Total Trust

Homily at Our Lady of the Valleys for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, Year B.

“I will take the Ring to Mordor. Though — I do not know the way.”

In this classic line from The Lord of the Rings, the hobbit Frodo Baggins sets out on a quest to do the right thing. Other companions pledge themselves to him: “I will give you my sword” – “and my bow” – “and my axe” declare his allies. These will become the Fellowship of the Ring. But ultimately they are pledging themselves to a cause, not to a person; and this is typical of the adventures we see on our screens all the time.

On the side of Right, we generally have some noble cause that everyone can get behind. If the team have already saved the world, then now it’s probably some threat to the whole universe or even the Multiverse. If we’re dealing with a much more local kind of hero, it’s someone trying to do the right thing to redeem a terrible mistake. In the bad corner, there’s usually some kind of evil genius. If they have henchmen, these are either motivated by money, because the big bad can pay them well – or by power, because they hope to one-day replace the big boss as controller of the evil Empire.

Do you see the subtle message? Noble causes are good. Powerful individuals are bad. Even the most righteous comic book hero can be corrupted: Batman forms a plan to defeat Superman should the Man of Steel ever turn from trusty to rusty. The atheist Philip Pullman took this to the extreme with the series of novels called His Dark Materials, in which we gradually discover that Pullman’s equivalent of the Christian God is actually a power-mad angel with dementia who has now been overthrown in the Republic of Heaven.

What we find in the Bible is something totally different. Abraham has not pledged himself to a noble cause; he’s fallen in love with a person, and that person is God, who created the universe. But neither are we dealing with a romantic comedy. This is not a person in love throwing all reason out of the window to do something for the beloved.

No. The Bible offers us something unique. God who loves us, who offers us love in return, and who embodies goodness and righteousness itself. This is why Jesus keeps pointing to himself in his preaching. I am the Bread of Life – eat me! I am the Good Shepherd – follow me! I am the true vine – stay attached to me! To reinforce this message, Peter, James and John hear the voice of the Father Himself speaking from heaven: “Jesus is my beloved Son. Listen to him. Follow him. Obey him.”

Listen. Follow. Obey. Demanding words! We’ve just heard one of the most uncomfortable stories in the whole Bible. God says to Abraham, “Go sacrifice your son, your only begotten son” and Abraham meekly gathers up what he needs and makes his way to the top of the mountain. The Bible clearly tells us that this is a good thing; it is the very reason that Abraham is rewarded with descendants too numerous to count.

What isn’t obvious, but is really important, is that Isaac too is a willing victim. Maybe at the beginning, he doesn’t realise that he is meant to be the sacrifice, for he asks why they are not bringing a creature to offer to God. When he does realise what is meant to happen, he allows his father to bind him. In that culture, a parent would be understood to have the power of life or death over their child, even as adult; in our day, when we tend to focus on individual rights, the story might have been told emphasising that Isaac too would be rewarded with innumerable descendants, because of his own willingness to become a victim to satisfy the demands of God.

In St John’s Gospel, we read that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to be a sacrifice for our sins; but later in the same gospel, Jesus says that he lays down his own life, and takes it up again. So it’s the wrong question to ask whether it was the father’s choice, or the son’s, that Isaac should be sacrificed, or that Jesus should die upon the cross; both father and son understood what was required, both of them consented to the sacrifice that needed to be made.

Today, I’m not going to focus on that deep question of why our Lord had to die for our sins. Rather I want to focus on Abraham, and Isaac, responding to God’s request with obedience. In the end, they didn’t have to ask why it was necessary for Abraham to sacrifice the son who was promised; they just had to be certain that this is really what God was asking of them. And for both of them, if they knew that God willed it, that would be sufficient reason to go ahead.

The question for each one of us today, is this. How willing would I be to obey a direct command from God? Do I follow the teachings of the Catholic Church because I happen to agree with them, or because I believe they have a special authority which comes directly from God? If I only follow instructions that I agree with, then I’ve set myself up as God’s judge. But if I believe Jesus is Lord, and I know that someone is speaking with the voice of Jesus, then I don’t need to pass judgement on what is asked; I must obey my Lord and trust that what He asks will work out for the best.

Do you trust Jesus to always guide you to do the right thing?

Do you trust the official teachings of the Catholic Church to speak with the voice of Jesus?

I will carry the Cross God chooses for me. “I will take the Ring to Mordor.” And I do know the way: His Name is Jesus Christ, my love and my Lord.

Deal? Or No Deal?

Homily at Our Lady of the Valleys for the 1st Sunday of Lent, Year B.

Deal? Or no deal?

In popular culture, that’s an hour of entertainment.

In God’s plan, it’s a question which spans generations.

God’s word for a deal is covenant, a solemn binding promise between persons who entrust themselves to one another. We’ll hear a lot about covenants in the readings this Lent, and today’s covenant is a totally one-sided deal: “the Covenant I make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all generations – there shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.” God declares the rainbow to be a sign of this promise – a sign which can only be seen when rain might alarm us to the threat of flooding.

Deal? Or no deal?

God offers covenants to his people spanning generations, but we cannot control the decisions of our descendants. We can only take responsibility for our own actions. The good news, declared clearly in today’s Gospel, is that we can be sure of reaching heaven if we keep our side of the deal God offers us. On Easter Sunday, we will solemnly celebrate how Jesus Christ opened the gates of heaven. On that day, we renew our baptismal promises – we renew our willingness to accept God’s deal. And Lent is given to us as our annual review of how well we’re keeping our side of the bargain.

God’s deal is simple. Don’t sin. If you do sin, repent. Trust in my forgiveness and mercy.

But what is sin? Today’s psalmist cries out, “make me know your ways!” – for we must know what God asks of us, to know whether we are walking in obedience or in sin. Later in Lent we’ll focus on things which are more personal, but for today let’s look at ourselves as members of a wider society. Each one of us is one out of 68 million people living in the UK, and eight billion inhabitants of planet Earth. Each one of us contributes our own behaviour, good or flawed, to our common home. There are things at national and global level which we cannot control – but we can nudge. So I’m going to suggest a few.

A Bill is currently before Parliament which might be used to amend our current law on abortion. Some MPs will push for it to allow derestricted abortion up to birth. Others will argue that because we can now keep babies alive when born at 22 weeks, we should lower the age at which abortion is restricted from 24 to 22 weeks. Our bishops would encourage this change and there’s a postcard today encouraging you to write to your MP about this.

It’s also the time of year when CAFOD makes one of their two annual appeals. You’ve probably heard the old saying that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you’ve fed him for life. In today’s technical world, a fishing lesson is not enough; fishermen also need modern equipment. One of the many ways CAFOD helps people in the developing world improve their lot is by providing equipment which fishing vessels and farms would not otherwise be able to afford. You can read more about James the fisherman on this year’s CAFOD envelope, now available to be returned next week.

Our small donations, added up, can go a long way thanks to CAFOD. Our small actions can also achieve great things when we all work together, and the Welsh Government is now putting strong duties on all of us, especially institutions like churches, to separate and clean our waste materials so they can be recycled more easily. Remember that if you put an item which could be recycled in the regular bin in one of our churches or halls, you are asking one of your fellow parishioners to have to fish that out of the bin and wash it, so we don’t get fined.

Is failing to recycle a mortal sin? Back in 2008, when Benedict XVI was still Pope, the Vatican issued a new list of sins which can be serious enough to be mortal sins, and the list included polluting the environment. Throwing the odd can in the wrong bin isn’t enough to keep you from going to heaven. But wouldn’t be really embarrassing, on the Day of Judgment, if God read out a list of all the times you mindlessly threw an empty bottle in the general bin, instead of rinsing it and adding it to the glassware container?

St Mark noted a curious detail about the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. He doesn’t tell us anything about the way Satan tempted Jesus, but he does tell us that “the wild beasts were with him”. Maybe Mark wants us to think about Daniel in the lion’s den, or how a trial lasting 40 days with wild beasts echoes the story of Noah. We get a glimpse of how Jesus is Lord of all creation, master of the animals – and because we are members of the body of Christ, we too must care for creation.

There are lots of small ways to do this. If you have a bird bath in your garden, disinfect it regularly. If birds often collide with your windows, add decoration to make them more visible. Use greener alternatives to pesticides and herbicides in your garden whenever possible. Buy recycled paper, and wood products from sustainable forests. Recycle your old mobile phones, because they rely on rare minerals sometimes mined in gorilla habitat.

Deal? Or no deal?

The game show is made of lots of small choices which add up to a climax. Our lives too are made of choices. The stakes could not be higher: eternal happiness, or damnation. Yet not all winners walk away with the top prize. Our small actions do not go unnoticed, and they all count. To get the best deal, always takes the choice most pleasing to God.

We Belong to Christ

Homily to Ss Gabriel & Raphael and to St Dyfrig’s for Ash Wednesday 2024.

In a few moments, each one of us will come forward to be marked with ashes. About 20 minutes later, each of us will have a choice: to go out into the world bearing this sign of repentance, or to wipe them away.

Today’s Gospel suggests we should not parade our good deeds in the sight of others. So should we parade our ashes? But our ashes are not a good deed – they are a sign of humility, that we recognise that some of the deeds we have done are far from good. And should someone ask us the meaning of the sign we carry, we can go even further – rather than owning it as the sign of your own repentance, you could say that today you have been branded with your Maker’s mark.

We belong to Christ. Christ belongs to God. And because we belong to someone else, our bodies are not our own. Today marks the start of our journey to Good Friday, when we will solemnly celebrate our Redemption – the day on which Jesus Christ purchased our bodies with his blood.

If you rent the home you live in, you probably don’t give much thought to the fact you don’t actually own it, unless something goes wrong or you wish to make major improvements. Then you need the landlord’s help to fix the problem or permission for a big change.

Our spiritual life can be rather similar. Most of the time the truth that we belong to Jesus doesn’t affect our day-to-day activities. But there are two reasons to remember that we are not our own. One is when we are planning a major change in our life – to seek a new job, or full-time study, or seek a life-partner. A follower of Jesus might stop and pray at such a time, to seek God’s will. And the other is when something keeps going wrong. If there is a sin in my life which I cannot overcome, have I fallen into the trap of trying to deal with it on my own? But I am not on my own. I belong to God, and God wants to offer me a special grace to overcome my sinful habits. This grace is given through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Today, I would remind you that the Church asks every Catholic to confess their sins at least once a year, and ideally in preparation for your Easter communion. Even if your sins feel small and not worth bothering to bring to a priest, I encourage you to come anyway. As St Paul says today, “Do not nglect the grace of Christ!” No sin is too small or too large to be worth the grace of Christ and the attention of one of his priests. In this parish, confessions are heard every week at … and you will also be able to go to confession during Sunday Mass on … .

What should we bring to confession? We could start by asking ourself how we have used the body which God has given us use of. When do we work? When do we rest? When do we worship? Have we entered a relationship without God’s blessing?

By baptism, each one of us is a member of the Body of Christ. So it is not wrong to say that whatever my hands have done, Christ’s hands have done. Whatever my lips have spoken, those words have come from the mouth of Jesus. But have I put actions into the Lord’s hands, or words in his mouth, which I could not imagine Our Saviour doing?

A famous American preacher, Tony Campolo, spoke about his interview for military service back in the 1950s. The recruiting officer asked him, ‘If you were in a bomber flying over an enemy city, and you knew there were civilians down there, would you still go ahead and drop the bombs?’ ‘I’m not sure,’ Tony replied. ‘I guess I’d have to pray, and ask Jesus what he’d do.’ ‘That’s ridiculous,’ exclaimed the Air Force officer; ‘Everyone knows Jesus wouldn’t drop bombs!’

Sometimes, stepping back helps us to see our sins. Asking “What would Jesus do?” can help us take a fresh look at the decisions in our daily life. But to have a good sense of what Jesus would do, you must first know Jesus quite well. So I ask you to ponder when you last took up a Gospel and read it. If you are still looking for a Lenten exercise to take up this year, maybe it could be to spend 15 minutes each day with the Word of God.

Prayer. Fasting. Giving alms to charity. What the Lord expects of us is clear. Where we have succeeded or failed in the past does not matter. Today we are offered a fresh choice: to give up our old sins and start again on the way of holiness. Our new life begins now with the ashes of the old. Let all who belong to Christ come and start anew!

Standing and Meeting

Homily at Our Lady of the Valleys, for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B.

If you know where you stand, you can meet others where they’re at.

The Old Testament Law cast you out of society if you were a leper. The Law was there for the sake of public health – a primitive form of lockdown, if you like. But the Law was broken twice in today’s Gospel. First the leper came out of lockdown to approach Jesus for healing. And then – not only does Jesus grant the healing but he does so by actually touching the leper while he still visibly has leprosy! That would have made anyone else unclean – but by the power of his divinity, Jesus made the leper clean. Jesus knew where he stood.

We can at least understand why the Jewish Law was so harsh on lepers – it was for the public good, to prevent disease spreading. But it’s harder to understand why Catholic teaching creates divisions. St Paul instructed us “not to give offense to anyone”. But many people today are offended by our teachings that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, or that the Bible says God created two genders, male and female. What does God expect us to do when we’re invited to a same-sex wedding or requested to use a person’s preferred pronouns?

If you know where you stand, you can meet others where they’re at.

Is it true that the Bible teaches God created human beings as male and female? Yes – we find this at the beginning of the book of Genesis, and Our Lord Jesus quotes it himself in the Gospels. But Jesus quickly adds that ‘some people were born eunuchs’. In other words, Our Lord himself gives permission for a person to say, “I don’t seem to fit into these two categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’.” We are called to treat with sympathy and compassion a person struggling with a sense that they don’t fit; and we cannot insist that they must tick one of those two boxes which say “Male” and “Female”. But we also hold that our body is an integral part of our identity, so the place where we stand as Catholics is that you can’t simply tick the box which doesn’t match your body. True manhood and true womanhood, as the Catholic Church understands it, comes from a coherence of inner identity and external form.

That said, what are we to do when a person asks us to use particular pronouns with which we might not feel comfortable? Scripture calls on us not to give offense. If you know where you stand, you can meet others where they’re at.

To use a pronoun does not automatically mean you are declaring a theological position on whether gender can be changed or not. It might just mean that we’re recognising that something has changed in the English language. Words which used to be a label for bodily form are now the way we respectfully acknowledge a person’s sense of identity. We don’t have to like a change in order to recognise and use it.

Pope Francis has a clear position on this. “Don’t worry if people draw the wrong conclusion from your actions.” You may have heard that the Vatican issued a document about blessing same-sex relationships just before Christmas. But you probably haven’t heard it reported accurately in the news. The Catholic Church is not about to start offering public ceremonies for same-sex couples to make public vows in church; we can’t. We can only bless things which are good, and we don’t see that this is part of God’s plan. But among the things which are good are the love and commitment which two human beings in a lasting relationship show to one another. So what is a priest to do if two people in a relationship, same sex or opposite sex, but not in a state of Holy Matrimony, come and ask for prayers and for help? Can the priest pray that they have a more compassionate, understanding, sensitive relationship with one another?

The bottom line is that it is better for people to be kind to one another than it is to be unkind. Even if I disapprove of a particular relationship, I can approve of increased kindness within that relationship. And it is this that Pope Francis has declared can be blessed – not the relationship itself, in a public ceremony, but the two individuals seeking to be kinder to one another, in the privacy of a priest’s office. In the same way, what should you do if a member of your family invites you to a celebration of such a relationship? While your conscience might prevent you from offering a wholehearted message of congratulation, it need not prevent you from being a spectator at a ceremony or welcoming your new in-law to a family meal. I’m not saying that you should go as Catholics – I’m simply pointing out that Pope Francis asks us not to alienate people, but to stay close to people whose choices we don’t approve of. We are very unlikely to communicate our Catholic values to any person whom we alienate by our words or actions.

We do not need to create a new leprosy, for same-sex couples or transgender individuals. But, like the healed leper going to the priest, we must still follow God’s Law. There are no easy answers when these complex situations enter our daily life. If we choose to respond with tolerance and compassion, our stance will be misunderstood. That’s OK. But whatever you do when one of these situations comes your way, do it for the glory of God. If you know where you stand, you can meet others where they’re at. Jesus did, and so can you.

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