Exclusion and Healing

14 February 2009

Season of Growth, Year B

6th Sunday (B) – Leviticus 13; Mark 1:40-45 During the week we have heard many stories from the bushfire-ravaged centres of Victoria – many incredibly harrowing and horrific of great loss of life and possessions; some magnificent and miraculous of escape and rescue. Among these stories we have also been presented with others as victims…

Exclusion and Embrace

14 February 2009

Season of Growth, Year B

6th Sunday (B) – Leviticus 13; Mark 1:40-45 It did not take long during the week before we began to hear victims of the terrible bushfires that ravaged Victoria last weekend ask why did this happen? Who is to blame? Was it the fault of the arsonists who lit the fires, or the greenies who…

Immediately

8 February 2009

Season of Growth, Year B

During this liturgical year, we read from the Gospel of Mark. Each Gospel has its own style and personality. In John there are long discourses from Jesus with rich theological insights; Luke, written to a Gentile audience, has beautiful parables like the prodigal son and the good Samaritan; while Matthew, written to a Jewish audience,…

The continuing legacy of St Paul

3 February 2009

Papal doc, Year of Paul

Concluding our catechesis on Saint Paul today, we look briefly at the end of his earthly life and his ongoing legacy. Though there is no account of Paul’s death in the New Testament, a strong tradition holds that he was martyred in Rome during the reign of Nero and buried along the Via Ostiense on…

Teaching with authority

31 January 2009

Season of Growth, Year B

The words and teaching of Jesus were always closely united. This was clearly the intention of God from the beginning – this was the way that he wanted for his people. God wants us to know the truth, and he wants us to be changed by our encounter with him. This is only possible when…

Pastoral Epistles: Letters to Timothy and Titus

27 January 2009

Papal doc, Year of Paul

In our catechesis on the writings of Saint Paul, we come now to the Pastoral Epistles, the two Letters addressed to Timothy and the one to Titus. Although their authorship remains debated, these three Letters, while subsequent to the central years of Paul’s life and activity, clearly appeal to his authority and draw from his…

Conversion of St Paul

25 January 2009

Teaching

During the year of St Paul, we celebrate today the great feast of the conversion of Saul, scrupulous Pharisee, student of the synagogue of Tarsus in Cilicia and of Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem. All that he knew, all that he had studied with such great fervour had only served to convince him that Jesus was…

Conversion of St Paul

24 January 2009

Bible, Teaching

During the year of St Paul, we celebrate today the great feast of the conversion of Saul, scrupulous Pharisee, student of the synagogue of Tarsus in Cilicia and of Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem. All that he knew, all that he had studied with such great fervour had only served to convince him that Jesus was…

Samuel and discipleship

18 January 2009

Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B

The call to discipleship is strongly expressed in these readings – Andrew inviting his brother Simon to meet the Lord. Having spent the week at Summer School of Evangelisation in Bathurst, many young people want to know how to discern the will of the Lord. In the first reading from 1 Samuel 3, we see…

Colossians and Ephesians

13 January 2009

Papal doc, Year of Paul

Continuing our catechesis on Saint Paul, we turn to the “twin” letters: Colossians and Ephesians. Similar in language, they are unique in developing the theme of Christ as “head” – kephalé – not only of the Church, but also of the entire universe. These letters assure us that Christ is above any hostile earthly power. Christ…

Baptism of the Lord

11 January 2009

New Creation, Teaching

In the ministry of John the Baptist, the son of the priest Zechariah, we see the ritual washing (the mikvah) take on a new significance, as a sign of God’s new work of creation. Now the presence of God will not be confined to the temple – the curtain in the temple that separated the…

The Good Life

9 January 2009

Fr Richard John Neuhaus, the publisher and editor of the iconic journal ‘First Things’ died last night in New York from cancer. This is a reflection that he wrote on death back in 2000:We are born to die. Not that death is the purpose of our being born, but we are born toward death, and…

True Worship

6 January 2009

Papal doc, Year of Paul

At the beginning of this New Year, I offer all of you my cordial good wishes! In the coming months, may our minds and hearts be opened ever more fully to Christ, following the example of Saint Paul, whose life and doctrine we have been considering during this Pauline Year. Today we turn to the…

Epiphany

4 January 2009

Christmas, Epiphany, Seasons

Paul reveals (Eph 3:5-6) that in the visit of the Magi we see not a new plan, but the long hidden plan of God to include all people in his inheritance, his body and his promises. Recorded at St Michael’s, 9.30am (8’20”) Guitar by Dan Mueller.Play MP3

Holy Family – 28 Dec 2008

28 December 2008

Christmas, Seasons

On this feast we reflect about being part of a human family, and can be led deeper into the mystery of God and the way that in scripture we are often presented with feminine images of God. For example, God is ‘compassionate’ – but the Hebrew word for this ‘Rakham’ also means womb, so when…

Christmas Day

26 December 2008

Christmas, Seasons

Following from the Gospel of Luke (2:1-14) of Midnight Mass, we reflect on what the word ‘glory’ means. It is based on the Greek word ‘doxa’ and the Hebrew word ‘kabod’ – which means weight/significance/substance. We experience a glimpse of the glory of God when we look up at the night sky. Exodus 33 tells…

Saying ‘yes’ to God

21 December 2008

Advent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B

Advent Sunday 4 (Year B) – 21 Dec 2008 We are presented with the powerful image of the virgin Mary,’deeply disturbed’ by the angel Gabriel’s message – and yet she says ‘yes’ to the Lord with all her heart. The great contrast is between Mary’s ‘yes’ and the desire of King David (2 Sam) to…

Advent Homilies

14 December 2008

Advent, Seasons

Advent Sunday 3 (Year B) – 14 Dec 2008 – 6pmBased on Isaiah 61 – “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for the Lord has anointed me. He sent me to bring good news to the poor…” This text is fulfilled in the person of Jesus, but each one of us…

The Church’s Sacramental life

9 December 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

As we continue our catechesis on the writings of Saint Paul, I wish today to consider some of the ways in which this great Apostle contributes to our understanding of the Church’s sacramental life. Baptism, he explains, is a sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ. We die to sin, and we rise with…

Adam and Christ

2 December 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

The Apostle’s teaching on the relation between Adam and Christ In our continuing catechesis on Saint Paul, we now consider the Apostle’s teaching on the relation between Adam, the first man, and Christ, the second Adam (cf. 1 Cor 15:22.45; Rom 5:12-21). Paul’s teaching on the sin of Adam and its disastrous consequences for the…

Faith and works

25 November 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

In our continuing catechesis on Saint Paul, we now consider his teaching on faith and works in the process of our justification. Paul insists that we are justified by faith in Christ, and not by any merit of our own. Yet he also emphasises the relationship between faith and those works which are the fruit…

Paul of Tarsus

22 November 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

We have concluded our reflections on the Twelve Apostles, called directly by Jesus during his earthly life. Today, we begin to examine the figures of other important early Church personalities. They also spent their lives for the Lord, the Gospel and the Church. They are men and also women who, as Luke writes in the…

The question of justification

18 November 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

On the journey we are making under St Paul’s guidance, let us now reflect on a topic at the centre of the controversies of the century of the Reformation: the question of justification. How does man become just in God’s eyes? When Paul met the Risen One on the road to Damascus he was an…

On the last things

11 November 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

The subject of the Resurrection on which we reflected last week unfolds a new perspective, that of the expectation of the Lord’s return. It thus brings us to ponder on the relationship among the present time, the time of the Church and of the Kingdom of Christ, and the future (éschaton) that lies in store…

The centrality of the Resurrection

4 November 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain… and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15: 14-17). With these strong words from the First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul makes clear the decisive importance he attributes to the Resurrection of Jesus. In…

A gospel of grace

28 October 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

In the personal experience of St Paul there is an incontrovertible factor: while he was at first a persecutor and perpetrated violence against Christians, from the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus he switched to the side of the Crucified Christ, making Christ his raison d’être and the reason for his preaching….

The Christology of Paul

21 October 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

In the Catecheses of these past weeks we have meditated on St Paul’s “conversion”, the result of his personal encounter with the crucified and Risen Jesus, and we asked ourselves what relationship the Apostle to the Gentiles had with the earthly Jesus. Today I would like to speak of the teaching that St Paul bequeathed…

St Paul and the Church

14 October 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

In last Wednesday’s Catechesis I spoke of Paul’s relationship with the pre-Paschal Jesus in his earthly life. The question was: “What did Paul know about Jesus’ life, his words, his Passion?”. Today I would like to speak about St Paul’s teaching on the Church. We must start by noting that this word “Chiesa” in Italian as in French “Église”…

St Paul and Jesus

7 October 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

In the last Catecheses on St Paul, I spoke of his encounter with the Risen Christ that profoundly changed his life and then of his relationship with the Twelve Apostles called by Jesus – especially his relationship with James, Cephas and John – and of his relationship with the Church in Jerusalem. The question remains…

Paul’s relationship with the Twelve

30 September 2008

Papal doc, Year of Paul

Paul’s relationship with the Twelve was always one of respect and veneration that did not fail when he defended the truth of the Gospel, which is nothing if not Jesus Christ, the Lord. Let us reflect today on two episodes that show the veneration and at the same time the freedom with which the Apostle…

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