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.
While the sweet-smelling incense rises, we call upon the Holy Spirit, 'the Comforter, the Spirit of wisdom and prudence, of knowledge and piety, of the fear of God'. This monastic church, drawn by sturdy architects from Trondheim, is no longer, then, a mere building - it will have become a sacramental reality, the tabernacle of divine presence, a concrete epiclesis.
Continue reading As long as I consider myself the hapless victim of the ravages of others, of life, or of God in his heaven, I never take my future into my hands; somehow I'll never be my own life's acting subject. There is a risk that I'll gather bitter grapes even from good vines - so let's beware.
Continue reading These days there is a tendency to cardamomify the Christian proclamation. We might profitably note how demanding the Church herself is when, through the liturgy, she shows us what we believe and what we are called to become.
Continue reading Our world is set on a course that madly resists the good and true, bent on obliterating God. Wherever God’s grace makes its presence felt, it encounters resistance, even violence.
Continue reading What we celebrate today is the triumph of hope. Even the dead who, at their passing, were unprepared to meet their Maker are covered by the mantle of his mercy.
Continue reading By our prayer and sacrifice we can bring effective consolation to brothers in tribulation, who may not be able to pray themselves, being overwhelmed. This touches the heart of the communion of saints - we bear one another's burdens in a communion that defies time and space in all-encompassing fellowship.
Continue reading To be in love is to idealise the beloved while at the same time finding ourselves idealised. It is a most agreeable sensation.
Continue reading In day-to-day speech, when we say of someone, ‘He (or she) is very zealous’, we shudder a bit. The zealous person is officious and singleminded to the point of obsession, having little time for the sensibilities of others - to live alongside zealots can be an ordeal.
Continue reading History progresses towards a fulfilment. God uses the processes of history and man's free choices, choices often ignobly and selfishly motivated, to further in the long term his design - our salvation, the establishment of God's kingdom whose birth pangs darkly immerse us.
Continue reading What's it supposed to mean that Noah, after the flood, planted vines, not cabbage? That man refuses to accept the world as merely a vale of tears, a wilderness of thistles to be conquered in the sweat of his brow - that within us there's remembrance of a more harmonious earth, created for delight.
Continue reading In the vocabulary of the Old Testament, an offering is literally an 'elevation' — it refers to the movement the priest performed when he lifted up before God whatever gifts people brought, a sign that all earthly accomplishments point towards a heavenly finality, that even our corn, our wine, our cattle carry a seed of eternity and can come to be a vehicle of blessing.
Continue reading It is tragic (I don't think the term is too strong) that the word 'grace' in our parts, in the wake of the Reformation, became a harsh word. To live 'on grace' is humiliating in Norwegian vocabulary - it's about being seated on the beggar's bench just inside the door, hoping for someone to drop a coin into your hat, ready to bow low in response.
Continue reading We cannot take away another’s freedom or force him or her to act in a certain way. But we cannot simply look on resigned while someone self-destructs - at least we should call out, ‘Come back, I’m here for you!
Continue reading We too live in times in which much is broken to pieces. That is nothing to get too excited about.
Continue reading Peter wields the key to the kingdom as trusted servant, not as lord - it's an important distinction to bear in mind, showing us both the dignity and limit of Peter’s authority. When Peter presumed that his position entitled him to dictate Christ’s course of action, he was rebuked in the strongest possible terms.
Continue reading For hearts wounded by sin, closure is the default movement - our heart must learn to reopen like an oyster to discover, and reveal, the pearl within, the pearl of great price. The tearing of the temple curtain symbolises the resolve of conversion by which we reaffirm our option for what is great, universal, and whole.
Continue reading If God is truly God, he is present everywhere, even in his apparent absence. The God of action is also a God who waits - what he waits for is our response, our obedience, our getting up to go.
Continue reading Let us, as Catholics, hold firm to what is palpable and real in the legacy of St Olav and leave it to the secular authority to bask in fantastical abstractions.
Continue reading If the call to ministry has come to seem irrelevant it is at least in part because many a flame that once burnt brightly is now perceptible only by way of deduction on the basis of heaps of burnt-out ash. Tend carefully the flame that today is lit in you through the sacrament of Holy Church, our Mother.
Continue reading Once we find ourselves well and truly fallen, with our nose in the dirt, we are relieved of illusions about ourselves. We can start a new life afresh based on reality, in truth.
Continue reading The heralds of the Lion of Judah transformed into flowerpot-holders!
Continue reading It's never been easier to pass as a prophet, we hear the word prophecy used a lot. There's a risk, though, that the term is devalued thereby, becoming self-referential, wordy, tiring — boring, quite simply.
Continue reading The Heart of Jesus is not a geiger counter that catches, measures, and evaluates sin with precision just for the sake of statistics; it is touched by our options, wounded when we do evil and prefer darkness to light. Each of us can bring the Heart of Jesus grief or consolation.
Continue reading The Tower of Babel was preeminently a synodal undertaking, though self-destructive, which is why the Lord undermined it. To be on the road together is a fine thing, but what really matters is where one is bound and whose lead one follows.
Continue reading A human being that lives beautifully becomes beautiful, such a human being also becomes whole. The call to holiness is not a call to become someone else - it is a call to become who you are.
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