Traversing Emmaus

Homily for the Thursday in the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, delivered for some of the primary school children and their parents.

"I will remind you of the works of the Lord, and tell of what I have seen. By the words of the Lord his works come into being and all creation obeys his will. As the sun in shining looks on all things, so the work of the Lord is full of his glory. The Lord has not granted to the holy ones to tell of all his marvels
which the Almighty Lord has solidly constructed for the universe to stand firm in his glory. He has fathomed the deep and the heart, and seen into their devious ways; for the Most High knows all the knowledge there is, and has observed the signs of the times. He declares what is past and what will be, and uncovers the traces of hidden things. Not a thought escapes him, not a single word is hidden from him. He has imposed an order on the magnificent works of his wisdom, he is from everlasting to everlasting, nothing can be added to him, nothing taken away, he needs no one’s advice. How desirable are all his works, how dazzling to the eye! They all live and last for ever, whatever the circumstances all obey him. All things go in pairs, by opposites, and he has made nothing defective; the one consolidates the excellence of the other, who could ever be sated with gazing at his glory?"

"As Jesus left Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road." (cf. Mk 10).

Artwork: "The Healing of the Blind Bartimeaus" by Fernando Gallego, (c. 1480-88).

Reflecting with some of the young children in one of our Catholic Primary Schools.

Artwork: a drawing of Mother Mary by Danielle, an eager young mind (shared with permission).

Homily for the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, delivered for the residents in one of the nursing homes.

"Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away. The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear." (cf. Zeph 3).

"Truly, God is my salvation, I trust, I shall not fear. For the Lord is my strength, my song, he became my saviour. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Among you is the great and Holy One of Israel." (cf. Is 12).

"... 'Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’ And Mary said: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord'..." (cf. Lk 1).

Artwork: "Visitation of Carmignano" by Jacopo Pontormo, (c. 1528).

Homily for Pentecost Sunday Vigil, delivered in St Patrick's Catholic Church, Calliope, Qld.

"Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’" (cf. Acts 2).

"You take back your spirit, they die, returning to the dust from which they came. You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth." (cf. Ps 104).

"There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose. Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ." (cf. 1 Cor 12-13).

"Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side... he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me,
so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit'..." (cf. Jn 20).

Artwork: Jesus reaching into the water to embrace Peter (and us!), retrieved from Pinterest.

Homily for Thursday in the Seventh Week in Eastertide (after the Ascension), delivered in the Chanel College Chapel, Gladstone, Qld.

"Since the tribune wanted to know what precise charge the Jews were bringing, he freed Paul and gave orders for a meeting of the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin; then he brought Paul down and stood him in front of them. Now Paul was well aware that one section was made up of Sadducees and the other of Pharisees, so he called out in the Sanhedrin, ‘Brothers, I am a Pharisee and the son of Pharisees. It is for our hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.’ As soon as he said this a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was split..." (cf. Acts 22).

"Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me." (cf. Jn 17).

Artwork: "Ascension" by Giotto, (c. 1303).

Homily for Our Lady, Help of Christians, delivered in Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"Wisdom brings up her own sons, and cares for those who seek her. Whoever loves her loves life, those who wait on her early will be filled with happiness. Whoever holds her close will inherit honour, and wherever he walks the Lord will bless him. Those who serve her minister to the Holy One, and the Lord loves those who love her. Whoever obeys her judges aright, and whoever pays attention to her dwells secure. If he trusts himself to her he will inherit her, and his descendants will remain in possession of her; for though she takes him at first through winding ways, bringing fear and faintness on him, plaguing him with her discipline until she can trust him, and testing him with her ordeals, in the end she will lead him back to the straight road and reveal her secrets to him." (Eccl 4:12-21).

"Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever." (Ps 113).

"The language of the cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God’s power to save... For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength." (cf. 1 Cor 1).

"Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala." (cf. Jn 19).

Artwork: "Madonna del Popolo" by Frederico Barocci, (1545 - 1612).

Homily for Ascension Sunday, delivered in St Mary's Catholic Church, Ubobo.

"In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven... this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’" (cf. Acts 1).

"May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers. This you can tell from the strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be named not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things under his feet and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation." (cf. Eph 1).

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations... and know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’" (cf. Mt 28).

Artwork: "The Ascension" by Rembrandt van Rijn, (1625-69).

Homily for Ascension Sunday, delivered in St Peter Chanel Church, Tannum Sands, Qld.

"In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. ‘It is’ he had said ‘what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’ As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’" (cf. Acts 1).

"God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord." (cf. Ps 47).

"The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’" (cf. Mt 28).

Artwork: Ascension of Christ, by Gustav Dore, (n.d.), retrieved from the Fine Arts America website.

Homily for Thursday in the Sixth Week of Eastertide (before the Ascension, and the Feast of Pope St John I), delivered in the Chanel College Chapel, Gladstone, Qld.

"Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, where he met a Jew called Aquila whose family came from Pontus. He and his wife Priscilla had recently left Italy because an edict of Claudius had expelled all the Jews from Rome. Paul went to visit them, and when he found they were tentmakers, of the same trade as himself, he lodged with them, and they worked together. Every sabbath he used to hold debates in the synagogues, trying to convert Jews as well as Greeks." (cf Acts 18).

"Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again.’..." (cf. Jn 16).

A biography retrieved from Universals:

"He was born in Tuscany and elected pope in 523. It was a time of high political and religious tension. Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the ruler of Italy, was an Arian, while many of his subjects were Catholics. Initially tolerant, he became increasingly suspicious of the Catholics’ influence and political allegiance – above all, because they naturally had strong links with the Catholicism of the surviving eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople. Moreover, Arians in the eastern Roman Empire were being persecuted by the Catholic emperor, Justin, and they appealed to Theodoric for help. Pope John I was sent on an embassy to the emperor, to ask for better treatment for the Arians. In this he succeeded; but the enthusiasm with which he was greeted in Constantinople excited Theodoric’s suspicions, and when he returned to Italy Theodoric had him imprisoned and he died from ill-treatment there a few days later. Pope John I’s career reminds us what tolerance is and is not. Arianism was a dangerous heresy (by making the Son subordinate to the Father it made the Atonement virtually pointless) and there could be no compromise with it – but this did not mean that Arians themselves were to be persecuted for their beliefs. Then, as so often now, it was the state and not the Church that tried to use force to impose uniformity."

Artwork: an image of Pope Saint John I, retrieved from UCatholic.com

Reflection with the young children in one of our Catholic Primary schools.

Artwork: an image of Jesus praying with a group of children, retrieved from the Camelback Bible Kids Church WordPress.