Sunday Sermon

Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Jesus. But they would soon be surprised to find that the stone had been rolled away. And this scared them, quite frankly. Whether we want to admit it or not, we get scared. We especially get scared of the unknown. And yet we know that when we are afraid we should stand with Christ.

Our Lord did not call His disciples by a multimedia presentation and an in-depth business pitch. He went far, far beyond this. Our Lord both called His disciples and summed up the life of discipleship with just two words: Follow Me. We hear in today's Gospel our Lord calling the Apostle Philip with those same words: Follow Me. He also says them to us. In those words we find not only an invitation to a deeper spiritual experience and journey this Lent, but we also find the very essence of the journey itself - that we do, and must, every day follow the Lord. Hear today of our Lord's call to Philip and to all of us.

“Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus.” St. Mark 16: 1. How strange that no one but these three pious women resolved to show the last honors to our dead Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to anoint His sacred Body in the sepulcher. And yet there must have been many people in the city of Jerusalem on whom our Lord had conferred great benefits during His life. Did none of them go to the sepulcher? No; they had already forgotten His benefits; My words to day will be directed against ingratitude, of which most men are guilty toward God

Let me ask you a question? Is there an area in your life that has not been surrender to His will? When will you stop rebelling against God? How many times will you rebel before God says that's enough...no more....that was your last chance.

We find ourselves entering into the holiest week of the year . . . Holy Week . . . which begins with Palm Sunday. During Holy Week we witness a vast array of emotions ranging from sorrow and sadness. We witness rage and anger. We see both love and hatred coming from the crowds surrounding Our Blessed Saviour. And additionally before the week is over we are witness to amazement, disbelief and wonder at the rising from the dead of Our Blessed Saviour. But one emotion we are also witness to is "regret."

"All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient." With these words Saint Paul helps us as we prepare for the coming Lent. It is not what we have, but what we do with what we have that is indicative of our place along the path of our spiritual life. We hear in the parable of the Prodigal Son how a squandered inheritance leads to dissolution - but an awakening helps cast off the chains of slavery to the things of this world.

“Behold, thy King cometh to thee, meek.”— Matthew 21:5. My dear Christians, as we have just learned from today’s Gospel, the Saviour celebrates today His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

In the New Testament there are mentioned three kind of works. We have good works, evil works, and dead works. Good works are works that please God; evil works are works which are mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21, also known as the works of the flesh. What are dead works then? Dead works are works that appear good externally but that spring from a corrupt motive or done for the wrong reason. Therefore they are like filthy rags in God's eyes.

We need to be persistent as faithful Christians. We need to be persistent . . . in our prayers . . . . in our faithfulness . . . in our character and morals. We need to be persistent with the way we live our lives as faithful Christians. The problem with us is that we want everything done right away. We want things done "five minutes ago." As humans, we are inpatient. And yet not everything is worked out right away. So often in real life problems are not fixed and taken care of in a half-hour or hour. And we are called to be like the Canaanite Woman and be persistent in our faithfulness.

To drink more than one’s health or income or reputation can bear, is folly, wickedness, and a shame! And yet it is an ordinary consequence of excessive drinking. Important as this consideration is, it would not matter much if the salvation of the soul and the law of God were not concerned also. For the worst of all the evil consequences of excessive drinking, which should be most effective to deter Christians from that vice, is, that most people drink more than is consistent with the salvation of their souls. But here some may be inclined to say, like our Lord in to-day’s Gospel, “which of you shall convince me of sin”? What nonsense to say that it is a sin to drink a drop too much now and then! So common has this vice become that it is no longer looked upon as sinful. My object now is to show how false and wrong that idea is.

God is always there. God is always around. God is always with us. And yet so often people will say that "God seems so far away." I would dare say that God speaks to us on a daily basis but so often we don't hear what He is saying to us. Why is this?

Our Lord speaks to us in the Gospel to remind us that if we would be forgiven of our sins, then we also must forgive each other. Only the forgiving heart can be forgiven. This must be our fundamental thought: to cultivate a forgiving heart. Today as ever, the world encourages the heart to keep grudges, to remember past wrongs, to be unforgiving of anyone who would dare injure our pride. This way leads to enslavement to wrong-doing, and is a path to spiritual and societal destruction. Let us open our hearts today to the grace of the Lord, so that we might learn the difficult but necessary lesson of how to be truly forgiving.

Our real life is not, like Ishmael's, simply owing to the work of man. Our real life is owing to the work of God in us through the Church and through Mary, fulfilling his promise to make for himself a people (Genesis 12:1–3) and to put his Spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:27) and write his law on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). ( Please excuse the quality of this podcast. There was some internet disruption when recording)

“When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards lie was hungry.”—Matthew: 4: 2. To do penance, to deny one’s self, and to mortify the flesh is most necessary; The Gospel of today reminds us of a special manner of doing penance, of which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gives us an example: “When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.” The example of Jesus Christ is there to encourage all Christians to fast, abstain and endure hunger; and it is to that that the Catholic Church binds her children during this season under pain of sin, that they may imitate Christ to a certain extent.

Our Blessed Savior without hesitation turned down each and every one of these temptations despite His weakened condition from fasting for forty days. How many of us are tempted by the devil? How many of us give in at the first sign of weakness?

Today the Church calls to our minds the Second Coming of our Lord and the Last Judgment. Of course, we proclaim every week our belief in the Lord Who "shall come again to judge the living and the dead." But how often do we reflect on the truths contained in those words?

What does Saint Paul mean when he says in our Epistle for today, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children”? The word “followers” means “mimic”, to be an “imitator.” The command is for God’s people to imitate Him. We are to learn all about God, and mimic His characteristics

“And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.” Luke 18: 43. Christ, the Son of God, knew well what was to happen to him, in a short time in the city of Jerusalem, amongst the wicked Jews for he had foretold it to his disciples. Why, then, did he not remain away?

I Corinthians, Chapter Thirteen “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” St. Paul is pointing out that love needs to be the basis for why we do anything we do as a Christian. The cold reality is though, is that so much of what we do in life is done without love.

The life of grace is a life of balance. If our labors are not directed by charity and tempered by humility, they can actually cause us to stumble on our way. Today the Lord speaks to us of a Pharisee and a Publican, both of whom went unto the Temple to pray. Hear how humility is the key to finding sanctification and justification.