Sermon: Fixed on Him

Monday Wk 22, Josephinum,  Lk 4:16-30 

 

I preached on this gospel last year, and as fate or the liturgist, has directed, 

I’m preaching on it again this year. 

It’s one of my favourite lines in the Bible, because it reminds me of two things: 

First, how people REACTED to the Lord 

 -the awesome power of His personality 

 -I love pondering on how people responded to Him, 

because it teaches me about HIM. 

Second, this phrase sums up how I know I need to still react to His awesomeness today: 

I need to be FIXED on Him. 

Let’s ponder for a moment, the different ways people REACTED to the Lord? 

We might think of: 

The guards who were sent to arrest the Lord, but returned to their superiors empty- 

handed simply saying, 

“No one has every spoken like this man”. 

The crowds, who said of Him, 

“He has done all things well”. 

His preaching manner summed up by the evangelist, saying, 

“He spoke with authority, and not like the scribes and the pharisees.” 

No wonder we get the line in today’s text: 

“All eyes on the synagogue looked intently at Him”. 

(Pause)  

Yet, that awesome power of His person also had others reject Him: 

In this passage, it starts with fascination but ends with them trying to throw Him from the cliff. 

 

What of me and you? 

There is another reaction to Him that I fear: 

Indifference, somehow letting Him pass by. 

Knowing that there is BACON at the PCJ breakfast, in less than an hour, and my mind not being with Him. 

 I want, in contrast, to be “fastened” onto Him in everything I do during the day: 

When I study, 

to study for love of Him, remembering Him, 

because it’s what HE wants of me, 

Even if you’re looking at Greek 

When I chat with guys, 

to do so with a heart that loves them BECAUSE He loves Him, 

Because He loves even better than I do. 

When I eat bacon, 

to rejoice in His presence, 

Because bacon is one of the signs that God is good. 

(Pause) 

But if I’m going to “fixed” on Him in bacon, I need to be fixed on Him where He is MOST particularly:

 The Tabernacle.

As I said last year: 

When I genuflect, especially, I need to know that I am greeting and honouring a PERSON 

I need to utter a little prayer of love HE is here! 

In contrast, a genuflection can LOOK like an empty action; can BE an empty action 

-rather than a pivot around which my daily awareness of His presence moves. 

An action: 

With eyes fixed on Him 

With a heart fixed on Him 

With prayer directed to Him 

With a body posture, a straight back, worthy of an act reverencing Him who the crowds gazed stupefied before.

“The eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at Him”. 

St Joseph the Worker

Wed 25^th Aug 2021, Josephinum

Today we’re keeping a votive Mass of St Joseph.

• Formators want us to focus our house Josephinum devotion 
• Wednesdays and the 19^th of the months are days traditionally given to St Joseph
• I have special prayer I always say on those days 

What to say about St Joseph?

• It might be thought that we don’t know much about St Joseph, 
• but
• what we do know gives us much to reflect in and much to learn from

How start?  Votive Mass of St Joseph the WORKER

• Start of lectures and schoolwork today, thus the WORKER
• What to say?
• What to LEARN?
• Not only an example, also a powerful patron and protector
• But, today, focus on example

3 points

(1) He slept

• What do the Gospels record St Joseph doing?
• More than ANYTHING, they record him sleeping
• 4 times the Gospels record an angel speaking to him while dreaming, while SLEEPING
• So, he slept
• WHY did he sleep so much?
• He worked HARD
• You can’t work unless you sleep
• Do you want to work well?  
• Then sleep well -go to joseph
• Do you struggle to sleep?  Go to Joseph
• Sleep:
• You can’t be a good priest or seminarian UNLESS you have a regular pattern of sleep
• How many hours do you take?  Enough?
• Do you go to bed on time?
• Do you get the physical exercise you need to sleep well?
• St Joseph slept

(2) Silent Doer

• St Jospeh is often called a 'silent' man
• There is not a single recorded word spoken by St Joseph
• He went to Bethlehem
• He went to Egypt 
• He returned 
• and went to Nazareth 
• he went to the temple in Jerusalem
• -not a single recorded word
• A DOER not a chatterer
• A MAN
• Scientifically, we know women speak many more words in a day than men
• Women talk and communicate
• Men DO
• St Joseph: a man’s man
• Be a DOER
• Get stuff DONE
• Don’t chat about what you plan to do, DO IT
• Nike: Just do it

(3) Union with God

• WHAT did St Joseph do? 
• The things God told him (via the angel), 
• in fact, ONLY things God told him
• “He did all that the angel told him to…” (Mt 1:24)
• Our Lady at Cana, “do whatever He tells you”.  
• St Joseph, probably deceased already, but he’d been living this in everything we see recorded of him
• What should WE do?  
• What God wants, 
• looking to what He wants, etc

• Lord, what do you want ME to do now?  
• Lord, would like me to procrastinate a little longer right now?
• Lord, would you like me to do this easy thing rather than this important thing?
• Tidy my sock drawer rather than write that paper? 
• Be like St Joseph:
• Always seek to God’s Will
• Be a DOER
• But a DOER of what GOD wants of us,

(4) Many other things -other sermons to be given...

Summary:

• We’re in his seminary, the 'Josephinum' 
• We’re starting our school work of classes
• Let’s look to him as a model of work:
• Sleep, 
• as he slept, 
• 4 times recoded in the Gospels
• Do 
• -without needing to talk 
• get it done, don’t get it talked about
• Do it in union with God 
• look to God to do the right work, 
• as he “did the angel told him to do”