Garden and wilderness

As we begin this new season of Lent, we are taken back to the garden of Eden to witness both the life of tranquility and peace that originally existed and then the condition during and after the fall. When the serpent entered into the picture, the lies and deception begin to flow and the consequences are immediately felt. The coexistence of heaven and earth - with God living in peace with the humans in the garden and sharing life and enjoying each others company - all of this changes, and the man and woman discover they are naked. Now shame becomes a reality and they try to hide from one another by covering up behind their fig leaves. We think we are more sophisticated and hide behind titles, honours, work, houses, toys and gadgets. But the choice that Eve and Adam made are still open to us. Will we stay with the Lord in the garden, or will we allow the exultation of human freedom to drive God out of lives as we flee into the wilderness?

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8'02" (St Brigid's, Gwynneville)
Lent 1A

(Last week was the Bishop's Pastoral Letter for Lent, which was played in the place of the homily across the Diocese.)

Worry, money and insurance

The fact that Jesus repeats a phrase seven times in our Gospel reading today perhaps suggests that there is something he wants us to learn. In a world that values money, security and wealth much more highly than the glories of God's creation, the words of Jesus invite us to embrace a different way of being. One imagines that when Jesus preaches the sermon on the mount, he was surrounded by the lilies of the field in the Galilee spring and as he gestures upwards to the birds of the air there were many wheeling and flying free - just the same as Jesus lived and calls his disciples to live in the same freedom - embracing the amazing gifts of creation and the bounty and generosity of God.

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Recorded at SJV, 8.30am (8'45")
Sunday 08A. Matthew 6:24-34

Renovations at SJV

The parish Church at Fairy Meadow is soon to undergo a range of renovations - improvements to the sanctuary, the main body of the church and to the entrances and landscaping. Some of the work will require that the church is closed (during which time all Masses will be transferred to the parish church in Balgownie). The architects who are preparing the work have prepared a 3D fly-though of the church - so I thought it may be of some interest!



You can find out more information at the Parish website: www.lumenchristi.org.au

Offer the left cheek

A story told by Eugene Peterson (the author of The Message Bible - a translation in very contemporary English) of the day when the tables were turned on Garrison Johns - the school yard bully who had beaten up on Eugene every day after school for seven months - highlights the way that we have often read this teaching of Jesus. Perhaps if we reconstruct what this teaching would have meant to the first hearers, we can discover a richer source for reflection.

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Recorded at St John Vianney, 8.30am (9'35")
Sunday 07 in the Year (A)
Matthew 5:38-48

But I say to you

Often we imagine - to tell you the truth - that the teaching of Jesus was much softer that the hard edges of the laws of Moses. Yet - to be honest with you - what we discover in today's Gospel (Matthew 5:17-37) is the very opposite of this. In the face of an ages' long understanding that the role of a Rabbi was to simply repeat what they had been taught by their master Rabbi, Jesus dares to teach something new. And when he declares that 'you have heard it said' and then he goes on to say 'but I say to you...' the new teaching that he gives does not soften the laws - they sharpen them into instruments that are capable to reaching deep inside each of our hearts with frightening effect.

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Recorded at St John Vianney, 8.30am (7'48")

Sunday 06 A

Salt and Light already

As we continue to journey through the sermon on the mount, lest we imagine that the kingdom of heaven is only something that will happen in the distant future, today we are given two promises that serve as concrete declarations of the kingdom breaking into our present reality. Jesus tells the crowd of disciples (who lets face it are rather daft at times - not like us?) that 'You are the salt of the earth' and 'You are light of the world.' It is interesting that he says 'you', not 'them'; he says 'are' not 'should be' or 'will be' and he says 'of' not 'from' - so what does this mean?

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Recorded at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, 5'45" on a 44 degree day!
Sunday 5 in the season of the year (A)

Blessing of Mercy and Peace

We begin to sit at the feet of Jesus as he shares the sermon on the mountain with his disciples (including us) and begins by reminding us that at the heart of Christianity is the desire of God that we should know fullness of life (blessing) in him. When we examine the series of eight blessings, perhaps we should first start with the ones that seem closest to the nature of God (sharing his hesed / mercy and peace) and conclude with those that might point in the direction of things that could prevent us from experiencing this life of beatitude.

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Sunday 04A.
Recorded at St John Vianney, 8.30am (10'21")

I did not record a homily last Sunday during my time with NET Ministries in Queensland.

Longing for the Lamb

In last Sunday's feast of the Baptism, we saw that Jesus - despite the expectations of John the Baptist - identified with sinners and went down into the muddy waters of the Jordan River. This week in Brisbane we saw first hand the destructive power of nature in the floods that have devastated so many communities and destroyed so many lives and properties. The question naturally is asked - where was God in the midst of all this. In light of last Sunday's Gospel, and our first reading today (1 Corinthians) we can see that God is where Jesus is - right in the  midst of the water. Where was God? Well, where was the body of Christ - the Church? And we saw that the Church was right in the midst of the Brisbane community - helping people to evacuate, preparing houses, providing shelter, helping to clean up, offering couselling, praying for protection.

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Sunday 02A.
Recorded at St Mary Magdalene Church, Bardon (9'11")
Isaiah 49; I Cor 1:1-3; John 1:29-34

Baptism of the Lord

The Baptism of the Lord. When we celebrate the feast, we can forget just what it would have meant for those who were there the day that Jesus arrived at the Jordan River to be baptised by John. John preaches that the Messiah will come to cleanse and purify with his fire and power - instead, Jesus presents himself as just another sinner needing to be cleansed and purified. Rather than the Holy One of Israel, the first public action of Jesus is the sinner of Israel, joining other sinners like us in the muddy waters of the Jordan. What does this teach us about our lives?

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Recorded at Emmanuel Community Eucharist, BEAT School of Music, St Laurence's College, Brisbane (7'51")

The journey of the Magi

Feast of the Epiphany. The journey of the magi provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our own relationship with Christ and the lengths that we go to seek out truth and bring our lives in worship before the child king in Bethlehem.

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Recorded at SJV, 6pm (7'00")

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Recorded at SJV, 10.30am (6'41")