20th July 2008
I have great admiration for the Religious Orders, many of which are sadly dying out due to lack of vocations. I have great respect for those selfless men and women who helped lay the seeds on which our modern democracy is based particularly in the areas of health care and education. The Sisters and Brothers gave their lives in service; they gave their all to ensure that life would be more tolerable for people especially for the poor. I regret deeply the few religious who destroyed the innocence of the young, those who should never have been in Religious Life. The history of the Industrial Schools makes very painful reading for us today. I have sympathy for the majority of Brothers and Sisters who have all been tarred with the one brush, many of whom are afraid to wear their habits in public because of both verbal and physical assault.
In the gospel reading today we heard that the wheat and the darnel grow side by side, and that is so true in life also. Grace and Sin exist in each one of us. Some days we are capable of doing so much good, other days sin gains the upper hand and we so easily make life unbearable for one another. In our daily lives grace is constantly working on nature and making us the best we can be. Some people have an idealistic view of what the Church should be, and because it is sometimes less that it should be they stop believing in it. You hear people saying the Church is full of hypocrites, to which I answer there is always room for one more. Think about the Lord's choice of the 12 Apostles, a rogue's gallery if ever there was. However the one who denied him three times was forgiven and called the Rock. In St Peter's Life sin and grace, the wheat and the darnel coexisted, but grace won out in the end.
A lot of people like the hymn 'Amazing Grace' because it reveals much of what we all are like, wretches who are not deserving of anything, and yet grace is there to save us when we are lost and helps us when we are too blind to notice God's love in our lives. On this Sunday we ask the Lord to help us to be the best we can be and to enable us above all to be a forgiving Church. Amen.
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Homilies Archive
2009 HOMILIES
25th December 2008
Christmas
21st December 2008
14th December 2008
8th December 2008
Immaculate Conception
7th December 2008
2nd Sunday of Advent
30th November 2008
1st Sunday of Advent
23rd November 2008
Christ the King
16th November 2008
2nd November 2008
All Souls
1st November 2008
All Saints
26th October 2008
12th October 2008
5th October 2008
28th September 2008
21st September 2008
14th September 2008
7th September 2008
31st August 2008
24th August 2008
17th August 2008
15th August 2008
Assumption
10th August 2008
3rd August 2008
20th July 2008
13th July 2008
29th June 2008
22nd June 2008
1st June 2008
23rd March 2008
Easter Sunday
22nd March 2008
Easter Vigil
2nd March 2008
24th February 2008
17th February 2008
10th February 2008
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