22nd Sunday Year A

 Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – The way you think is not God’s way.

How many of you come to church with an expectation, a determination to be spiritually renewed, spiritually refreshed? And having done so – I wonder how many of you feel you have achieved success or been suitable served when you leave?

The reason I ask is this. So many of us leave church at the end of mass with such long faces and looking so down and depressed – it makes me feel as if you have received the worst news possible and are now going home to struggle with this new dilemma.

The Gospel is called the Good News for a reason. It IS Good News. It is news about our salvation; it is news about God our father being determined to develop and form his chosen people, our faith-ancestors. It is news about our saviour Jesus Christ, the Word of God, coming into our ears, our hearts and our minds with such a huge message of importance and of celebration.

And we can summarise this message into just a few sentences. We can unpick the whole of the New Testament into a few short phrases.

Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and spirit. Love one another just as I have loved you. Love each other just as your heavenly Father loves you. Love – it is all about love.

I used to have a rubber wristband that summed this up with its four symbols: a heart, an “X”, a cross, and a question mark. I am not allowed to wear anything below the elbow now so have to leave it off.

The heart tells me God loves me: the ‘X’ reminds me that I am a sinner: the cross that He sent his son to save me; and the question mark constantly reminds me to ask myself - What can I do to get closer to him?

God loves me, a sinner. He loves me irrespective of what I do or how many times I may turn away from him and fall down. He is always there to pick me up, to dust me off and to help me start over again when I turn back to him.

He loves me so much that he sent his only Son to live, teach, suffer and die for me, so that I would never have to suffer again. He sent his only Son to take on the burden of my sins and to carry them for me so that I might have eternal life.

So after all of that, what can I do to get closer to him? And that is where coming to church helps; getting involved with your parish helps; getting involved in your town and society helps. We have to move away from thinking just as mankind thinks and look to think how God thinks. What would please him? What would Jesus do in any given situation? How can we use his example to give better direction to our lives? And how – how can we better celebrate his life and his teachings?

We come to mass each weekend and hear repeatedly the same message or versions of that same message. God loves me and because Jesus came to save me – I AM saved. This is the Good News – in fact this is the brilliant news.

This is the news that should have us smiling, laughing, dancing, shouting and singing with such exuberance that we would be in danger of being locked away.

But this is the way that we should be leaving church each weekend – with a song in our hearts and with joy and rejoicing in our spirits.

It is easy – too easy – to get bogged down in life’s dilemmas and catastrophes. We all know that life is full of challenges and barriers, trials and tribulations, family issues and concerns.

But we are Christians who have been saved by Christ and promised an eternity with our heavenly Father. We need to find the ‘good’ in the Good News. We need to find the ‘Christ’ in being Christian. And we need to keep his love for us and our love for him and God always burning brightly in our hearts and minds and spirits. And we need to bring that bright spirit with us to church each weekend and share it about. Let others – everyone around us – see our rejoicing, feel our celebration and take part in our shared salvation.

If we all did this – what a service we would have. What a shared celebration would take place and how many smiling and radiant faces would leave the church at the end of the service.

It is not enough to go through the motions of coming to church each day or weekend. Sitting there and saying our prayers looking devout and  saintlike: appearing to all the world as the model Christian.

And then – well and then going out and seeing who we can fight with; or who we can disagree with; who we can find fault with.

A young girl preparing for her first Sacraments asked me this past week - Is a Christian someone who comes to church every day and prays every day and is then not a nice person in how they live their lives? Or, is a Christian a person who doesn’t come to church at all or pray at all but is someone that everyone loves because of how they live their lives? What a great question! What an insightful question!

If we believe that Jesus came to save us. If we believe that we are saved. If we believe that God loves us and is with us on every step of our life journey – then – then that is what we should base our lives and the living of our lives on.

Rejoice and be glad. Live lives that are full of love. Smile. Be happy. Share this wonderful news with those you meet and enrich their lives too.

Think as God thinks and not as mankind thinks.

Bidding Prayers

1.      That we offer our lives, our souls and our love to our Heavenly Father in every action that we undertake and in every meeting that we make. Lord in your mercy

2.      That we seek out ways and means to show how much we are rejoicing in the knowledge that God loves us and that we are saved. Lord in your mercy

3.       That we aim with thoughtful prayer and action to improve the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. Lord in your mercy

4.      That there is a spread of peace and harmony across our troubled and war-torn world and a huge support to those many so badly affected. Lord in your mercy

5.      That all those suffering from any form of illness in body, mind or spirit receive the love, comfort and support they need, when they need it. Lord in your mercy

6.      That those who have died recently find eternal rest with the Lord. We remember especially Margaret Dancey, the mother of our Junior School Head Teacher, Mrs Mullins, whose funeral was this past week. Lord in your mercy

7.      We ask Mary our Mother and the Mother of the Church to intercede for us as we now pray together, Hail Mary. . . . .