A reflection on the images of sin given in the prophet Isaiah, the first reading - being lost; a hard heart; a dry leaf blowing in the wind; and the potter and the clay. (11'27")

Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Recorded at Sacred Heart Church. (15'03")

Based on Isaiah 61 - "The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for the Lord has anointed me. He sent me to bring good news to the poor..." This text is fulfilled in the person of Jesus, but each one of us is also called to share this anointing with our world. Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am. (10'57")

Based on Isaiah 61 - "The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for the Lord has anointed me. He sent me to bring good news to the poor..." This text is fulfilled in the person of Jesus, but each one of us is also called to share this anointing with our world. Recorded at St Michael's, 6pm. (9'55")

We are presented with the powerful image of the virgin Mary,'deeply disturbed' by the angel Gabriel's message - and yet she says 'yes' to the Lord with all her heart. The great contrast is between Mary's 'yes' and the desire of King David (2 Sam) to build a temple for the Lord, which seems to be all about his own desire, his own ego-drama, rather than the great Theo-drama that each of us is invited to be part of - using the ideas of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988), the wonderful Swiss theologian of the 20th Century. Recorded at St Michael's, 8am Mass. (11'27")

Following from the Gospel of Luke (2:1-14) we reflect on what the word 'glory' means. It is based on the Greek word 'doxa' and the Hebrew word 'kabod' - which means weight/significance/substance. We experience a glimpse of the glory of God when we look up at the night sky. Exodus 33 tells the wonderful story of Moses asking to see the glory of God. We discover that God has shared his glory with us (Ps 8) but we substitute so many other things for the glory and honour that we were crowned with. Christmas gives us another chance to find the glory that God offers us. (8'21")

On this feast we reflect about being part of a human family, and can be led deeper into the mystery of God and the way that in scripture we are often presented with feminine images of God. For example, God is 'compassionate' - but the Hebrew word for this 'Rakham' also means womb, so when we call God compassionate, we could also say that God is womb-like. Recorded at Sacred Heart, 9.30am. (10'15")

Paul reveals (Eph 3:5-6) that in the visit of the Magi we see not a new plan, but the long hidden plan of God to include all people in his inheritance, his body and his promises. Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am (8'20") Guitar by Dan Mueller.

In the ministry of John the Baptist, the son of the priest Zechariah, we see the ritual washing (the mikvah) take on a new significance, as a sign of God's new work of creation. Now the presence of God will not be confined to the temple - the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies is torn apart - a foretaste of the great event of Jesus death and resurrection. Recorded at Sacred Heart, Bomaderry. (12'50")

The call to discipleship is strongly expressed in these readings - Andrew inviting his brother Simon to meet the Lord. Having spent the week at Summer School of Evangelisation in Bathurst, many young people want to know how to discern the will of the Lord. In the first reading from 1 Samuel 3, we see in Samuel five principles that can guide us:

(1) Stay awake and attentive; (2) The Lord's call is personal: 'Samuel, Samuel'; (3) Learn the language of the Lord (by reading scripture and the teachings of the church); (4) Use the wise counsel of an older brother/sister/mentor (Eli); (5) Sometimes the word of the Lord will not be very comfortable and will involve suffering (1 Sam 3:11-18) // Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am (8'38")

 

During the year of St Paul, we celebrate today the great feast of the conversion of Saul, scrupulous Pharisee, student of the synagogue of Tarsus in Cilicia and of Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem. All that he knew, all that he had studied with such great fervour had only served to convince him that Jesus was not the Messiah, and it was right for him to die at the hands of the Romans. Now as he prayed and meditated while on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus, as he desired to be faithful to all the commandments of the law, even if this meant persecuting followers of the way to death - something completely unbelievable and impossible to predict happens to him. He meets this same Jesus of Nazareth, this same Lord - and his whole world is turned up-side-down. We, in our turn, are invited to experience this same life and to encounter the Lord Jesus on our journey through life as well, so that we can follow in the footsteps of Paul and experience this gift as well. - Based on Acts 22:3-16 - Recorded at St Michael's (12'10")

Mark 1:29-39. During this liturgical year, we read from the Gospel of Mark. Each Gospel has its own style and personality. In John there are long discourses from Jesus with rich theological insights; Luke, written to a Gentile audience, has beautiful parables like the prodigal son and the good Samaritan; while Matthew, written to a Jewish audience, presents Jesus as the new Moses, with new teaching enfleshed by stories of what Jesus did. In Mark, the shortest and probably the earliest Gospel, we meet a Jesus who is always on the move. The Gospels were written in Greek, and Mark uses the word 'euthus' or 'eutheus' which means 'immediately' or 'straight away' more often than all the other Gospels combined - 42 times (18 in Matt; 6 each in Luke and John). This gives this Gospel a great sense of breathless urgency. In the first chapter alone, we see the word used 11 times! This gives us an insight into the nature of Jesus' ministry. We also see that Jesus needs to escape after this hectic day of ministry to find time alone with God. And finally that when the disciples come looking for him, since 'everyone is looking for you,' he doesn't stay and minister, but he goes 'elsewhere' to continue to proclaim the kingdom of God there. We need to learn that at times we need to say 'no' to certain things (even if they seem good) in order to say 'yes' to the 'one thing necessary.' Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am (8'40")

6th Sunday (Year B) During the week we have heard many stories from the bushfire-ravaged centres of Victoria – many incredibly harrowing and horrific of great loss of life and possessions; some magnificent and miraculous of escape and rescue. Among these stories we have also been presented with others as victims have struggled to come to terms with their loss and begun to look for someone to blame. It was the fault of the arsonists who lit the fires, or the greenies who didn’t allow controlled-burns, or the government for not have early warning systems in place. In the Ancient Near East one story was seen as essential for survival – ‘exclusion’. The way to achieve holiness / salvation was through ritual purity. You had to stay removed from anyone that was not living and following the requirements of the covenant like you were. So you simply must avoid anyone who is ‘unclean.’ Keep yourself separate from those who are ‘sinners’ & hang-out with people who are like-minded and obsessed about the same kind of issues, etc. Stay away from the wrong kind of people – notorious sinners; people who are diseased, etc. In the gospels, we meet Jesus who again and again goes against this wisdom (this ‘framing narrative’) and associates with those who are ‘unclean’ and even touches them. He shows us the extent to which God will go to reach us, to include us in the kingdom. You also see this tension demonstrated brilliantly in the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Gran Torino’ which shows a society in collapse, with multiple groups in tension and conflict. Strangely the character that Clint plays reminds us of the way that Christ was.

(Note – contains spoilers about the movie.)

Recorded at St Michael's, 6pm Vigil (9'11")

6th Sunday (B) - Leviticus 13; Mark 1:40-45 | It did not take long during the week before we began to hear victims of the terrible bushfires that ravaged Victoria last weekend ask why did this happen? Who is to blame? Was it the fault of the arsonists who lit the fires, or the greenies who didn’t allow controlled-burns, or the government for not have early warning systems in place. Today we see that a class-action has begun against the power company that maintains the power-lines, because it may have been a spark from a fallen pole that started the fires. We are always looking for someone to blame. This is perhaps more the case with our generation, but it has probably always been the case. If only those people weren't here, everything would be ok (you know - the people with that colour skin; those who voted that way in the election; people who made their money that way; people who have that sexual orientation.) ... Read full description on the blogsite ... [This version does not mention 'Gran Torino' - so listen to this one if you haven't seen the movie!]

Recorded at Sacred Heart (8'25")

National Day of Mourning. On this Sunday before Lent, Bishop Peter Ingham addresses the whole Diocese in his Lenten Pastoral Letter entitled "Our Real Crisis." My homily this week is based on Bishop Peter's letter, with a little more material on the Gospel (Mark 2:1-12), the beautiful story of the paralysed man being brought to Jesus by his friends, to receive the greatest of every person fulfilled - the forgiveness of sins. The recording concludes with a true story from Ireland. Music is Sretenye - O My Soul, rise! Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am Mass (8"10")

Understanding the worldview of the People of God is crucial to understanding the Scriptures. We imagine that we understand how the world works, having a post-Enlightenment, post-Industrial Revolution and post-modern worldview. Yet, perhaps we are beginning to see that the world and the environment is not quite as easy to control and dominate as we once thought. Perhaps we are not so different from the worldview of the Ancient Near-East, which realised that so much of the world seemed poised on the brink of chaos, of falling back into the 'tohu va bohu' (formless and void) that God first spoke his creative word into. Into the world of poor human choices, and sin, God speaks again his creative word, this time to Noah and his family to provide the ark as a sign of safety and protection. Inside the ark, creation can again be at peace and properly ordered. The waters of the flood will not overwhelm us if we place our trust in the covenant love of God. Even the wilderness can be a place of protection - a place where Jesus chooses to go as a sign of the power of new creation. In Lent we are called to journey into the desert to confront our sin and our past - not just as an individual act of piety, but as members of the church and people committed to God's work of renewing all creation through our stewardship. || Recorded at Sacred Heart, 9.30am (8'21")

When studying Biblical Studies at Sydney University many years ago, I studied under a lovely Rabbi who highlighted the significance and power of this passage from Genesis 22 - the binding of Isaac - called the 'aqedah sacrifice'. It still disturbs and challenges us to reflect deeply on the nature of faith and the call by God to give everything we have to him, following the example of our father in faith, Abraham, who said this complete 'yes' to God, and knew that God will provide the lamb of sacrifice for us. | Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am (9'03")

Lent 3B (John 2: 13-25 & Exodus 20:1-17) 
We really need to work hard to understand the real significance of the incident of Jesus going into and cleansing the temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of Passover. There is nothing that comes remotely close in our experience. Doing the same in your local parish church, or even the largest church in our largest city is not the same. Because here, the temple is at the very heart of what it means to be a follower of the law - the temple represents the identity of the whole nation - socially, politically, historically - as well as spiritually. Jesus demonstrates the importance of what the temple is supposed to be about - but which it isn't. He shows that the temple is about truth and freedom of worship. By cleansing the temple at Passover, he also reminds the people of all that went with the liberation from slavery in Egypt. God brought together his chosen people to be his image-bearers in the world. He made covenant with them so that they could bring his justice into the world, and they could continue to hear the cry of the poor and the oppressed and bring freedom from slavery in their own lives and the lives of the nations around them. The commandments that the Lord gave on Mt Sinai are the means by which we can achieve this freedom and be his image bearers. Lent is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our own lives and consider what areas of slavery we may have fallen back into - to ask the Lord what things in my life need his cleansing presence so that we can be his true image bearers in the world. 

Recorded at St Michael's 8am (8'58")

Last week we had the 10 commandments (Hebrew: mitzvot); this week we have the final verses from the Hebrew Bible (Tanaka) in 2 Chron 36 which record the failure of Israel to live up to these commandments which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and exile. It is only through a pagan king, Cyrus, that Israel has the chance to 'go up' and start again in Jerusalem after the 70 years of the exile. So how do you live the commandments? How do you manage to be saved from these destructive tendecies that we know within ourselves. St Paul has a clear answer for us in the second reading - Ephesians 2:4-10. This magnificent reading declares that our God is rich in mercy and freely chooses to share his love and mercy, and above all his grace with us to save us. So we are saved in grace - not by works (of the law) lest we should boast. But he continues in 2:10 with the further declaration that we are God's work of art (Greek: poeima) created in Jesus Christ for good works (Greek: ergois agathois). This is actually one of the ways that the Hebrew word Mitzvot is translated into the Greek Bible - so Paul is reminding the Ephesians that while they are God's 'work of art' (important in a city that is dominated by the great temple dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of art) they have to complete the original purpose of God for their life by 'good works' - which are a response to God's grace in Christ. Not doing so is not completing the work of our life - like breaking a great symphony just before its climax and fulfillment. // Recorded at St Michael's, 6pm (11'00")

Our Gospel today (John 12:20-33) begins with the strange reference to some Greeks wanting to see Jesus. They are also coming up for the festival - the great festival of the Passover - a sign that the influence and reputation of Jesus has moved beyond the local Jews - now even foreigners are coming wanting to know more about him. Perhaps they have heard the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11) and they like the crowds are caught up in the moment of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and are wanting to see who this messiah is and what he is like. It is then that Jesus begins to subvert their understanding of what the Messiah is really like. Yes, he will be lifted up - but not as a political messiah who will overthrow the Romans, but as a true saviour who, like the seed that is planted in the soil, will allow his body to be broken and his blood poured out so that his life can flow into the world and bring forth new life. We are invited to do the same. || Recorded at Sacred Heart (9'15")