The Pharisees had complained to the Lords disciples why does your master eat with sinners and tax collectors and the Lord compared Himself to the physician. He says that the healthy do not need the doctor, but the sick do. And so since all of us are sinners and therefore spiritually sick, He has come to heal us all. In today’s passage from St. Matthew’s Gospel, we’re told that it’s John’s disciples that came to Jesus, although the other evangelists tells us the Pharisees came with them. But in either case, John’s disciples use the Pharisees as an example, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not”? This sounds like a criticism of the Lord and of course of His disciples. And John’s disciples are to be blamed for the attitude they’ve adopted towards Our Lord. They felt envious because of the fact that Our Lord was drawing disciples to Himself and the people were following Him. They complained to John, “The man you bore testimony to, He is baptising down the river and everybody is going to Him”. To which John replies, “He must increase and I decrease”. John’s disciples had great loyalty to John, but John constantly pointed them towards the one who was to come. John had been critical of the Pharisees and John had been praising Our Lord and therefore all the more reason for John’s disciples to be conscience of what they were saying. And so when they come to the Lord “Why is it that we, and the Pharisees fast but your disciples do not?”… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Our Blessed Lord had worked a number of miracles which were obviously the work of God. And so we notice that St. Matthew tells us soon after the Mount of the Beatitudes, the delivery of the Beatitudes, then the teaching that followed, that a leper came to Our Lord and said, “Lord, if you want to, if you will it, you can cure me.” By this he was showing that he knew the Lord had power, but what he doubted was the will. The Lord said, “Of course I want to be cured and instantly he was cured”. And then there was a centurion who came, or rather sent messengers, “My servant is sick at home, in terrible pain”. I will come and heal him Myself. The centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, say the word and my servant will be cured”. The centurion went on to profess his faith in our Lord’s divine power. Then there were the demoniacs, whom our Lord commanded and the demons left them instantly. Then there was the incident, crossing the sea with the boat about to be swamped and He got up and commanded and the sea went quiet and the wind stopped and the men in the boat marvelled, “What kind of man is this? That even the wind and the sea obey Him”. So in many of these ways, Our Lord shows His divinity, teaching us the truth of the incarnation. St. Matthew continues in today’s Gospel in chapter nine, to tell us again another incident which demonstrates our Lord’s divinity. Jesus got back in the boat, they crossed the water, they came to His home town… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

We know of course that our Blessed Lord chose twelve Apostles. These Apostles, He kept with Him for three years, teaching them and training them to proclaim the message, the Good News of the presence of the Kingdom of God. He sent them out, the twelve, into Galilee as preparation, as training for what would come later, namely that He would send them out to the whole world. But now, in the last year of His life, we’re told by St. Luke, in fact we’re told by St. Matthew and St. Mark, that He appointed seventy two others. He sent them out, ahead of Him, in pairs to all the towns and places He Himself was to visit. This would be not in Galilee, but in Judea. This is because Our Lord was making His way to Jerusalem. The question we should ask ourselves is: What happened to the seventy two? Who are the seventy two? What was there task, there role, there position in regard to the twelve? Well we don’t know the names of all of the seventy two, but we do know the names of some. For instance, Matthias was one of them and Joseph called Barsabbas was one of them. These were the two names that were brought forward when the Apostles had to replace Judas. But we also know the names of others, just as for instance, Barnabas, Silas who were associates of St. Paul and we know from other sources that they were also acquainted with our Lord. So we do know the names of some of them… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

St. Mark relates how the Disciples were on the road. They were on a journey to Jerusalem. Our Lord walking ahead, the Sheppard leads the sheep. We’re told there were in a daze and those who followed were apprehensive. Why were they in a daze? Because they could not believe the things Our Lord had said along the road.

He was speaking bleakly about His passion and He slowly goes to make these words, the mystery of His passion known to them more plainly. But we also get the impression that it was not just the twelve disciples, but then St. Mark brings out the twelve specifically.

They were apprehensive because they knew of this conflict that existed between our Lord and the authorities and they perhaps wondering how could they, so few could be able to overcome the many. So with the disturbance of the soul, our Lord, again calls the twelve to Him, once more taking the twelve aside. He began to tell them specifically what was going to happen to Him, so they would understand that He went willingly to His passion, that it was not something that befell Him because He was unable to prevent it. But that it was providence the divine decree – working itself out, and so He says, “Now we’re going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man is about to be handed over to the chief Priest and the scribes”. A bleak warning to what Judas would do… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Fr Linus Clovis, reflects on the Church and the challenges she has faced throughout history.  Highlighting the four great heresies, he then unpacks the latest heresy, that of modernism.  Refocusing his investigation, Fr Linus then contemplates St. Peter's mission and reviews the current Papacy as well as previous Popes from the last century.  The message of Fatima is ever relevant and is made more relevant here with regards to the recent attacks on the family.  Fr. Linus closes by providing us with formula we need to stay Catholic and to survive these trials.

Our Blessed Lord had given us the beatitudes, which ended with the encouragement, rejoice and be glad when you’re persecuted for the cause of righteousness, when you’re persecuted because of His name, because you’re reward will be great. If we are able and if we do keep the instructions given to us in the beatitudes the Lord tells us then we will be like salt, and the salt of the earth. In other words, we will be able to preserve, that which is on its way to corruption. And even as there’s an encroaching darkness, if we observe the beatitudes we can be of the light that reveals God’s truth. And so this is what He offers us - to be salt and to be light for others. But what about Himself? Isn’t He the light that has come in to the world? He is the light, that the darkness can not overcome. Yes He is. And so He tells us in a way, that we have to look to Him as well. And we can imagine these are the beatitudes, He’s on mount of beatitudes, the crowds are listening and He’s going to develop what He has said in the beatitudes and to show how He himself fulfils it. Do not imagine I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets. Why would they think this? At that particular time they wouldn’t. But it would be an accusation brought against Him later on. They would accuse Him of being an opponent to Moses. That He had come to destroy that which they had received from Moses and the Prophets. But He says, “I have not come to abolish, but to complete them”. Indeed the Law of Moses was given so that it might lead us to perfection… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Our Lord had said He did not come abolish the law or the Prophets, but rather to fulfill them. And the fulfilling of the law consists not only in keeping each and every part and element of it but also as Our Lord goes on to show now, the spirit of it. It is also necessary that each person observes the law in its detail. That is not just looking at what we’re not to do, but also what we are to do. The Lord says particularly if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and the Pharisees you will never get in to the kingdom of Heaven. He does not deny that the Pharisees and the scribes had some degree of virtue – they did because they were concerned about the observance of the law. But it was a case of lip service. They were interested only in observing the details, without any love and certainly without any desire of improvement in there lives. The disciples were criticised by the Pharisees for eating, picking and shelling corn because it appeared to break the Sabbath. And it did break the Sabbath, but Our Lord pointed out to them that the spirit of the law was concerned with venerating the Sabbath, that is increasing love for God. And the Commandment about picking and so on was to insure that this was not done for profit, but it could be done to save life, in particular to alleviate hunger. But what is disturbing or should be disturbing for us is the Lord says, ‘If our virtues are not greater, deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not get in to the kingdom.’ He goes on to innumerate the various commandments and He begins with the greatest in the second tablet. Basically love of neighbour… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

To say we are living in evil days is an understatement. For these are the days of great confusion not only in the world but also in the Church, especially in regard to the question of marriage. From the passage we have heard, this is at the very beginning of Our Lord’s ministry. It’s the mount of beatitudes. He has already delivered the 8 beatitudes, one of which is Blessed of the pure of heart for they shall see God. He expands on each one of the beatitudes, He develops it. And He develops in the Gospel passage we heard the beatitude that talks about purity of heart. He begins with the commandment given by Moses. ‘You have learnt how it is said, you must not commit adultery.’ That certainly is in the commandment, but also there is another commandment, the ninth, ‘Thou shall not covert thy neighbour’s wife.’ The law, human law can only regulate external actions. Divine law regulates internal dispositions, because what Our Lord is doing is building up the new man, so He is in fact rooting out the very cause of our infidelity to God of which the external action is merely the fruit. But He’s saying that the disease, the sin begins in the intention and then when fully grown it bears fruit. St. Paul says something similar. So when does the act of adultery begin? It begins with the lustful look, lustful intention, which is what Our Lord uproots when He says, ‘If a man looks at a woman lustfully… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

The people asked Him ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants. Are we to keep the commandments, if the commandments, which ones.’ But our Lord does not answer keep the commandments, though, this is of course foundational as He said to the rich young man. He says ‘No, this is working for God, you must believe in the one He has sent.’ Not just believe the one he has sent, for we do believe the prophets, we do believe the apostles in their testimony, their witness. But we do not believe in them. To believe in them someone is essentially to place your whole life, the present and future into this persons hands. It is to love and to honour and to trust that person with your very being. That is opening yourself up to the possibility of injury.

When our Lord says this, they respond, ‘What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you?’ How do we know we can trust you, in other words. ‘What sign will you work?’ Then harking back to the manna, in all of this, they had been fed and they wanted to be fed again. So, they bring up the miracle of the manna, ‘Our fathers had manna to feed in the desert.’ But that was not the only miracle that had been worked for them in the desert or indeed in Egypt, there were many other miracles. But they bring up the one about food because that is ultimately what they are looking for an opportunity to eat again… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

It was late in the evening when the Lord had fed the five thousand. The people saw this great miracle and wanted to make our Lord, king. Something of course they couldn’t do because He was born a king. ‘Where is He that is born the infant king of the Jews?’ the wise men had said.

The Lord however dismissed His disciples they got into the boat and He Himself went into the hills to escape the madness of the crowd. And then in the middle of the night, at the third watch, about three in the morning, He walked across the water as we read in the other Gospels, terrifying the disciples and they arrive on the other side. In the morning now the crowds when they have got the wits together, realise that there was only one boat. The disciples had gone in the boat and crossed the sea of Tiberius, and they were certain that our Lord didn’t get in. So, not knowing what to do, they decided the best thing to do was to follow the disciples. So when the other boats came in from Tiberius, then they got into those boats. So it would not have been this vast multitude of some five thousand men for sure, the women and the children as well, who would have been part of that multitude. In these boats we have no idea of the number that crossed over. We are told when they got to Capernaum they set out to look for Jesus. When they found Him, they said ‘Rabbi when did you come here?‘ It is a strange question because the obvious question would be ‘how’, they only saw Him the night before… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.