing wrong with having wealth and it is a blessing if you have done

Our time here on earth is a time for love and service; to choose for God or not; and this is a choice that each one of us has to make individually. That is why each week we come to listen to the Word of God and to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, so that we remember what our life is about. The key is in making sure that God is at the centre. Otherwise we may forget what we are here for.

 

‘Fool, this very night the demand will be made for your soul;

and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?’

 

 

17th Sunday Yr C (Gospel: Luke 11:1-13) Ask and it will be given to you

 

 

There is an American writer called Scott Hahn, who used to be a Presbyterian and very anti-Catholic, but through his own studies ended up converting and becoming a Catholic. He is a brilliant writer and teacher of the faith. His own conversion story called Rome Sweet Home, is well worth reading. He now writes and teaches as a Catholic theologian in Stubenville University. In one of his talks he mentions that he had arranged to have a public debate with a Muslim, about the differences between the two faiths. Before they had the debate he met the Muslim and he mentioned to him that he would be talking about the fact that Christians understand God as a loving Father who looks after his children. Before he was able to go any farther, he said that the other man got upset and said that it is not right to talk about God as a Father. He said God is master and that it was insulting to speak about him as Father. The Muslim ended up refusing to have the debate at all. Scott says that this really brought home to him the difference in the way we understand God. 

 

Jesus taught us to talk about and address God in a way that was scandalous for many people then and now. The Jews in Jesus’ time were scandalised that Jesus would talk about God as Father, especially the way Jesus used the word ‘Abba.’ Once when I was in Israel I remember hearing a boy address his dad as ‘Abba.’ It really brought home to me what it meant. The idea of addressing God as ‘daddy’ is still strange to us, and yet that’s what Jesus did.

 

Recently a deacon friend of mine told me that a Muslim friend of his was asking him about our Church and about the mass. The deacon was explaining to him that in each mass we believe that the bread and wine really and truly become the Body and Blood of Christ. The Muslim asked again, ‘You really believe that God become present in a piece of bread and wine?’ And my friend said ‘Yes.’ And the Muslim’s response was fascinating. He said, ‘And this is how they dress?!’

 

God is all-powerful and doesn’t need us in any way, yet God invites us to play a part in what happens in the world. He asks us to take part in his creation, especially by interceding for each other, by being responsible for our actions. That is the action of a good parent with their child. Any parent doesn’t need their children’s help, especially when the children are small, but they love to allow the children to take part in things, for the sheer joy of having them there and helping them to learn. God does the same with us, even though there is the risk of us making a mess of things, which we regularly do. God invites us to be part of his work on earth.

In the first reading it says that God went down to see if what He had heard about Sodom and Gomorrah was really true. That is saying that people should always be given a fair chance to have their side of the story heard. God doesn’t act by hearsay and neither should we.

 

It also says that God is a moral God, who will hold us accountable for our actions. The idea that God was a moral God was something completely new for that time. People believed that the gods did whatever they wanted, with no sense of right or wrong and no regard for people’s wellbeing. God is showing us that there is a universal moral law, which cannot be changed. A modern-day error, is that we can decide what is right or wrong. If enough people decide that something is acceptable, such as abortion, then it is acceptable. But God says no, what is wrong is wrong and doesn’t change, even if the majority of people decide that it is ok. In Isaiah it says, ‘Woe to those who call good evil and evil good’ (Is 5:20). Doing that is twisting God’s word, but we see it happening all the time in our society.

 

Then Abraham intercedes for the people of the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, which God is threatening to destroy and in the classic Middle-Eastern way, he bargains his way down to the best deal. Abraham actually challenges God and God allows him to. God showed him what He intended to do, so that Abraham would intercede for those people. He wanted Abraham to be involved. God also wants us to be involved in his world. He wants us to pray and intercede for the world around us. You are in exactly the right place God wants you to be and part of what God calls us to do is to pray for those around us. You may be the only one who is praying for those people. Take it seriously. We have been blessed with the gift of faith and that is part of what God asks us to do; to intercede for those around us.

 

People often ask, ‘Does God have a particular plan for me?’ The answer is yes, and part of that plan is to intercede for those around you. It is a real mission and an important one.

 

Think for a moment. What is the most important thing that we can pray for each day? The most important thing to pray for, is for those who will die today, that God may be merciful to them, so that they will go to heaven. In 1917 in Fatima, Our Lady gave the children a prayer and asked that it be added to the rosary at the end of each decade:

‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell.

Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of your mercy.’

The fact that the Church added this prayer to the rosary says a lot. It is saying that heaven and hell are real and people who reject God can go to hell, which is why it is so important that we pray for those around us.

 

Everyone around us who dies each day, goes somewhere; either to be with God forever in heaven, or to lose God forever because of how they have lived and what they have chosen. Many people probably won’t be able to come directly into God’s presence, because of sinfulness that they have not asked forgiveness for, or have not atoned for and so God allows them to go through a final purification, or purgation that we call purgatory. That is one of God’s gifts of mercy to us.

 

Sadly, many people reject the idea of purgatory. But think of it this way and this is an extreme example, but it makes the point. Suppose that the day before he died, Hitler realized all the evil he had done and repented and sincerely begged God for mercy. God has told us that He is infinitely just, but also infinitely merciful and that anyone who sincerely repents will experience his mercy. So does that mean that the next day when he died he would go straight to heaven? That would be a mockery of God’s justice. So where does he go? There must be some way for him to atone for what he has done. That is what we call purgatory.

 

Then comes the question that everyone asks: ‘Does God hear my prayers? And does God answer my prayers?’ From what Jesus says in this Gospel passage, God always hears and God always answers. If that is not true, then Jesus was lying. ‘Ask and you will receive… The one who asks always receives.’

 

Now the question comes up with most of us, ‘How come I’m always praying for certain intentions and they often aren’t answered?’ God sees a bigger picture than we do. God sees the whole picture. What we ask for is not always the wisest thing to ask for. If your five year old son asked for a chainsaw for his birthday, hopefully you wouldn’t give it to him. The child may think that you are really mean and never give him what he asks for, but you can see a bigger picture than he can, because you are older and wiser. God is the same with us. God always answers our prayers, otherwise Jesus is a liar, but He doesn’t always answer them in the way that we expect, or understand, or even recognise. That is where we have to believe and trust that God knows what He is doing and God is looking after us. God always hears us and God always answers us.

 

When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, He gives them the Our Father. Note, they didn’t ask him for ‘a prayer’, but how to pray. So the Our Father is not just a prayer, but it is teaching us how to pray.

 

The first half of the Our Father is acknowledging God, his holiness and that his will may be done. Only in the second half do we ask for our needs. So even if you only take that much away from the Our Father, remember to always start by praising and thanking God for all that we have before you ask for what you need. That’s why at the beginning of the mass each Sunday, we pray the Gloria. We praise and acknowledge God. It is only after listening to the readings that we ask for our own needs in the intercessions. This is how God teaches us to pray.

 

Perhaps the most unexpected thing of all is that Jesus teaches us to pray to the point of being annoying, the way a child will keep asking you for the same thing until you give in. This is how Jesus tells us to pray. Be persistent, until God gives in!

 

'Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened to you.'