16th November 2008
The great Jubilee of the year 2000 saw huge crowds converge on Rome. In the August of that year World Youth Day was held with close to two million young people joining Pope John Paul II for prayer and celebration. At the closing mass he quoted the very striking words of St Catherine of Sienna to them, 'if you are what you can be, you will set the world ablaze', in other words if you use the talents and gifts that God has given you, you can be force for good in the world.
All of us are given talents and gifts by God without exception. The challenge for us is to find out what they are and to use them to the very best of our ability. St Mathew today in the gospel speaks very forcefully about the need for us to go beyond our comfort zone and to reach out and use the talents God has given us. Many of us are cautious by nature; we cling to routine and stability. Yet there is so much lost by being over cautious. In a parish like our own I have no doubt there are so many people whose talents and gifts are not being availed of. Some people are naturally shy, some are very humble, and others are just waiting to be asked. So I want to encourage you all today, if you feel you have a talent that you want to exercise or even if you feel we are not doing something right here in the parish please come and tell us. We need to be as St Paul says in the Second Reading, 'people of light, and people of the day'.
When our time comes to walk through the doors beyond the grave God will ask us how we used the talents he gave to us. In what way did we set the world on fire, in what way were we a force for good in the world, in the parish we came to worship in, and in the home we lived in? The time has come for us to leave the safe and the familiar and to live to the fullest of our potential. 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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