Matthew
A vineyard must be fruitful
5 October 2014
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A
One of the things about spending the first half of September walking 320km across Spain was that it forced you to slow right down. Literally. Now that I’m home again, it can be tempting to revert back to the usual pace of life and fill every spare moment with the usual distractions. But at least…
Changed into glory with the Lord
15 March 2014
Lent, New Creation, Radio Program, Seasons, Teaching
In the journey through Lent each year, the Church leads us first out into the wilderness to be with Jesus during his temptations, and then on the second Sunday of Lent his three closest disciples join Jesus as they journey up a high mountain. The strange event which the bible calls Jesus being transfigured is…
O happy fault of Adam
9 March 2014
At the Easter Vigil, there is an especially poignant moment during the singing of the Easter Proclamation, or the Exsultet, when the deacon or priest sings: “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer.” (Roman Missal II translation) As we set out on the journey of Lent,…
Worry
2 March 2014
This Sunday, Bishop Peter Ingham’s Lenten Pastoral message – “This is Christian Hope: That the Future is in God’s Hands” – replaced the homily in all churches across the Diocese. You can watch the video here. Consequently, I did not preach nor record a homily this week. However, the homily from three years, recorded at St…
Called to be perfect
23 February 2014
Source: www.shinheechin.com No one could deny that the Jewish law sets a very high standard. In this reading from Leviticus chapter 19, we’re told to “Be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy.” Be holy as God is holy? Seriously? The Gospel today (Matthew 5: 38-48) concludes with Jesus…
The law completed
16 February 2014
Bible, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A
The Jewish law, especially the 613 mitzvah or commandments found in the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures / Old Testament) – with 365 prohibitions (You shall not…) and 248 prescriptions (Honour your father and mother; Keep holy the Sabbath day…), was a colossal achievement. The whole of the Jewish nation -…
A salted earth
9 February 2014
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A
The writings of the prophet Isaiah continue to echo across the centuries to provide a challenge for us; they were certainly well-known at the time of Jesus and seem to provide the background for the teaching that Jesus gives us in the second part of the sermon on the mount. The call for Israel was…
Joseph as model in the holy family
29 December 2013
Although each of the five stories that St Matthew tells in the beginning of his Gospel about the birth of Jesus ends with a statement such as “this occurred so that words spoken by the prophet may be fulfilled,” the final line of the Gospel tonight, that Jesus “will be called a Nazarene” does not…
But I say to you
12 February 2011
Often we imagine – to tell you the truth – that the teaching of Jesus was much softer that the hard edges of the laws of Moses. Yet – to be honest with you – what we discover in today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:17-37) is the very opposite of this. In the face of an ages’…
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