Our Blessed Lord watched the rich young man go away. He made no attempt to draw him back to convince him. So the Lord shows us that whilst we’re free, He doesn’t compel, He doesn’t compel us. So we’re entirely free to accept He’s invitation or not. If we do accept His invitation, we do that freely, we don’t do it for His benefits, but for our own. He said to the young rich man, “Go sell what you have, give to the poor, you will have treasure in heaven, come follow me.” But for the young man, he couldn’t even begin the first part, which was to sell what he had and to give it away, or rather to exchange it. This is what Saint Mark tells us. That he went away sad, for he was a man with great wealth, and so instead of being a possessor of what had been given to him, he became rather it’s guardian and consequently it’s slave, for for he couldn’t free himself from it… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Today is the feast of Corpus Christi. We celebrate another one of those great mysteries, which Our Saviour has left us. It is the Sacrament of He’s presence among us and so fulfilling the promise that He made as He departed visibly from our world, behold I am with you always even to the end of the age. And sadly in our days we do not appreciate the greatness of this sacrament and its mystery is disappearing from our consciousness and we see the sacrament violated and treated as ordinary bread. Sadly this means in many cases, sacrilege and consequently we see its effects which is a laceration of the Church, laceration of the Body of Christ. Even as He was scourged on the very day, the night He was betrayed and the day of His crucifixion. But we shouldn’t be surprised for as the head is gone, so necessarily the body follows as well. What is a Sacrament? This is the question we need to ask and the question we need to answer, if we are to avoid this great violation, abuse of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord. A Sacrament, as we read in the Catechism, is an outward sign, of an inward grace, inward reality that it signifies and it effects. Not only does the Sacrament signify the reality but it actually brings the reality in to existence… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Having encountered resistance in Judea, in Jerusalem, Our Lord went off to the other side of the sea of Galilee, but the crowds still followed Him. The reason, because they were impressed with the signs He gave, in curing the sick. Whilst it’s not perfect, there’s certainly nothing wrong in that, whatever reason we seek the Lord, the important thing is that we seek Him. In finding Him our faith will increase but it is not only faith, our love likewise should grow even greater. And certainly the cures that He effects would generate a sense of gratitude, spirit of gratitude on which love is founded. The Lord climbs the hillside we’re told and sat down with His disciples; the crowd do not climb the hill. Looking up when He sees them, He said to Phillip, “Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat”? In St. Matthew’s Gospel, in fact the other three Gospels, record this incident, this miracle and we’re told that they were the ones who approached the Lord and said send the people away, so they can buy food for themselves, and the Lord says, “No, why should I send them away? You give them something to eat” and St. John who relates it, says the Lord asked Philip perhaps because Philip was the one who said to send them away… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Our Lord speaking to Nicodemus declared plainly that He was from above and that He brought testimony from God. Then Our Lord went back to the region, Jordan, where He had been Baptised and John was still Baptising. The Lord was drawing people to Himself so much so, that John’s disciples prompted by jealously, complained to John, ‘The man whom you bore testimony’, they said ‘Is low down the river and everyone is going to Him?’ And again, John remonstrated with them, trying to convince them that Christ was the one whom they should follow. He said that he himself was merely the friend of the bridegroom and he, John, rejoiced to hear the voice of the bridegroom. The disciples are still reluctant, so John continues to speak to them, to admonish them and even to place a warning, telling them they risk losing eternal life and in fact the anger of God would remain on them if they refused to follow the light. So how does John argue, again from common experience, John the Baptist said to his disciples ‘He who comes from above is above all others’ as he had said about Christ, the lamb of God, He is above others in two ways. The first… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Our Blessed Lord speaks to Nicodemus on that mysterious night about God’s love for the world. Nicodemus came looking for a teacher, but what he found was a Saviour. The Lord at this very first encounter, speaks about He’s passion. No one, He said, has gone up to Heaven, except the One who came down from Heaven. The Son of man who is in heaven, so He calls Himself the Son of Man. As the Son of man, He says, ‘The Son of man must be lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert.’ So that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him. So the death of the Saviour, the Son of man, is going to be the means, the vehicle, by which we receive eternal life. But what is the reason for this great sacrifice, this great mystery? It is nothing other than God’s love, which the Lord continues to explain to Nicodemus. God loved the world so much, that He gave His only Son.

There are two things that come out of this. That the world is good because God loved it or better still, God loves it. What is the world but everything that He created in it, as we read in Genesis, everything God made is good. However, sin entered into the world, through the treachery of the devil and corrupted it but it did not destroy it, nor did it rob the world of its essential goodness. It was to restore this goodness to its original perfection perhaps even more to raise it even higher that God gave His only Son, which brings us to the second point. It is not as if God had many Son’s, but only one. It is not as if He gave us a creature, no matter how great, but His own Son, His own life you might say. Given this, He gave it so that everyone who believes in this Son may not be lost, but may have eternal life, which is exactly what He had said before; that the Son of man be lifted up so all that believed in Him will have eternal life… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

The story of the rich young man is well known to us. It’s a story that applies to all of us, because the disciples ask this question “If this is how it is, who can be saved”, so evidently it’s not just the rich that our Lord was speaking about, but every one of us. Our Lord we’re told was setting out on a journey when this young man ran up. He shows great respect for our Lord for we are told he knelt before Him and put the question “Good master what must I do to inherit eternal life”. He had heard our Lord speak no doubt about the kingdom and how we must become little children in order to enter in. But his approach to our Lord is that of one who is a good teacher, a good master, a good man, where of course Christ is much more than this. Our Lord answers him according to the spirit with which he questions, good master, our Lord says “Why do you call me good, no one is good but God alone.” In other words we cannot judge goodness without reference to God. Only God is absolutely good. Our Lord is indeed a good master after all He called Himself the good shepherd, and the Holy Spirit He also said, is the good Spirit whom the Father sends. So goodness in its very essences belongs to God and all of us in some way participate in this goodness. Our sins merely detracts us, take us away from the goodness to which we ourselves are called… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the most holy and glorious Trinity, one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. In fact, if one does not believe in the Trinity, one cannot be a Christian. The very definition of a Christian is one who believes in the Trinity because it is from this mystery that all the others flow.

When we talk about the mysteries of God, it is not in the sense of something that cannot be known. But rather it is a truth that is slowly being revealed to us. Yet because we are creatures and therefore finite, we cannot grasp the full depth of the mystery. We cannot understand the full truth. If we think about it when we were children how did we learn? We didn’t learn everything all at once, but we were given truths bit by bit. We were told of the realities that exist in small amounts and it was on this that we built the foundation of our knowledge. So when we look at children, their books, usually have very large print, the words are simple and there are pictures to assist them in understanding the story. That’s where the mystery is, the mystery is in the story and as we understand the story we penetrate into the mystery. Even the story has various levels, our Lord Himself used that very method to teach, when He spoke the parables. We could grasp the story immediately, but then as we break it open we see there are other truths underlying it.

So the mystery of the Trinity is this, essentially, it is the revelation of God’s inner life… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

The resurrection of our Blessed Lord, is the central, is the bedrock to our faith. In the letter to the Corinthians, the first letter St. Paul relates, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, everything we believe is uncertain is false even, if Christ is not be raised from the dead, we are the most miserable of all peoples because we are still in our sins. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, we are even guilty of blasphemy, because we have called God to witness that He has risen from the dead. But Christ has been raised from the dead, and His resurrection means our sins are forgiven. That is there is now a sacrifice by which all of our sins of which we repent are forgiven. How can we know this for sure, because Christ came into the world for sinners. That was the reason for His entry into the world, to save sinners. And more than that, we know also that God desires the salvation of all. That there is no one outside of His mercy, even the worst of sinners is included in His mercy. The problem is not with God, the problem is with us who are slow to believe who are even reluctant to believe… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

The votive mass for our Blessed Lady in the Easter season from St. Johns Gospel uses the narrative of Calvary. We’re told by the cross of Jesus stood His Mother, His Mother’s sister Mary of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene. Then we’re told that Jesus, seeing His Mother and the disciple whom He loved standing next to her, said ‘Woman behold your son’ and to the disciple ‘Behold your mother’ and from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.

Everything our Blessed Lord did whilst on earth is full of mystery and full with innumerable teachings for our mediation and for our spiritual growth. We can never exhaust this rich wine to which He has invited us. We as Catholics have been chosen by God, not because we have done anything special, but because He wants us to do something special for the world in which we live. In other words, we are servants who have been given a responsibility. This does not, and should not make us proud. Our Lord said to His disciples ‘When you have done all the things commanded of you, say we are unprofitable servants, we have merely done our duty. Servants we are yes, but also friends, I call you friends. And because we are friends we ought to server more faithfully, more fervently’. More faithfully, more fervently. Otherwise we would be found to be unprofitable servants in truth and even worst unfaithful servants. God’s most faithful servant is non other than the Blessed Virgin Mary. God entrusted to her everything that He possessed and loves and indeed is. The Father entrusted to the Virgin His most beloved Son. So in a certain sense we can see that everything is in the hands of Mary… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.

Christ came into the world to save sinners. The manner in which He chose to do this which was by suffering, by dying for us. But His life didn’t end in death because His life is life, He rose from the dead. So, the Apostle tells us, since Christ suffered for us, He did so, leaving us an example, what do we need an example for? That we may follow in His steps. ‘Beloved Christ has suffered for us, leaving you an example that you may follow in His steps’. Yet when suffering comes our way, we complain and grumble. The reason of course is that we don’t look to Christ and so see the purpose to which God has put the suffering. Suffering is a consequence of sin, Adam’s sin primarily but ours also. It is something that is inescapable, but Christ in His goodness has shown us how we can use something as suffering to our own spiritual advantage. And so the Apostle continues, ‘Christ did no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth.’ Everything He said was truth, in fact He declared Himself to be the Truth. And yet sinless as He was, He embraced it willingly, when He was insulted, when He was reviled, when He was called in an imposter, when He was accused of having a daemon, when He was accused of being a Samaritan, when He was accused of being against Moses, when He was called an enemy of God - He said nothing in His defence and He suffered… For Fr. Linus’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.