Sermon: St John of the Cross and Advent

Today St John of the Cross enters our advent season, 

a figure that, I’d suggest to you, 

might be seen as as unwelcome as a skeleton at a Christmas feast:

We've just had Gaudete Sunday, joy, 

recalling that even as we wait He is already here. 

Yet, just after such a pleasant lightening of the mood, 

here comes Mr self-denial, Mr suffering, Mr Cross.

(1) The need for purging

 He's not FULLY here

There is MUCH that stops Him coming

and ONE of the things that STOPS Him from entering my soul, and entering my life, 

is my failure to embrace the Cross.

Even physically, 

before I am feed my belly more for Christmas, I must be purged of what already fills me

Spiritually, it is even more true:

I must be purged of so much in my heart, for Christ to have room to enter at Christmas

Thus:

The dark night: 

• of the senses, 

• of the soul

Self denial 

• love of the Cross

(2) Contrasting joy and pleasure:

• Joy, spiritual joy, 
• is fully compatible with the Cross

• Physical pleasure 
• was obviously not part of Christ’s experience on the cross 
• And there are very real pains that accompany the purging, of the dark night (in its many forms)

• Yet,
• The fruit of love is joy

• Physical pleasure 
• comes from contact with physical goods, like donuts, and turkey
• 
  

• Spiritual joy,
• come from contact, from union, with the spiritual good, with God

• LOVE is that union, and love brings JOY

(3) My love needs re-ordering

• The love in my heart is very confused very disordered

• My yearning for the things of this world 
• (the things that God made)
• so often distracts me from, rather that leads me to, Him

• And so,

• I need that skeleton at my Christmas feast, 
• I need St John of the Cross 
• to re-order my heart

• ”the gate that gives entry… Is the Cross.  Many seek the joys that can be found through it, but few desire to pass through it” (St John, office of readings)

(4) Penance in Advent

• In the Latin Church, our Church:

• we associate penance with Lent

• But there is also a tradition of penance in Advent

• We might say:

• Lent is about penance, for past sins
• Advent is about repentance FROM them,  to be ready for His coming, preparation

• But,
• part of such preparation needs to include self denial and the Cross

• And

• That's part of why having all these CHRISTMAS parties in the midst of ADVENT is so DAMAGING

Summary

• (1) The need for purging

• (2) The difference, but not contradiction, between physical pleasure and spiritual joy;

• (3) My love needs re-ordering

• (4) Advent penance does such a re-ordering

• Christ wants to come, 

• this is the whole message of advent

• The Church prays for Him to come

• I pray for Him to come

• You pray for Him I come

• But, on this feast of St John of the Cross, 

• let’s remember that a continual part of getting ready for Him to come 

Seeking Him

Monday 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 8th Nov 2021, Josephinum 

Wis 1:1-7 

I want to say a few words finding the Lord, 

 and how we can stop ourselves finding Him. Our first reading: 

“seek Him… …He is found… He manifests Himself…” (Wis 1:1-2) 

 (1) First, I want to note the joy of finding Him. 

• To find someone who loves us 

-is a great thing 

• To find direction, knowledge, guidance, meaning 

-is a great thing. 

There are many people out there who have never experienced that joy 

 -let us thank Him. 

 (2) Second, I want to note that He WANTS to be found 

• The maker of heaven and earth 

• The “wisdom” directs all things 

• The “Spirit” that “fills the world” 

 -He WANTS to be found 

 -He wants to ENTER in 

 (3) Third, the sadness of losing Him 

• To “find” the Lord Jesus is not a one-way street 

I’m pretty sure: 

Everyone here either has, or will, lose Him 

 -repeatedly 

 • We can “lose” Him in many senses: 

He withdraws His consolations 

-challenging and calling us to seek Him deeper 

• We can lose Him due to our own fault 

 (4) Fourth, what CAUSES us not to find Him. 

• As already noted: 

He can draw away from us, SENSIBLY, APPARENTLY 

-in order to draw us closer 

• But, today’s Wisdom text focuses: 

Our own lifestyles stop Him 

• Negatively: 

“sin” 

-how can God dwell in a heart full of sin? 

“lies”, “perverse counsels”, “blasphemy” 

-wisdom cannot enter when un-wisdom fills the heart 

pride, 

arrogance, 

those who “test Him”, 

those who “disbelieve” and doubt Him 

-The Almighty enters the HUMBLE heart 

Failing to “forgive” c.f. our Gospel text 

• Positively, 

“integrity”,

“justice”, 

“goodness”, 

the “listener” 

 -when we dispose ourselves to Him, He comes 

 

So, When you sense that you have found Him, 

 then watch your heart, 

 watch your virtue 

When you sense that you’ve lost Him, 

 then know He still wants to be found

To recap: 

• There is JOY in finding Him; 

• He WANTS to be found 

• There is SADNESS in losing Him 

• But whether our loss of Him is our fault, 

 or, His trial, 

 either way: He can be RE-FOUND

Helpers in the New Evangelization

Saturday 31^st Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, Josephinum

Rom 16:3-9, 16, 22-27

I want to say a few words about the helpers God will send you in your task as priests

in the context of the New Evangelization 

Three points in my sermon

(1) First point: the “secret” that we must make known

St. Paul spoke of:

“the revelation of the mystery [previously] kept secret”

-Greek for ‘mystery’ 

Doesn’t mean something odd and ’mysterious’

It means a secret that is secret no more

-it’s now ‘revealed’, 

-the truth of Christ, in Christ 

-the truth of the meaning of the cosmos, 

the meaning of life, 

the meaning of the individual lives of all those you talk to

That “secret”,

must be “made known to all nations”

Our task as priests of the New Evangelization:

To make Christ known

To hand on the “secret”

(2) Second point, a brief one: The New Evangelization is a tough task 

If you feel ready for this task, 

then you probably don’t grasp its magnitude

(3) Third point, my main one:

You are NOT going to be ALONE in this task.

We heard in our first reading St Paul refer to many people who helped him along the way

They might seem like random names to us, 

Priscilla

Aquila 

Etc

-13 names in that short passage

St. Paul was the “apostle to the gentiles”, 

as we are called to be apostles to gentiles of our own day

St. Paul recounts in multiple epistles the difficulties he faced:

Scourged 5 times, beaten three times, shipwrecked three times, stoned, imprisoned

Hungry, thirsty, in pain, in weariness (2 Cor 11 24-27)

But, also,

He recounts in almost all of his letters, names of people who aided him in the task 

-even while his letters are about other things, 

his sense of gratitude to them is such that he keeps mentioning them by name

St. Paul set out without knowing these people, these helpers

God, however, knew who He had planned to raise up to help him in the task

And

He has likewise planned co-workers in your part in the task

For me:

Each parish I’ve been sent to I’ve had a different challenge

But each parish has also had helpers that God had prepared for me

We aren’t meant to fight alone

We come to seminary to train as a band of brothers, 

to stand alongside men of the same vision, 

men who learn as we learn, 

men who pray and come know the Lord as we come to know Him

We don’t work alone

And, even after you’re sent out

You’ll still not be alone, 

because God knows WHO He has in mind to aid you

What are the names of the people that are going to aid you?

You don’t know

I don’t know

But God knows -He has them ready

She’s unlikely to be called Priscilla

He unlikely to be called Andronicus 

But they are there waiting for you -God has them ready

And there are even more, 

that will start out indifferent BUT by your words 

but rapidly rise to become your co-workers -all in God’s plan

So, those three points:

(1) There was a “secret” made known, and that WE must make known again

(2) The New Evangelization is a daunting task

(3) God has named and chosen people to aid you in the task

You can start PRAYING for them already

You can have a mindset LOOKING to find them

-but EXPECT them: God has them ready

Lord teach us to pray

Wednesday Week 27 Ordinary Time, Josephinum 6^th Oct 2021

Lk 11:1-4

I want to reflect on the request of the disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray”.

I want to start by noting that there is something amazingly beautiful about seeing a man in love.

First, to see a man in love with his new wife, or his young pregnant wife:.

• A man whose eyes follow her,
• A man whose thoughts are obviously concerned for her,
• A man who is clearly not just caught up in himself, but is thinking about HER.

It’s a beautiful sight.

It’s a manly sight.

Second, a man in love with God.

To see a man, a young man, caught up with God, is a beautiful sight.

• To see him in chapel, gazing at the tabernacle.
• To see him reading his Bible, caught up with the God he is discovering.
• To see him, to hear him, confess and repent, because he loves and he wants to love MORE.
• To see him excited to know more, learn more, LOVE God more.

It’s a beautiful sight.

It’s a manly sight.

We’re made to give ourselves away, we’re made for self-gift,

And to see man live that out is an amazing sight.

Back to our Gospel text.

It’s seems to me that when the disciples looked at their Lord

They saw a man in love.

They saw Him rose early to go and pray alone

They saw Him seek to leave the crowd, to be alone in prayer 

They HEARD Him speak of God,

With an intimacy

With a love

They saw Him pray

They saw a man in love

And it must have been an even more amazing sight than the sight of men in love that you and I have seen.

And, small surprise, they said,

“Lord, teach us to pray”.

To ask the Lord Jesus to “teach us to pray”,

Is to ask Him to introduce us into the heart of His relationship with the FATHER

it’s no small thing that He responds

 by teaching them a prayer that starts,

“Our Father…”

(Pause).

Shifting focus.

There never comes a time when we no longer need to LEARN how to pray.

One of my own annual formation goals this year is

To improve the quality of my mental prayer 

To have my time with HIM

Not just be vegging-out in the chapel

Not just sitting in distractions 

But being intimate with Him

Because I am still learning how to pray,

after 22 years a priest

after 30 years with a committed daily schedule of mental prayer or meditation 

I’ve been attending the prayer laboratories 

I’ve been reading and re-reading books on method in mental prayer

Because I want the wisdom of the saints

Methods of the saints

I want to share with you my favourite short summary of such methods, such techniques against distraction etc

25 copies here

We ALL still need to learn how to pray

The disciples saw in the Lord Jesus a man in love

A man who was not just a man

A man whose love was the inter-personal love of the Trinity somehow visible on earth 

Let’s hear those words of the disciples, their request, and make it our own:

“Lord, teach us to pray”.

Apostolic Poverty

Wednesday Week 25, 22^nd Sept 2021, Josephinum

Luke 9:1-6

Today I want to reflect on apostolic poverty, 

on poverty and the diocesan priesthood.

In our text we heard the Lord say:

• Take nothing for your journey.  No staff, no bag, no money, no spare tunic, etc (Lk 9:3)

But, we know that elsewhere He says:

• Take a purse, a bag, and a sword (Lk 22:35-6)

An obvious and standard interpretation of these 2 apparently conflicting texts is this:

• some of His commands are specific to a specific mission,

 specific to a time and place

There is a general rule we could phrase as this:

• Poverty is measured by the needs of the mission

Today, in our era:

• Pope St John Paul II has reminded us of the demands of poverty and simplicity of life for the diocesan priest

We take no vow of poverty, not even a simple promise

• Yet, JPII teaches us:
• The diocesan is called to live poverty for the sake of our apostolate

• Poverty is REQUIREMENT OF living our state of life
• I need to avoid all that “smacks of worldliness” (canon law 282.1), 
• I need to adopt “a simple life” (directory, 67), 
• “In all aspects (living quarters, means of transportation [car], vacations etc) the priest must eliminate any kind of affectation and luxury”(n.67).
• I need to have the Lord for my “inheritance” (directory, 67) rather than earthly possessions as my inheritance.
• And there is twofold reason:
• First, to follow the Lord better:
• “voluntarily embracing POVERTY to follow Christ more closely.”(n.67).
• Second, as a MEANS to grow in “apostolic charity”
• The freedom of poverty frees me to love,
• love like an apostle, living for others

Living “a simple life” is not simple, 

• it involves dozens of significant financial decisions per year
• it involves multiple daily and weekly smaller decisions

Responding to what seemed (to my Bishop and me) as a call of Providence, 

I came here.  

I gave up a 6 bedroom rectory, 

a private garden, 

and threw away a thousand books, 

to name a few things.

Charity called, I was happy to follow, 

but I knew various things couldn’t follow with me.

I needed that interior freedom

But, I also stand here with an iPad and an Smart Watch 

(though not the most recent version -one of my constant criteria: 

never have the most recent model phone)

Difficult decisions.  

Qu: What is the criterion to judge?

An: The needs of the mission, 

which takes us back to today’s text.

(1) For some missions, 

take a “spare” tunic and two swords 

-you need to be ready for  the task.

(2) For other missions, 

take neither staff nor bread nor money 

-the Lord will provide.

(3) In all missions:

Apostolic charity is the measure.  

What I possess: 

 it must not hinder me from loving with the freedom of apostolic loving  

 it must aid me in my mission 

To close:

Three questions to take away:

• What did you give up to come here, give up already?
• What do you expect to give up in the future, to not possess because you’re a priest?
• What are you willing to give up, for the sake of the mission?