Homily for the Wednesday in the Twenty-nineth Week in Ordinary Time (Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests, and their Companions, Martyrs, and of Saint Paul of the Cross, Priest), delivered in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"You have probably heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery... [to] share the same inheritance, [for we] are parts of the same body; the same promise... [and] how the mystery is to be dispensed. Through all the ages, this has been kept hidden in God, the creator of everything. Why? So that the Sovereignties and Powers should learn only now, through the Church, how comprehensive God’s wisdom really is..." (cf. Eph 3:2-12).

"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." (cf. Is 12).

"Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what hour the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house. You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’ Peter said, ‘Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?’" (cf. Lk 12:29-48).

Artwork: "Het loflied van Simeon" (Simeon's Song of Praise), by Aert de Gelder, (c. 1700-1710).

Homily for the Friday in the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Memorial of Saint Callistus, Pope, Martyr), delivered in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"It is in Christ that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came. Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation, and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised." (Eph 1:11-14).

"Happy the people the Lord has chosen to be his own." (Ps 33).

"The people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And Jesus began to speak, first of all to his disciples. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees – that is, their hypocrisy. Everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetops. To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid...'" (cf. Lk 12:1-7).

Artwork: The Potter's Hands, retrieve from Pintrest.

Homily for Wednesday in the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time, delivered in St Joseph's Chapel, Bishop's House Rockhampton, Qld.

Together with Bishop Michael and some of the priests of the Diocese.

"If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires." (Gal 5:18-25).

"Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life." (Ps 1).

"The Lord said to the Pharisees: ‘Alas for you Pharisees! You who pay your tithe of mint and rue and all sorts of garden herbs and overlook justice and the love of God! who like taking the seats of honour in the synagogues and being greeted obsequiously in the market squares! you are like the unmarked tombs that men walk on without knowing it!' A lawyer then spoke up. ‘Master,’ he said ‘when you speak like this you insult us too.’ ‘Alas for you lawyers also,’ he replied ‘because you load on men burdens that are unendurable, burdens that you yourselves do not move a finger to lift.’" (cf. Lk 11:42-46).

Artwork: "Wailing Wall" by Gustav Bauernfeind, (1887).

Homily for Monday in the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time, delivered in St Joseph's Cathedral, Rockhampton, Qld.

Concelebrated alongside Fr Matthias Ogwo Kelechi.

"The Jerusalem above, however, is free and is our mother, since scripture says: Shout for joy, you barren women who bore no children! Break into shouts of joy and gladness, you who were never in labour... When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery." (cf. Gal 4:22-5:1).

"The crowds got even bigger, and Jesus addressed them: ‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation... when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’" (cf. Lk 11:29-32).

Artwork: "The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene" (middle panel only), by Pietro Perugino, (c. 1482).

Homily for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, delivered in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"Naaman the leper went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as Elisha had told him to do. And his flesh became clean once more like the flesh of a little child. Returning to Elisha with his whole escort, he went in and stood before him. ‘Now I know’ he said ‘that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel... allow your servant to be given as much earth as two mules may carry, because your servant will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any god except the Lord.’" (2 Kings 5:14-17).

"The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power: Sing a new song to the Lord for he has worked wonders. His right hand and his holy arm have brought salvation; has shown his justice to the nations. He has remembered his truth and love for the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen, the salvation of our God. Shout to the Lord, all the earth, ring out your joy." (Ps 98:1-4).

"Remember the Good News that I carry, ‘Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David’; If we have died with him, then we shall live with him. If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him. If we disown him, then he will disown us. We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self." (cf. 2 Tim 2:8-13).

"On the way to Jerusalem Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one of the villages, ten lepers came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ When he saw them he said, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ Now as they were going away they were cleansed. Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. This made Jesus say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.’ And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’" (Lk 17:11-19).

Artwork: "Cleansing of the ten lepers" from the Codex Aureus Epternacensis,  (1035-40).

Homily for the Friday in the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary), delivered in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"Don’t you see that it is those who rely on faith who are the sons of Abraham? Scripture foresaw that God was going to use faith to justify the pagans, and proclaimed the Good News long ago when Abraham was told: In you all the pagans will be blessed. Those therefore who rely on faith receive the same blessing as Abraham, the man of faith... that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might include the pagans, and so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit." (cf. Gal 3:7-14).

"The Lord will remember his covenant for ever." (Ps 111).

"When Jesus had cast out a devil, some of the people said, ‘It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils.’ Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven; but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses. So too with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? – since you assert that it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils. Now if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges then. But if it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you... ‘He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters." (cf. Lk 11:15-26).

Artwork: "Our Lady of the Holy Rosary" by Simone Cantarini  (1612–1648).

Homily for the Wednesday in the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Memorial of Saint Faustina Kowalska), delivered in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"It was not till fourteen years had passed that I went up to Jerusalem again. I went with Barnabas and took Titus with me. I went there as the result of a revelation, and privately I laid before the leading men the Good News as I proclaim it among the pagans; I did so for fear the course I was adopting or had already adopted would not be allowed. On the contrary, they recognised that I had been commissioned to preach the Good News to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been commissioned to preach it to the circumcised. The same person whose action had made Peter the apostle of the circumcised had given me a similar mission to the pagans. So, James, Cephas and John, these leaders, these pillars, shook hands with Barnabas and me as a sign of partnership: we were to go to the pagans and they to the circumcised... When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, since he was manifestly in the wrong. His custom had been to eat with the pagans, but after certain friends of James arrived he stopped doing this and kept away from them altogether for fear of the group that insisted on circumcision. The other Jews joined him in this pretence, and even Barnabas felt himself obliged to copy their behaviour. When I saw they were not respecting the true meaning of the Good News, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, ‘In spite of being a Jew, you live like the pagans and not like the Jews, so you have no right to make the pagans copy Jewish ways.’ (cf. Gal 2:1-14).

"Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News." (Psalm 117).

"Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray: Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come; give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.”’ (Lk 11:1-4).

Artwork: "Christ entouré de deux anges et de deux saints", by Antonis Mor, (c. 1556).

Homily for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, delivered (in the evening) in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"'How long, O Lord, am I to cry for help while you will not listen;
to cry ‘Oppression!’ in your ear
and you will not save...?' Then the Lord answered..." (cf. Hab 1:1-4).

"I am reminding you to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you... guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." (cf. 2 Tim 1:6-14).

"The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed...’" (cf. Lk 17:5-10).
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"Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith [one] 'freely commits [their] entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. 'The righteous shall live by faith.' Living faith 'work[s] through charity.' The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But 'faith apart from works is dead': when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body. The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: 'All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks.' Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: 'So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.'" (CCC 1814-16).

Artwork: An untitled work by Deborah Calicchia, (n.d.), retrieved from Pinterest.

Homily for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, delivered (in the morning) in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"How long, O Lord, am I to cry for help while you will not listen;
to cry ‘Oppression!’ in your ear
and you will not save? Why do you set injustice before me, why do you look on where there is tyranny? Outrage and violence, this is all I see, all is contention, and discord flourishes. Then the Lord answered..." (cf. Hab 1:1-4).

"I am reminding you to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you... not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control; bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God. Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." (cf. 2 Tim 1:6-14).

"The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you. ‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid...”? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.”’ (cf. Lk 17:5-10).

Artwork: "Charity" by Anthony van Dyck, (c. 1627-28).

Homily for the Feast of Saint Matthew the Evangelist, Apostle, Martyr (Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time), delivered at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Gladstone, Qld.

"I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all. Each one of us, however, has been given his own share... given as Christ allotted it."

"Their message goes out through all the earth." (cf. Ps 19).

"As Jesus was walking on, he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’" (Mt 9:9-13).

Artwork: "The Calling of St. Matthew" by Hendrick ter Brugghen, (c. 1621).