Saber Esperar

5th Sunday Of Easter
Cycle A.
10th May 2020.
John 14:1-12
Rev Tony Van Vuuren.

Today’s Gospel passage opens with Jesus saying to his disciples seated around the table, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

Not be troubled? Well that’s hard to imagine! Jesus had just predicted that Judas would betray him and Peter would deny him. Of course the disciples were shaken up.
Jesus wanted his friends to know that even though he would no longer be with them in bodily form, he wasn’t really leaving them alone. He would be with them through the presence of the Holy Spirit. They just needed to learn to see him in a different way.

These words are still applicable today because our hearts are also troubled.

Like the disciples, we are faced with challenging changes in our lives; changes that might sometimes make us wonder if Jesus is still with us. The way of life that we are accustomed to has suddenly been disrupted.

Now is the time for us to trust and take his words to heart: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and have faith also in me.”

Six years ago I said, in my sermon on this 5th Sunday of Easter, that there comes a time in the lives of all believers when things can get very dark, and we have to believe what we cannot prove, and accept reality, even though we cannot understand or make sense of what’s happening.

It’s easy to convince ourselves that we have a strong faith when things are going well. When a crisis arises we discover what kind of faith we have, or if we have any faith at all! By faith here I mean hope and trust in God. Of course there are those of us who believe that if God is with us and if He really loves us, then no storm will ever hit us.
So, when a storm does hit us, we experience a deep crisis of faith, and even possibly believe that God has abandoned us.

Well that storm has arrived! On some levels the world as we have known it has stopped. I recently read there are now three days in the week: yesterday, today and tomorrow. There is certainly some truth in that thought. Life in the public, religious and private sector is no longer what it was just a few months ago.
We may all feel, to one extent or another, and it’s completely understandable; troubled, frightened, confused, angry and many other emotions. We want to see what the future holds, how this will all end, but in fact none of us know the answer to that question.

What we actually need to do, and it takes time and effort, is to focus and believe in the nearness of God; believe that we are not alone, even if in isolation, and to hear the voice of God saying gently but surely: “Stay on the path, follow the way I will show you.” And what is the way? Saint John clearly quotes Jesus Christ as saying to us “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Nothing should be more consoling than those words!

What real faith does is assure us that God is with us in the midst of the crisis. It is not we who keep the faith; it is the faith that keeps us.
By embracing God we are in fact embracing hope. A Spanish phrase comes to mind here: “Saber Esperar.” Literally it means, “to know how to wait.” But equally correct is the translation, “to know how to hope.” Waiting and hoping are certainly intertwined in this current worldwide pandemic.

We must turn our understandable tendencies to mope and grumble into hope and action. Today’s psalmist tells us that those who hope for the Lord’s kindness will be preserved from famine. In these extraordinary hard times, many are hungry for the staples of life, truly starving, owing to chronic homelessness, loss of employment and so the list goes on. We are all enduring various kinds of other famines too, because of required restrictions for our own health and safety and that of others.
Our motivation might become sporadic, if not completely gone, and so we also occasionally succumb to being just plain listless. That’s OK, but it is not OK to stay listless!

We, too, are supposed to do greater things in our lives using the power of the Holy Spirit. In our first readings we hear that the early community had a serious problem to resolve. They prayed and led by the Holy Spirit chose to divide the tasks of ministry insuring that all were receiving proper attention.

So to for us; we need to ask where our current energy level can meet the grace of the Holy Spirit to DO something for the community at large. Praying is a great thing to do for the needs are many and the hours at 2 or 3 am seem very long to be just lying awake. A vital response to the pandemic, apart from the necessary precautions to be taken and attention for those who are afflicted, is the offering of prayer, standing before God without fear. Serving others involves a list of opportunities that will certainly outlast this pandemic.

We will outlast this pandemic. The spiritual house of which Jesus is the cornerstone and of which we are a part will outlast this pandemic. The promised place Jesus has prepared for each of us will outlast this pandemic.
His promise of his lasting presence wasn’t just a promise for rosy, blissful times, but holds especially true in times of stress and loss. Left by ourselves, our faith would crumble. Yet, if Jesus’ life has taught us anything, it is that new life can come out of pain and loss. We can and should keep choosing to live with love, especially since love is not so much a feeling as a choice freely made.

We can become people of compassion and understanding, especially to those who are in need and asking: why is this happening, why me, why my loved ones?
And so as we gather in our places of isolation listening and watching Fr Harrie celebrate the Eucharist on our behalf, we also ask Our Lady of Perpetual Succour to pray for us, now and always.

Agape, Love Your Enemy

7^th Sunday Of Ordinary Time
Cycle A
23^rd February 2020.
Matthew 5: 38-48
Tony van Vuuren.

Jesus says to us; “Love your enemies!” Love our enemies? Most of us find it hard enough to love our friends and family all of the time. How can we be expected to love our enemies? We are naturally inclined to resent those who do us wrong.

The second part of today’s Gospel passage is perhaps the central and most famous passage of the Sermon on the Mount. It is certainly true that there is no other passage of the New Testament which contains such a concentrated expression of the Christian ethic of personal relations;
“Love one’s neighbors and forgive one’s enemies.” Jesus never asks us to love our enemies in the same way as we love our nearest and our dearest.

He is not asking any of us ‘to be in love with’, to have warm fuzzy feelings for someone who is doing us serious harm. To do this would neither be possible or right.

Loving our enemies is Agape love; one of the Greek synonyms for love. If we regard someone with agape, it means that no matter what that person does to us, no matter how we are treated by that person, no matter if they insult us or injure us, we will never allow any bitterness against them to invade our hearts, but will regard them with benevolence and goodwill.

Jesus laid this love down as a basis for personal relationships with our family and our neighbours and the people we meet every day in life. It is not easy to go about living a life in which we personally never allow any such thing as bitterness to influence our relationships with those we meet with every day.

First and foremost, this commandment deals with personal relationship. It is a commandment of which we should say up front; “This means me!”
So Jesus puts the challenge to each one of us: ‘love your enemies’.
He is talking about someone close – someone in my family, my community, my work-place, my neighbourhood, who is making life difficult for me.

Who are the people we try to avoid, the ones we don’t want to talk to, the ones who make us frightened or angry, the ones we find it hard to forgive, and the ones we feel like hating and hitting out at, for what they have done to us?

To be able to forgive and turn the other cheek is not a soft way. It’s an extremely hard reaction that calls for great strength and toughness and sacrifice. An ultimate example of this of course is our witness to Christ during his trial and crucifixion.

We can sincerely wish the well being of those who harm or persecute us. We pray that they may change, not just for our sake but also for their own.

We pray that from being hateful, hurtful people they become loving and caring. Jesus tells us that the basic reason for doing this is to manifest God’s love towards us. After all, He is the one who makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and when the good rain finally arrives it will fall on the good and on the bad.

In fact, if we let ourselves become hateful we burn up more energy than with any other emotion. Hate can become so demanding and consuming that it can become totally obsessive and leaves us bitter and twisted -physical wrecks. Surely, we need to save our strength for better things!

Hate poisons the heart and destroys relationships. It does nothing to build a better world. When Jesus says ‘love your enemies’ it is not only for their sake but for ours as well. It stops us stooping to the same base level and preserves our dignity and self-respect.

The Gospel passage concludes with Jesus saying, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” On the face of it that sounds like a commandment which cannot possibly have anything to do with us. Surely no one of us can even faintly connect ourselves with perfection.
(Except maybe when we fill in our CV’s)

But seriously though this obviously is an ideal, a goal to be aimed at. The perfection intended is not total perfection for us, but rather to pray for ourselves for that total impartiality of a God who extends his providential care and love equally to all; If we reflect on it, we will begin to see that this is the only reasonable way for us to deal with people both for our own personal growth and fulfillment and as contributing also to that of others. Jesus is not asking us to do something impossible and unreasonable.

The point is, “perfection” isn’t out of our reach. It is about loving God in a way that causes us to change our lives and do whatever he asks of us. It’s about loving our neighbours—and even our enemies—with the love that God has for us.
So we shouldn’t get discouraged when we read this Scripture verse. God is merciful; he knows that we are sinners. But he also knows that we can aspire to be “perfect”—with his love and grace.

The Presentation Of The Lord

2nd February 2020
Luke 2: 22-40
Tony van Vuuren

The Presentation of the Lord, celebrated on 2nd February every year, is among the most ancient feasts of the Christian Church.

February 2nd is forty days after the birth of Christ, and this year happens to fall on a Sunday, which adds solemnity to the day, which reflects on the journey of Mary, Joseph and Jesus to the Jerusalem temple.

What we commemorate each year on this day is the fulfillment of the Jewish law by Jesus’ parents. The Jewish law regarding purification laid down that forty days after the birth of a male child (or eighty days in the case of a female), the mother was to make an offering in the temple whereby rendering her purified or restored once again.

The Feast is a combined feast; whilst commemorating the Jewish practice of the purification of the mother after childbirth it also commemorates the presentation of the child to God in the Temple It is also known as the Feast of the Purification of Mary, and the Feast of Candlemas; hence the blessing of candles today.

It is also called the Feast of Encounter because the New Testament, represented by the baby Jesus, encounters the Old Testament, represented by Simeon and Anna.

Being a poor man, Joseph offers two pigeons instead of a lamb as sacrifice for the purification of Mary after her childbirth and for the presentation and redemption ceremonies performed for baby Jesus.

The 4th Joyful mystery of the rosary recalls this event.

The birth of Christ is revealed by three kinds of witnesses in three different ways — first, by the shepherds, after the angel’s announcement; second, by the Magi, who were guided by a star; and thirdly, by Simeon and Anna, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Gospel describes the Presentation of the Baby Jesus in the Temple. It was intended to ritually redeem Jesus who was the first born in the family and where Mary herself will have to be ritually purified.

Actually, Jesus never needed to be “bought back or presented,” as he already belonged wholly to God, but Joseph kept these laws as an act of obedience to God. Mary and Joseph were a typical pious Jewish couple, who went to the Temple in obedience to do all that was required and expected of them by the Law.

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the elderly, pious and Spirit-filled Simeon and Anna had been waiting in the Temple for the revelation of God’s salvation. Simeon, who is described as a righteous and devout man, obedient to God’s will, addresses himself to our Lord as a vassal or loyal servant.

When he takes the Child in his arms, he learns, not through any reasoning process, but through a special grace from God, that this Child is the promised Messiah. He thanked God that he had finally “seen” salvation and received consolation.

Anna, despite her advanced age, found new vigor and began to speak to everyone about the Baby. It is a beautiful image: two young parents and two elderly people, like excited grandparents; brought together by Jesus.

He is the one who brings together and unites generations! He is the inexhaustible font of that love which overcomes every occasion of self-absorption, solitude, and sadness.

In our journey as families, if we are fortunate to be in that position; we get to share so many beautiful moments and times of mutual support… Nevertheless, if there is no love then there is no joy.

How do we take Jesus into our arms like Simeon did? We simply respond to the invitation;”This is my body; take and eat!” Every Holy Mass in which we participate is our presentation.

Although we were officially presented to God on the day of our Baptism, we present ourselves and our dear ones on the altar before God through our Savior Jesus Christ at every Holy Mass.

Hence, we need to live our daily lives with the awareness both that we are dedicated people consecrated to God and that we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to recognize the presence of Jesus in ourselves and in others: All those who, like Simeon and Anna, persevere in piety and in the service of God, no matter how insignificant their lives seem in men’s eyes, become instruments that the Holy Spirit uses to make Christ known to others. In His plan of redemption, God makes use of these simple souls to do much good for all mankind.

In other words, The Holy Spirit employs ordinary men and women, like us, of simple faith, as His instruments to bear witness to the teachings and ideals of Christ, just as He used Simeon and Anna.

The Holy Spirit reveals the presence of the Lord to us when we are receptive and eager to receive Him. Let us be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us to recognize the indwelling presence of the Lord with us and in others.

Simeon and Anna used their time well whilst they spent most of it in the Temple praising God. There is an important lesson here for us. It is relatively easy to spend time in God’s presence — simply because God is always with us.

We are not required to be in the Temple or in a church or in any designated sacred space. We can be in God’s presence wherever and whenever we choose and, enlivened and encouraged by God’s presence, we can be witnesses to Jesus Christ who is the light of the world.

The tradition of lighting candles in our homes as a sign that Christ is the light of the world is a practical custom that we could easily initiate to focus our attention on him being at the centre of the feast of Candlemas and at the centre of our lives.

As we think about the choices we have made and the choices each new day presents, let us ask Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to guide us. Let us strive to learn more about our faith and practice it intentionally. And Lord, please let us know your favour is upon us,…… in the good times and especially the confusing times and the not-so-good times.

All Saints

Cycle C
Sunday 3rd November
Matthew 5:1-12
Rev Tony van Vuuren

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves: do I really believe? And we have to remind ourselves that believing is not feeling. Sometimes we feel our belief and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we feel as if we believe in nothing. Yet feeling is not believing. Feeling is about what we feel, not about what we have decided is the ultimate truth.

God calls each of us to share in his holiness. But how are we supposed to behave in order for us to be able to share in his holiness? The Eight Beatitudes as outlined in Matthew’s gospel – the eight blessings or gifts which, according to Jesus, marks out those who belong to God’s Kingdom; are our guideline.

The Beatitudes are a Disciple’s Charter for the followers of Christ, a guide for ordinary disciples like you and me who aspire to be saints. Those eight gifts are; poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seeking righteousness, merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers and accepting persecution.

They show us where true human fulfilment lies, and all of them stand in opposition to various false ideals of happiness that we chase after in our day just as much as anyone in Christ’s time. In his book “Jesus of Nazareth,” Pope Benedict wrote that The Beatitudes amount to nothing less than a self-portrait by Christ. In the meek, the merciful, the clean of heart, the persecuted…Jesus is, in fact, describing himself. And by extension, he is describing his vision for us, his followers. They give us the guidelines of how we are supposed to behave, as we wait to meet Christ as he really is?

The logic of the Beatitudes is different from the logic of the world where personal success, celebrity status and wealth are so often looked on as the face of achievement. We all know that personal success is important and satisfying; but we also know that there are many moments in our lives when we need to be helped and supported and carried.

The people we officially call the saints, those who have been canonised and are recognised in the Church’s calendar, are the people who were most like Christ during their lives. They were the people who took this Disciple’s Charter to heart, and today’s feast is their celebration. But it’s also ours, because what they are is what we’re all called to.

The Feast of All Saints, when it comes round every year is there to remind us of that, and to inspire each of us to greater sanctity, by putting into the practice, as consistently as we can; the articles of the charter that Christ gave us. And keep praying that they may help us become, in every sense, “practicing” Catholics — practicing until we get it right!

If we take the time to examine the details of the canonised saints’ life-stories, we find their example encouraging in our own spiritual struggles and difficulties. Their example inspires us to persevere in our own vocation to holiness, because it shows how holiness has been possible for human beings who were often weak, selfish, bad-tempered, jealous, greedy, etc., etc. – just like ourselves. As the prayers in today’s Mass say, the saints give us hope.

Realistically speaking, of course, it would take most of us a whole lifetime, and beyond, to even come close to embodying all these qualities as laid out so clearly in Mathew’s gospel.

Fortunately, the Beatitudes aren’t intended to be a list of demands where Christ says, “right, this is the minimum you’re expected to achieve. Shape up or ship out”. The Beatitudes point us in the way we need to go, keeping us from straying off in the wrong direction.

The Feast of All Saints therefore is not just about the next world. It is about the way we are called to live today. The Beatitudes do not encourage us to sit back and do nothing. Being a Christian means belonging to a communion; one cannot be an isolated Christian, just caring for and thinking about oneself.

Far too often we think of saints as those people who are really good and holy, and that we are not among them. We easily forget that we are all called to be saints and to live our lives completely for God.

The more we try to adapt our way of life according to these Beatitudes, and the more we treat others according to these principles, the more God becomes active in our lives and draws us on. And the more God draws us on, the more our character and way of life take on the pattern of the Beatitudes.

The Communion of Saints is about the link with those who have gone before us, but the doctrine of the Communion of the Saints also demands that we look towards those who are beside us. It demands that we become saints to those around us – our children, our spouses, our community, our society – showing what it means to be the Church, what it means to use the gifts and to witness to the love and the mercy of God revealed in Jesus Christ……..the Ultimate Truth!!

So if we pray for anything today in connection with the feast of All Saints let’s pray that we get rid of any weary or defeatist notion that holiness is alright for some special people, but it’s not for us.

Let’s pray that we discover – or maybe re-discover – some of the holy men and women of the past and that we’ll be inspired by their example

The Holy Archangels

29th SEPTEMBER 2019.
John 1: 47-51
Rev Tony van Vuuren

St Michael: “Who is like God?”

How often do you think about angels and the influence they have in your life? In some ways, thanks to the unsettled world that we are experiencing, it is easier to accept the reality of Satan and his cohort of fallen angels, than it is to recognize the influence in our lives of the heavenly spiritual bodies, who remain faithful to God. As we celebrate the feast of the three Holy Archangels today we should also consider the role of all angels. Angels are literally “spiritual messengers”.

St Augustine declared that if you seek the name of their office, it is angel; if you seek the name of their nature, it is spirit. They have been present since creation, serving as heralds of the divine plan. God sends angels to announce the divine will; to rebuke, encourage, assist, punish and teach; and to execute divine judgement. They serve as key mediators between God and man. If they are called to help advance God’s kingdom, it’s not unthinkable that angels would have a role to play in our lives —- so called, our guardian angel. St Jerome said that each one of us has an angel to help and guide us and inspire us with the greatness of God.

The functions of the three Archangels whom we venerate this weekend correspond to three major thrusts of Jesus’ ministry on earth; announcing good news, healing the sick and delivering the oppressed. They are particularly important to us in the Christian life, both for the messages they have brought from God to mankind, as well as for the examples they provide us in what it means to be holy; a quality which we surely all strive for in our Christian life.

Michael – meaning “Who is like God?” … serves as the leader of God’s holy angels; whose name is their war cry against Satan and his followers. As one of the chief princes of heaven, Saint Michael wields the strength of God to lead heaven’s powers in victory over the forces of hell. He is the defender of Holy Mother Church and stands ready to help us in both our personal and collective battles against the forces of the Satan. The reading from Revelation gives us a dramatic account of the power of St Michael on his mission.

Our parish is indeed honoured to have such a powerful patron and we should all make daily use of his patronage, saying at least the prayer to St Michael, instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1899.

Gabriel, whose name means “God is Mighty”, is God’s special messenger. He announced to Mary that she would give birth to the Saviour. Raphael, whose name means “God Heals”, is associated with God’s healing power in the book of Tobit; bringing healing to Tobit and Sarah and presenting their prayers to God.(12:12)

Certain Scripture passages give us a glimpse of what the Angels’ heavenly worship is like.

In today’s Gospel Jesus describes “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” referring to his own baptism. The descriptions of angelic worship in the Book of Revelation provide a window for our imagination as well. And let’s not forget the heavenly chorus that announced the birth of Jesus with joyful songs of praise and glory! Amazingly, here and now at this mass, we are called to join the angels and archangels in this joyous celebration.

When we come to Mass, we witness heaven touching earth, and we mere mortals are lifted up into worship together with the rejoicing angels. At every consecration, angels descend to the altar, bringing heavenly grace and blessings. True to their name, they act as messengers. They descend to testify to the miracle that is taking place in our midst. But the angels’ ministry is not just to descend on the altar and minister to us. They also ascend to heaven, bringing glory to God. They bring the songs, hymns and prayers that we offer to our heavenly father.

But let’s face it, any time we lift our hearts to the Lord is a chance to enter into this heavenly worship. Whilst our time of personal prayer is an essential foundation for our worship, our hearts can be raised up to heaven at any time; walking down a busy street, doing whatever. Opportunities can present themselves at anytime; not just as we kneel in a quiet church, but as we cook dinner or drive to work. And there’s nothing to stop us from putting on some praise music such as John Talbot and sing along with our family.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to open the heavens for us so that we can join Raphael, Gabriel, Michael and all the other angels and archangels in their jubilant songs of praise.

The angels are sent to help us realize our ultimate goal of perfect communion with God in heaven. We are not in this battle alone. Maybe we need Saint Michael’s superhuman strength to battle the evils of particular temptations or sins in our life, so let us call upon him for heavenly aid! If we need Saint Gabriel as a source of heavenly power to become a better person of God, then we need to ask him for help.

If we need God’s healing of deep wounds in our life, then we should seek Saint Raphael’s assistance. May their angelic holiness inspire us and their leadership direct us to embrace, in our minds and in our hearts, that holiness which manifests the perfectly loving essence of who God is and what God does, so that we might be transformed more fully — as individuals and as a Christian community.

The Cost Of Discipleship

23^rd Ordinary Sunday.
Cycle C
8^th September 2019.
Rev Tony van Vuuren

There is no such thing as casual Christianity.
Jesus’ point is quite clear. Those who hear him and want to be his disciple have to first consider the cost before we decide to seriously follow him.

Pain and sacrifice are inevitably attached to committed discipleship. Do we have the resolve to keep the promise of discipleship even when it requires serious and ongoing personal commitment?

Those are some of the questions raised by today’s gospel passage, which has some harsh words. Hate is a harsh word. It has been suggested that the original Aramaic meant simply “love less than.”But that in turn is probably too weak. The real meaning is that following Jesus means the surrender of the whole of one’s life. But how could Jesus tell us to hate a beloved family member? How does what he says here match with his teachings elsewhere about loving one another as we love ourselves – our neighbour and even our enemy?

Throughout the gospel Jesus often speaks of loving others, including one’s own family. He wants us to be of one mind and heart with them; but choosing to follow Jesus in all parts of our life may expose us to hatred, ridicule, rejection and physical harm — even from our own family.

Luke wrote for a church community living in hostile, pagan places where Christians faced deadly persecution. He presents to us Jesus’ admonition to a suffering church at the time.

Today we are still suffering, albeit it under very different circumstances; the ongoing abuse, rape and murder of women and children is unprecedented. These last two weeks alone have again highlighted the extraordinary high level of abuse and femicide in our country. As a community we must stand together in prayer and solidarity with all those making their voice heard in condemning this scourge and be prepared to take a stand when we see or hear of abusive behaviour of any kind.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. What does Jesus mean by this? Firstly, it means accepting that suffering is a part of our lives. Accepting our cross and giving up our lives means that, at some point, we have to make peace with the unalterable fact that frustration, disappointment, pain, misfortune, illness, unfairness, sadness, and death are a part of our lives and they must ultimately be accepted without bitterness.

Secondly, it means that we may not, in our suffering, pass on any bitterness to those around us. This does not mean that we cannot share our pain with others. But there’s a healthy way of doing this, where our sharing leaves others free, as opposed to an unhealthy kind of sharing which subtly tries to make others unhappy because we are unhappy.

Carrying our cross daily means accepting that God’s gift to us is often not what we expect. God always answers our prayers but, often times, by giving us what we really need rather than what we think we need. To carry our cross is to be open to surprise.

There are moments in the Gospels when people get excited over Jesus and begin following him. But when the way gets difficult, as Jesus predicted it would, our superficial commitment comes to light. In terms of the parable, we start to build a relationship, but cannot finish. As he has done before, Jesus calls his disciples to “renounce all their possessions.” Again, he is asking for a total response and commitment from them. They must be willing to give up the security and comfort of even their own families and to offer themselves entirely as his disciples.

That is why Jesus called the enthusiastic crowds following him to consider carefully the serious commitment they would be making in following him. Could they really follow him all the way, when it could mean giving up everything else and even result in suffering for Christ’s sake?

When we hear these challenges and all that Jesus is asking of us, don’t we feel somewhat inadequate to the task? When we actually hear what is asked of us are we tempted to throw our hands up in frustration; because we know there is a strong possibility that we will fall short of what he asks; because we know that we will inevitably still be inclined to seek out personal interests over his; we will still hunger for material comfort and possessions and not be totally willing to work for the sake of what the gospel asks.

“Who can possibly do everything that Christ asks of us? I can’t!”

None of us can on our own.

Behind all the other goals we might set ourselves in life our primary goal should be friendship with God and communion of life with him. Then, when other attachments disappoint us or betray the trust we’ve put in them, we’ll find that we can still rely on the support and strength of God’s grace. Grace is a free gift of God which enables us to share in the richness of God’s own life. Grace is also used to name the gifts that flow from this mercy or favour of God through the merits of Jesus Christ. Grace spurs us to conversion. Grace enables us to recommit ourselves.

Grace also promises us not to leave us on our own as we try to throw our whole selves into the gospel project — the “tower” we are called to construct. Grace helps us pay the complete cost of that construction project, which Jesus started and we have been called to share in finishing.

The Narrow Door

21^st Sunday Ordinary Time
Cycle C
25^th  August 2019
Rev Tony van Vuuren

Using a quote from this weekend’s missal intro, the question is asked; “Is our religion one of life, or one of words, rites and devotions?”In the gospel reading Jesus echoes the preaching of the Old Testament prophets when he tells his listeners that it’s more important to practice the commands of God than to offer him token gestures of allegiance and worship.

Jesus is on his preaching tour around the towns and villages and someone asks him a question about the number of people who will be saved. He was asked questions like this one many times during his ministry; but rather than preoccupation with numbers, such as “how many will be saved?”, Jesus emphasizes the more important point, namely; to make sure that we are on the path to salvation by our lives being on fire for the things of God. He has turned the question back on us: “never mind worrying about whether or not other people are going to be saved. He rather says to each of us; “Search your own conscience, and examine your own behaviour and concentrate on whether you are being open enough to God in your own life.” That’s the only thing each of us needs to feel responsible for, rather than speculating about who else is going to be saved.

Salvation, cannot be bought, inherited or stolen, but can be simply gained by a life of doing God’s will and living under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We are incorporated into the Church through Baptism and nourished by the other Sacraments of the Church. Admittedly, it takes time and persevering work to attain the fullness of God’s Kingdom, but it is not impossible.

So when Jesus talks about “entering by the narrow door” he doesn’t mean that God has restricted salvation to a tiny number of people, an elite group. God offers his invitation to everyone, without any restrictions. But the way of life that’s involved in responding to the invitation involves some very difficult demands and sacrifices. And it’s in that sense that Jesus means that many try to enter but only a few succeed. To love as he did will not be easy.
The “narrow door” is after all an image for Jesus’ way of living and his gift of himself for us. It is a special kind of suffering and self-sacrifice he invites us to enter into. The cost of true discipleship; to forgive is a narrow door; to serve by giving time and money for those in need is a narrow door; to put aside my schedule and agenda to listen to another’s pain, is a narrow door; to live a careful and frugal life, to have less so someone can have some, is a narrow door; to speak out for those who have no power or authority, even if it makes us unpopular, is a narrow door; to work to right wrongs is a narrow door.

In the framework of the Jewish faith both John the Baptist and Jesus attacked the idea that simply being a member of the Chosen People gave them a privileged status in God’s eyes. In this passage Jesus is making that point for his followers – for us. We must look to our own quality of discipleship. Just eating and drinking in the company of Christ to use his image, (and here we can place the Eucharist) doesn’t make someone a real disciple. Just being a Sunday member of the Church isn’t equivalent to actually living the gospel. Discipleship is a total surrender and commitment to God. Making genuine contact with God, and living the effect of that contact, is more important than just wearing the label.

At the same time the opposite is also true. Luke conjures up a picture here of people who don’t have any regular direct active relationship of faith with Christ, but who get welcomed into the Kingdom because they’ve put a way of life into practice which actually expresses God’s values and attitudes. For example; a young couple contemplating marriage who are of mixed faith; EG Catholic and Methodist; yet have a fantastic spiritual bonding should not be afraid to commit to each other in a lifelong relationship that will be faith driven.

Luke’s point isn’t that there’s no value in belonging to the Christian community or taking part in its formal worship, or receiving the sacraments and so on. It’s more of an appeal not to make those things empty gestures, and an appeal to practice the substance of discipleship, and not just claim the name. The worst mistake on the spiritual path is to become complacent, presuming we are “home safe,” simply by having been baptized and confirmed. These are of course important steps on the path to salvation, but the spiritual life has to be cultivated; lived out day by day.

So those are the attitudes that Jesus is trying to persuade us to adopt in this part of his teaching: to leave any final judgements about other people’s salvation to God; to concentrate on our own following of the demands of the gospel instead; and to recognise that faith in him shows itself in concrete discipleship, not in claiming rewards and privileges on the basis of a fairly superficial acquaintance.

He will recognize us at the door if he recognizes himself in us, if he sees in us: his eyes–that saw those often unseen; his mouth–that spoke the truth and was the voice for those who had no voice in society; his hands–that reached out in care and compassion; his ears–that listened to those often unheard.
We must not settle for a life that simply gets close to Jesus by being near him according to our proximity. Rather, let’s live lives that radiate his love so that when the time comes for us to knock on the door Jesus will say — I know where you are coming from.

PERSISTENT PRAYER

17^th  SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
CYCLE C
28^th JULY 2019
Tony van Vuuren

The Gospel this week tells us a lot about prayer. Be persistent. Ask for what we need. Be assured of the concern of God for us. It does not say: Give it one shot and see what happens.
Between the model of prayer that Abraham provides in his bargaining dialogue with God and the direct advice that Jesus Himself gives us regarding prayer; we need to be centered on the importance of praying every day for our needs and the needs of others. We keep hold of God’s hand through our persistent prayer.
The Our Father prayer is the greatest and most well-known of all Christian prayers. Its short and simple phrases embrace every relationship between us and God. It not only tells us what to pray for, but also how to pray for it. However it so often tends to be said so hurriedly and unthinkingly that much of its meaning is lost. This is a pity; because, properly understood, the Our Father contains a whole programme for Christian living. If we were to live up to what it contains, we would be perfectly in tune with the mind of Christ, because undoubtedly this is how he himself prayed and lived.

The first part deals with God. We begin by acknowledging God’s existence, and calling him “Father”. God is a parent to us, and we are his children. Sometimes he acts like a father and sometimes like a mother!
Then we praise his name; and in praising his name we praise him. We pray for the coming of his kingdom; a kingdom of truth and life, holiness and grace, justice, love and peace. We all have a part to play in making his kingdom a reality.
We pray that his will may be done on earth. “On earth” means in our lives too. God’s will may not always be the easiest thing to do, but it is always the best thing.

The second part deals with us and our needs. We begin by praying for our daily bread. “Bread” stands for all our material and spiritual needs. We may experience a physical hunger, but we can also experience a spiritual hunger. We have a soul as well as a body and sometimes we can experience great emptiness. The soul also needs food to sustain it.
We then pray for forgiveness for our own sins, and for the grace to be able to forgive those who sin against us. Inability to forgive others makes it impossible for us to receive God’s forgiveness.
We pray not to be led into temptation. God does not put temptation in our path, but life does. And we ourselves sometimes walk into temptation of our own accord with our eyes open. We are asking God to help us cope with the temptations that come to us unbidden, and to avoid those of our own choosing. Temptation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a chance for us to prove our loyalty and maturity.

Finally, we pray to be delivered from all evil, both physical and moral. We can’t expect never to encounter evil. God has given us the gift of free will and he respects our freedom; so we can’t be guaranteed a life free from pain and struggle. He didn’t even do that for his son. But there is something God will do. He will help us cope with whatever evil comes our way. We are asking God for the grace to be victorious over all evil, but especially moral evil.
Just something we should take note of; the whole of the Our Father is couched in plural terms. This shows that we are one family under God, and there can be no salvation for us independent of others.
Our best behaviour may not save our part of the world, but it certainly will make for less of the negative drama which each of us is exposed to, tolerates, or even contributes to, each day. The Our Father prayer tells us how to pray, with an emphasis on forgiveness. Our persistent prayer will surely change our hearts and stiffened necks to conform more to this awesome God of ours.

So as we take a breath and disengage a moment from the current news cycle or family need or workplace upset or health issue, let us pray! Let us first return a prayer of thanksgiving to God for being there. Let us call on the Holy Spirit over and over, to be with us, close by, so that our new direction along our journey of faith and hope and love may reflect this awesome God.

No matter what we face in life don’t let go of God’s hand!

The Most Holy Trinity

Cycle C
16^th June 2019
Romans: 5:1-5
Tony van Vuuren

I am not given to telling stories in my sermons, but I was reminded that I was due to preach on the Holy Trinity when I read David Biggs’ Last Laugh column in the Argus last week.

Three farmers were sitting in the local agricultural co-op chatting about this and that, and the talk turned to religion and the merits of various faiths. The oldest was very quiet so he was asked, “so what do you think Oom Hennie?’
“Well there are three roads leading to the grain elevator,” he said, “and when you arrive there, they are not going to ask you which road you came by. They’ll only be interested in the quality of your grain.”

Moving through the three special feasts culminating in the Holy Trinity this weekend we might review what the impact of this period has been on the quality of our faith? On the Ascension we celebrated Jesus’ return to his Father’s side.

Pentecost fulfilled Jesus’ promise that he would not leave us on our own to struggle in a contrary world of rejection and indifference. Today we celebrate the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, our belief that God is One and yet Three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One in Three and Three in One.

This is something so wonderful and sublime that the human mind cannot pretend to comprehend the full meaning of the mystery, which nonetheless is the cause of our hope as followers of Jesus Christ. Even St Augustine once stated that it is impossible to fill the human mind with the immensity of the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians begins with a double reassurance. Paul wants to make sure that, as we undergo the daily trials that test our faith, we can be confident that we don’t have to go through them on our own. Jesus is the lens through which Paul interprets the Trinity.

Paul writes; “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s where it begins for us, doesn’t it? It is not about what we did to please God; but that God has first been pleased with us. This love of God; it is not “our love of God” but rather, “God’s love of us.” Paul tells us that through sufferings, endurance, the forming of character and hope, God’s love is poured into our hearts through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
God, in Jesus, has “justified” us. The term “justification” is the Bible’s assurance that we have been put in a right relationship with God. The first effect of justification is the Christian experience of peace. This is a peace that anxieties cannot upset, a hope that knows no disappointment, and a confidence of salvation of which any Christian can truly boast.

So how do we get this “righteousness,” or “justification”? Well, we can never earn it according to Paul. Instead, as he has often said, we are set right with God through faith. But it does not end there, in complacency. Instead, the faith we have received urges us to respond to our neighbour as Jesus did.

God, our Creator, has in Jesus shone the divine face of love and forgiveness on us. He has revealed His unsurpassing, unlimiting and unearned love for us. He has also gifted us with the Spirit, the life force within us, that moves us to accept Jesus into our lives by faith and to respond to the Spirit’s urging to be as Christ was in the world.
All the gifts that we receive from God, be it His grace, faith, hope, peace, justification, they are bestowed upon us through the Blessed Trinity. It is by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in the Name of Jesus that God manifests His love in us, with us and through us. God’s love for us gives us courage in all the difficulties of life.

We are each being invited to engage more than the mind as we ponder the mystery of our living under the watchful care of the Holy Trinity. St Benedict expressed it beautifully when he said that we are invited to open “the ears of our heart,” in order to comprehend, to the degree that we can, the greatness of our God.
While living this life, we will never understand fully the God who saves us, but that is no reason to give up in our search for God, and our ardent pursuit of God’s will for our life, as well as our proclamation of the Gospel by the life we live.

The Gospel reassures us that God is Love, and whoever lives in love lives in God and God in the one who loves. Let us put God in the centre of our existence and go to Him frequently in prayer, in praise, as well as adoration, supplication, and thanksgiving for giving nourishment and encouragement for our daily existence.

We form a family with God. As the Trinity dwells in unity, we are called to do likewise. May we never cease to thank our God for the gifts we have received and may we remain today and always united to the Holy Trinity, our One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“Love one another even as I have loved you”

5th SUNDAY OF EASTER
CYCLE C
19TH MAY 2019
Rev Tony van Vuuren.

Carrying out this new commandment is the centre of Christian life; the standard and pattern of Jesus’ life has to be the standard and pattern of our lives as well. Love is one of the great preoccupations of life.

Personal relationships, and the warmth and security they provide, are a refuge from an outside world which is in many aspects uncaring and devoid of love. There’s a hint of desperation in the efforts of some people to avoid being left “on their own”, which suggests that there’s an element in our culture which generates loneliness or fails to meet the human need for meaningful companionship and communication with each other.

There are many TV reality shows that illustrate this sad need. The way the Christian gospel understands love, and the way that our society in general understands it, are often two different things. One basic distinction between our Christian outlook and the outlook of non-believers is that along with Christ, and along with all the authors of the Bible, we see God as being the original source of love. Saint John says elsewhere in his Gospel; “God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him”.

Love is not something we create out of the resources of our own human nature. Human nature can be pretty brutal and unloving. The world news is always full of stories that show the depths of loveless behaviour that human beings are capable of sinking to. For us, as believers, love is the spark of divine life in each of us that permeates our whole character and personality and our behaviour more and more deeply. We don’t keep God’s commandments so that he will love us; we do so because He loves us!
To become less self-centred, and to direct ourselves more towards other people and their concerns, is really the main sign of genuine conversion, in our Christian understanding. The main impact God has on us, and the main way that he draws us into his own life, is by way of this conversion. And the person who is genuinely trying to seek God and to be open to God’s influence in their life recognises this.
The second big difference between Christ’s notion of love, and the way our culture understands it, is that for Christ it’s mainly a matter of will, not a matter of feelings or emotions.

Christian love is more to do with a kind of reverence for others as fellow sons and daughters of God and a practical dedication to their welfare as spiritual beings. The ethos of Christian community life takes shape when every individual takes this attitude to everyone else: when each serves the others.

But this takes place in our wills, not in our feelings. Christian love doesn’t mean getting deeply emotionally involved with everyone that we meet. That’s not humanly possible. It’s not what Christ did himself and it’s not what he asks us to do. The effort we make to show concern and to give comfort to people when they’re vulnerable is certainly a way of showing genuine Christian love – but it’s not necessary to link up our own personal emotions with people’s anxiety or their grief. We can identify with people when they’ve suffered a loss, but that’s not the same as actually feeling the loss ourselves.
When people are distressed it’s far more helpful to express sympathy in a down-to-earth way. They don’t need to be bombarded with a lot of gushy stuff about how we’re totally devastated and won’t be able to sleep and how we’ll be worrying about them all week. The main fault of that is that it’s really a form of self-indulgence. It’s not actually directed to the welfare of the other person at all. And as Christians we’re supposed to root out self-indulgent tendencies, not cultivate them.

So if that’s not what Christ’s new commandment is about, may I suggest two simple ways that we can carry out this instruction that Jesus gives us in the gospel today. The first way is to surrender some of our own demands and ambitions about what we want out of life, and attend more to serving other people – not in grand gestures of self-sacrifice, but in small and manageable ways instead.
Maybe being more generous to people with our time and attention. When we do that, all our small actions build up into a habit, and we begin to assume the overall pattern of love and service that Christ puts to his followers as the way of living in communion with God.

Something else we can do, as an act of Christian love, is: we can pray for people. God wants us to turn to him with our own needs as well as with other people’s needs, because he wants us to communicate with him constantly about the plans and activities that we’re involved in.

If we can get into the habit of praying for other people – asking God in ordinary language to make himself present in their lives and help them in whatever way they need – then he also makes himself more present to us, and changes us, at the same time. He makes us gradually more detached from our own wants and desires, he changes our priorities and our sense of what’s important, and he reinforces this whole attitude of concern and service to others.

When we refuse to love, we build a wall around ourselves. But we ourselves are the first to suffer. We condemn ourselves to a winter of loneliness and unhappiness But when we love, the wall falls down. We open ourselves to others. And we ourselves are the first to benefit. We experience a springtime of friendship, goodwill, peace and joy.

“Love one another even as I have loved you.” That sums it all up.