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?

Humility

Monday 23^rd Week Ordinary Time, 13^th Sept 2021, Josephinum

Lk 7:1-10

I want to focus on the words of the centurion, 

words that holy Mother Church puts on our lips at every Mass:

• “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof”

I’d like to walk you through 3 phases of faith and humility, and for you to ask yourself where you fit in these phases, and maybe, where you have fit in your own past.

First phase:

For those of us raised after the cultural revolution of the 1960s,

Humility often does not come naturally to us:

• We were raised on self-affirmation
• We received little discipline 
• We were told we were good.

To my generation, 

we would tend to think:

• “Lord, actually I AM worthy, 
• and I just don’t need you to enter under my roof”

A second phase:

When I went to college I found the Lord,

• I came to know Him “personally”, as we say.
• But, if I’m honest, I still thought of myself as “worthy”.

And while I wouldn’t have phrased it exactly like this, I think it would be true to say that my attitude was:

• “Lord, I AM worthy, 
• But you bring added value to my life, added meaning
• So,
• For MY own sake, please do come and enter in”
• That is NOT the faith of the centurion
• That’s a “faith” that is a problem

Still today, I know this is a problem in my spiritual life:

• My self-affirmation
• My lack of being criticised as a child,
• My upbringing has been such that I struggle to say,
• “I am not worthy”

Yet, 

• I know my eternal salvation depends on having the ‘unworthiness’ of the centurion

We need to be in a third phase, one that has a humility born of faith.

Let’s connect those 2 things: faith and humility

• The words of the centurion expressed humility, :I am not worthy’
• But the Lord praised him for his “faith” –‘not even in Israel have I found such faith”

True faith recognises the Lord for WHO He is:

• He is God
• He is much greater than me
• He is pure; He is goodness,
• “me?  ‘’I am not worthy’
• Real faith SEES this
• Real humility ACCEPTS this

Where are you in those three phases of humility and faith?

• If you are one of the post-1960s generations who struggle to be humble, then pray
• Pray for what is MOST important:
• Not healing the body
• But healing what is wrong in your soul:
• but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed”

“Power came forth from Him [that] healed them all.”

Tuesday 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Josephinum seminary

“Power came forth from Him [that] healed them all.” (Lk 6:19)

To return to one of my favourite questions:

What was it like to be in His presence?

And, as I often reflect, the reaction of the people shows us so much:

They sought Him out.

They came from vast distances:

The phrase, “the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon” 

means the Mediterranean -not the nearby lake of Galilee

means they came from gentile as well as Jewish towns

-as St Bede and St Cyril note, in St Thomas’s Catena Aurea (p.206)

They came  

“to hear”

“to be healed”

To have “unclean spirits” cast out

“Power came forth from Him [that] healed them all.” (Lk 6:19)

(pause)

As priests, power goes forth from us too.

As priests, it is a power 

to teach, 

that they might again “hear”, in a world of confusion

to comfort and console the distressed, 

that they might again “be healed” in a world of brokenness

The people long ago sought to “touch” the Lord

In many ways, they seek to touch us too

NOT

not because of something that is ours per se, 

but because of something we ourselves have touched and continually touch: 

The Lord 

 

St Ambrose points out a symbolism to be found in this passage (in St Thomas’s Catena Aurea (p.207)):

Jesus ascends the “mountain”, to the heavenly,

before DESCENDING to the “plain”, to the crowd, the earthly

Thus, might well say that, 

The mountain and the plain both meet in Him

Heaven and earth meet in Him

God and man meet in Him

And, if we want that “power” to touch others, this is what we must first touch ourselves.

(pause)

Here in seminary, there are many things we seek to do in you and to you

We seek to teach you

We seek to form and remedy human issues in you

But these, and many other things, PALE in comparison to the importance of leading you to a deeper encounter with the Lord.

The “power” that people will seek in you

The “power” that can “go forth” from you

-this power is not YOURS but HIS

So, we must first seek to come and touch Him ourselves.