In first-century Palestine, it is estimated that up to 95 per cent of the people living there were peasants. Their quality of life would have been very poor. Their biggest worry would be where the next meal was coming from and whether there was enough to feed their families. Creature comforts would have been few…
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Homily, Christ the King (B) 2021
After the First World War and in the face of the emerging totalitarian regimes of Soviet Communism and Josef Stalin; the Nationalist Social Movement in Germany with Adolf Hitler; and Fascism in Italy with Benito Mussolini, the Church introduced today’s feast of Christ the King. It then challenged – and still does – Church members…
Homily 32nd Sunday (B) 2021
Once again we have just heard of Jesus insulting at a group of fellow Jews known as the ‘scribes’. They were experts in the Law of Moses, the religious, moral and social code by which Jesus and fellow Jews lived. People, most of them illiterate, looked to the scribes for interpretations and applications of the…
Homily All Saints 2021
One of the many buildings worth visiting in Rome, apart from the Vatican, is the Pantheon. It was first built during the reign of the Emperor Augustus who lived up to the time Jesus was 14 years old. After the building was burned down, it was rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian (of Roman Wall fame…
Homily, 30th Sunday (B) 2021
In our Gospel for Mass today we have Jesus leaving Jericho on the final leg of his journey to Jerusalem. Jericho is about a three hours’ walk from Jerusalem, up and through a great rocky canyon. It’s the last village Jesus passes through on his way to Jerusalem. He meets a beggar, Bartimaeus, who is…
Homily, 29th Sunday (B) 2021
Our Gospel today features two brothers, James and John, and their misplaced ambition to gain positions of honour in our Lord’s community or ‘kingdom’. They expected Jesus to bring about a new political kingdom in Palestine that would free Jewish people from Roman rule. To the anger and resentment of their fellow disciples, they wanted…
Homily 28th Sunday (B) 2021
In today’s Gospel we are set another demanding challenge by Jesus. As last Sunday, we have the difficulty of trying to apply Christ’s demanding teaching to our lives in a modern world so vastly different from his in first century Palestine. Most of his hearers came from poor backgrounds. In their poverty, they knew…
Homily 27th Sunday of the Year (B) 2021
Our Scripture readings for Mass today come from a period in history where the understanding of human sexuality and gender was vastly at odds with the rapidly changing understanding we have of them today. For instance, most societies traditionally have recognized only two distinct, broad classes of gender roles, masculine and feminine, that correspond with the biological sexes…
Homily 26th Sunday of the Year (B) 2021
Our Old Testament reading today is about two people, Eldad and Medad, who were prophesying to fellow Israelites without authority from Moses to do so. To prophesy in the Bible is not to predict the future but to speak in a way that conveys to others that what is being said is inspired by God. Hence, they…
Homily 25th Sunday of the Year (B) 2021
A little over 30 years ago, a law came into force in England and Wales, known as The Children Act, which states that the interests of children and young people up to the age of 18 are paramount in all considerations of their welfare and safeguarding. No other considerations are allowed to over-ride the right…
Sunday Mass: Saturday 4pm, Sunday 10am 