Here I have put together a selection of homilies. The Word of God is ‘alive and active’ says the Letter to the Hebrews. That is not to say that it lives a hidden organic life we can trace through a microscope, as if it were a virus; but that it is inspired, a bearer of God’s eternal Spirit. Therefore it resounds to this day with quite as much force as when it was first spoken. It ever has something new to say. The preacher’s first task is to listen intently to this Word at once ancient and new, then to make his own, necessarily limited words its vehicles. I have not been able to provide translations of texts in other languages; but if you rummage around a little you will find a fair amount of material in English.
God's word surrounds us everywhere, even though we don't hear or see it any more than we see or hear a mobile network, be it 5G. We ought to think about this more.
Continue reading The first feast of Christ the King was intended as a proclamation, addressing to people everywhere the message of a Psalm of David: ‘Let them remember that they are but men!’
Continue reading The Church was born of an eschatological expectation that resisted sentimentality. It is good to be conscious of this right now, at a time which perceives spirituality, and even theology itself, as an emotive category.
Continue reading Our community is imperfect; that can be painfully obvious at times. Yet nonetheless it glows with a transcendent yet palpable benediction of which it is not the origin.
Continue reading The widow in the Gospel gave ‘out of what she didn’t have’. A good financial adviser would call her reckless, irresponsible — in fact, he'd probably ask that she be placed under tutelage, as being unable to administer her resources.
Continue reading God can do all things. He can make water into wine, swords into ploughshares, enemies into friends, dry places into fruitful land.
Continue reading Christ is the Church's light; were she to turn her face away from him, she would walk in her own shadow. Instead of contemplating Christ’s face, she would be preoccupied with her own form.
Continue reading The Apostle was determined to remain poor and transparent, to be a voice crying in the wilderness, not a protagonist accumulating thousands of ‘likes’ on Facebook.
Continue reading There's something geriatric about modernity's wisdom. The wisdom of Scripture, by contrast, is playful and young.
Continue reading What dignity in a life wholly given up! What sadness in an offering withdrawn or compromised!
Continue reading Never have I more clearly realised the dignity of one who offers his life as an unconditional gift - such a gift structures existence, enabling stability and growth. It just isn't the same to give a little bit here, a little bit there.
Continue reading The world remains in birth pangs even unto the end of the age. To be stuck within them cannot but be traumatic.
Continue reading We have the potential to reveal God to one another, and we can likewise conceal him from each other. It is a terrifying prospect - by my actions I may effectively block another from seeing God, from reaching true freedom, happiness, and beatitude.
Continue reading One of the Second Vatican Council's choicest fruits is the catechism published in 1992. It received much attention when it came out, but do we read it now?
Continue reading The cross, for being ‘ours’, must not shut us in; it must break us open, making of our lives a source of consolation for others. This consolation must be evident in deeds.
Continue reading A dizzying thought - there might be material objects around that were physically touched by God Almighty! It is small wonder that Constantine set out to search for the greatest relic of all, the Cross on which Christ died.
Continue reading At all times men and women have loved to talk about love; our time is no exception. It has this peculiarity, though, that discourse about ‘love’ these days tends to have an edge of anger.
Continue reading It is immensely satisfying to be in the vicinity of a categorical imperative. Indeed, it can happen that we are deeply moved by our own capacity for greatness before we think, 'Still, there's no rush', and potter home to flick on the telly.
Continue reading If we look closely at the liturgy for the Assumption, we find traces of the Ark everywhere. Pictorially it is a less alluring symbol than the cosmic lady: an ark, after all, is just a box.
Continue reading In Gilead, the Rev’d John Ames remarks, ‘I have always liked the phrase “nursing a grudge”, because many people are tender of their resentments, as of the thing nearest to their hearts.’ It is true and pathetic - no human attitude is more utterly unproductive of good.
Continue reading Olav reminds us that is is possible to fight against our vices, to form our nature, to overcome conditioning in order to let Christ be formed in us, to make us bearers of his blessing.
Continue reading There's a risk that we believers create for ourselves a schizophrenic universe. One pole is represented by the religious dimension of life with sublime notions of God, providence, creation and redemption; the other pole represents concrete daily life marked by political worry, rising prices, relational conflicts, and dreams of looking swell in a swimsuit.
Continue reading Origen says somewhere that at judgement we shall all pass through fire; and that in us which is fireproof will remain. My father carried much that is fireproof.
Continue reading In 1981 Alasdair MacIntyre wrote that ‘the barbarians are not’, now, ‘waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time’. How one would love to be able to say that he has since been proven wrong.
Continue reading If only we had a bit more of that trustful, serene, God-oriented, oblative madness in the Church today. Who knows what might happen.
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